5 ms·

I second this. I like Signal and appreciate all the efforts people put in. But I don’t really care how Signal added cute stickers or optimized image showing. I

I second this. I like Signal and appreciate all the efforts people put in. But I don’t really care how Signal added cute stickers or optimized image showing. I just need a privacy app and keep my data. The only reason I didn’t recommend Signal to my non-tech friends was not being able to migrate/export chat history on iOS. This seems to be such a basic (not necessarily easy) thing to do but they just didn’t do it.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
distances 7y ago
> But I don’t really care how Signal added cute stickers or optimized image showing. That's maybe true for privacy enthusiasts. You severely underestimate the need for these cutesy features when targeting mass market though. I claim stickers are much more important for that than data exporting.
- dejj 7y ago
  > cutesy features Personally, I don't care much for features supporting cyber-grooming. What's the point of using cutesy features to attract users who don't care about security, just so someone else can _securely_ cyber-groom them?
  - meowface 7y ago
    Can you elaborate? I'm not totally sure what you're defining "cyber-grooming" as here.
  - codewiz 7y ago
    The point is: if those users don't use Signal, you're forced to use another IM when you want to communicate with them.
  - distances 7y ago
    Are you somehow equating stickers and grooming? That takes quite a leap of imagination. Stickers aren't targeting young audiences in any sense. It's very weird to draw such conclusions just if you're not using them yourself (if that's the case).
lowdose 7y ago
Could this be because of a non-compete clause agreed on during the Whatsapp acquisition by Facebook. I heard Whatsapp team was around 50 people, wouldn't be surprising Zuckerberg wanted some extra assurances.
hurricanetc 7y ago
There isn't much point in having a secure chat application if you want all your chats to be portable and exportable across devices and operating system upgrades. You may as well just use Telegram and opt for 1:1 secret chats for when you actually want security.
- gojomo 7y ago
  Signal offers this backup/restore function on Android – where about 60-70% of their users are, if I understand the Wired stats correctly. So user-controlled portability doesn't seems fatal to the "point" of having a secure chat app, there. My workaround, last time I upgraded my iOS device, was to screenshot all the old conversations I wanted to retain. Pictures come over just fine! Did Signal forcing me to do that make me more secure? I think they just hate iCloud. (Perhaps while they trust Intel, they distrust Apple? It'd be great to know why.) Well, I don't trust iCloud with my device backups, either. There are other things, in other apps on my phone, more sensitive than my Signal logs. But it seems Signal is holding my chat histories hostage because they don't trust me. And it seems their ultimate plan for this will require me to use some Signal-run, Intel-SGX-mediated 'trustable cloud' for my contacts & messages. No, thanks!
  - rpm91 7y ago
    A backup method that just copies it _somewhere else on the same device_ is not really a very useful backup. It involves manually moving files around if you want a real backup, which feels very antiquated in 2020. Why isn't there some way to automatically store my (encrypted!) backup via a cloud backup solution, whether that's Google Drive, Dropbox, or just allowing it to be backed up as part of an Android backup?
    - illvm 7y ago
      Doesn't copying device data to another device, such as a laptop or desktop, do that? I mean... it's not cloud based, but I _thought_ it was a full local backup.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

distances 7y ago

> But I don’t really care how Signal added cute stickers or optimized image showing. That's maybe true for privacy enthusiasts. You severely underestimate the need for these cutesy features when targeting mass market though. I claim stickers are much more important for that than data exporting.

dejj 7y ago
> cutesy features Personally, I don't care much for features supporting cyber-grooming. What's the point of using cutesy features to attract users who don't care about security, just so someone else can _securely_ cyber-groom them?
- meowface 7y ago
  Can you elaborate? I'm not totally sure what you're defining "cyber-grooming" as here.
- codewiz 7y ago
  The point is: if those users don't use Signal, you're forced to use another IM when you want to communicate with them.
- distances 7y ago
  Are you somehow equating stickers and grooming? That takes quite a leap of imagination. Stickers aren't targeting young audiences in any sense. It's very weird to draw such conclusions just if you're not using them yourself (if that's the case).

lowdose 7y ago

Could this be because of a non-compete clause agreed on during the Whatsapp acquisition by Facebook. I heard Whatsapp team was around 50 people, wouldn't be surprising Zuckerberg wanted some extra assurances.

hurricanetc 7y ago

There isn't much point in having a secure chat application if you want all your chats to be portable and exportable across devices and operating system upgrades. You may as well just use Telegram and opt for 1:1 secret chats for when you actually want security.

gojomo 7y ago
Signal offers this backup/restore function on Android – where about 60-70% of their users are, if I understand the Wired stats correctly. So user-controlled portability doesn't seems fatal to the "point" of having a secure chat app, there. My workaround, last time I upgraded my iOS device, was to screenshot all the old conversations I wanted to retain. Pictures come over just fine! Did Signal forcing me to do that make me more secure? I think they just hate iCloud. (Perhaps while they trust Intel, they distrust Apple? It'd be great to know why.) Well, I don't trust iCloud with my device backups, either. There are other things, in other apps on my phone, more sensitive than my Signal logs. But it seems Signal is holding my chat histories hostage because they don't trust me. And it seems their ultimate plan for this will require me to use some Signal-run, Intel-SGX-mediated 'trustable cloud' for my contacts & messages. No, thanks!
- rpm91 7y ago
  A backup method that just copies it _somewhere else on the same device_ is not really a very useful backup. It involves manually moving files around if you want a real backup, which feels very antiquated in 2020. Why isn't there some way to automatically store my (encrypted!) backup via a cloud backup solution, whether that's Google Drive, Dropbox, or just allowing it to be backed up as part of an Android backup?
  - illvm 7y ago
    Doesn't copying device data to another device, such as a laptop or desktop, do that? I mean... it's not cloud based, but I _thought_ it was a full local backup.