127 ms·

Disagree. Signal on desktop works very well for me and is very useful for quickly sending files from desktop to phone and back, especially when the phone isn't

by harry8 6y ago

Disagree. Signal on desktop works very well for me and is very useful for quickly sending files from desktop to phone and back, especially when the phone isn't handy.

fsflover 6y ago
Except you must have it installed on a spyphone at the same time, which destroys all privacy it has...
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  There are efforts to get Signal working on the PinePhone and Librem phone through Anbox. Signal also does not require Google Play Services, it can run with completely libre software all the way down. So, Signal is becoming a viable choice on a device that meets Free Software standards and is not a “spyphone”.
  - Vinnl 6y ago
    I think (but haven't tried myself) that you can nowadays even confirm your number on desktop, i.e. receive a text message on a dumbphone if need be, and then enter the confirmation code on your desktop.
    - fsflover 6y ago
      That would be really good if true.
    - everdrive 6y ago
      That I wasn't aware of. It would be quite nice, if true.
- gtsop 6y ago
  Except I have it installed on grapheneos
simias 6y ago
The desktop app is very useful but it's mainly because there's no alternative. It's bloated, slow, under-featured. Telegram also has an electron desktop app but at least it lets me do ultra-advanced things like changing the spellchecker's language on the fly. As somebody who's used to 100KB snappy and fully featured IRC clients I'm always baffled when I use these modern clients that use 3 orders of magnitude more resource to look and behave like a cheap clone of a smartphone SMS app, but worse.
- AsyncAwait 6y ago
  > Telegram also has an electron desktop app Telegram Desktop is a Qt app. Not that it offers E2E so not really comparable to Signal imo.
  - simias 6y ago
    Oh indeed it is! It looks very electrony so I just assumed that it was. That might be why it actually works decently.
  - Ar-Curunir 6y ago
    So that’s why Slack consumes tons of RAM but Telegram desktop doesn’t ...
- faitswulff 6y ago
  IIRC there are a few unofficial Signal CLI clients.
- harry8 6y ago
  I'll take your word for the telegram app. I prefer signal to telegram. Any benefit of the telegram desktop app seems like a marginal one when the signal one works and signal do encryption well, properly and honestly. (Maybe telegram are catching up to this now, not sure, Moxie has always been solid and has forced the entire feature set of messaging to end-to-end encryption for which he's going straight to heaven). My own irc client I wrote when learning C and then re-wrote learning GTK+ is better than any of them in terms of doing what I want non-bloated as a client. But it doesn't quite match the whole signal thing somehow. :) Signal is excellent software. Game changing stuff. Telegram (indirectly), Whatsapp (directly) owe signal a great debt. The reverse doesn't seem to be true. End to end ecryption for the masses is a huge, huge win that Moxie can take a vast amount of credit for making happen, then improving and increasing. So there's a little hero-worship for Moxie, a man with whom politically I probably have very, very little in common. It's a good feeling when you can do that.
izacus 6y ago
Almost every time I start it after a few days it just purges all my conversations, demands I relink my phone and then doesn't show any conversation history. It's hard to call it useful when it's so unreliable and broken.
secfirstmd 6y ago
Lots of people don't know about that feature...If anyone is wondering. You can send a message (for example on your Desktop) to "Note to Self" on and it will be available for you on your other Signal versions (e.g. on your Phone). Very useful.
deweller 6y ago
I installed the desktop app precisely to use this feature. And it didn't work. When I send a note to self on my phone and it never shows on my desktop.

by harry8 6y ago

Disagree. Signal on desktop works very well for me and is very useful for quickly sending files from desktop to phone and back, especially when the phone isn't handy.

fsflover 6y ago

Except you must have it installed on a spyphone at the same time, which destroys all privacy it has...

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
There are efforts to get Signal working on the PinePhone and Librem phone through Anbox. Signal also does not require Google Play Services, it can run with completely libre software all the way down. So, Signal is becoming a viable choice on a device that meets Free Software standards and is not a “spyphone”.
- Vinnl 6y ago
  I think (but haven't tried myself) that you can nowadays even confirm your number on desktop, i.e. receive a text message on a dumbphone if need be, and then enter the confirmation code on your desktop.
  - fsflover 6y ago
    That would be really good if true.
  - everdrive 6y ago
    That I wasn't aware of. It would be quite nice, if true.
gtsop 6y ago
Except I have it installed on grapheneos

simias 6y ago

The desktop app is very useful but it's mainly because there's no alternative. It's bloated, slow, under-featured. Telegram also has an electron desktop app but at least it lets me do ultra-advanced things like changing the spellchecker's language on the fly. As somebody who's used to 100KB snappy and fully featured IRC clients I'm always baffled when I use these modern clients that use 3 orders of magnitude more resource to look and behave like a cheap clone of a smartphone SMS app, but worse.

AsyncAwait 6y ago
> Telegram also has an electron desktop app Telegram Desktop is a Qt app. Not that it offers E2E so not really comparable to Signal imo.
- simias 6y ago
  Oh indeed it is! It looks very electrony so I just assumed that it was. That might be why it actually works decently.
- Ar-Curunir 6y ago
  So that’s why Slack consumes tons of RAM but Telegram desktop doesn’t ...
faitswulff 6y ago
IIRC there are a few unofficial Signal CLI clients.
harry8 6y ago
I'll take your word for the telegram app. I prefer signal to telegram. Any benefit of the telegram desktop app seems like a marginal one when the signal one works and signal do encryption well, properly and honestly. (Maybe telegram are catching up to this now, not sure, Moxie has always been solid and has forced the entire feature set of messaging to end-to-end encryption for which he's going straight to heaven). My own irc client I wrote when learning C and then re-wrote learning GTK+ is better than any of them in terms of doing what I want non-bloated as a client. But it doesn't quite match the whole signal thing somehow. :) Signal is excellent software. Game changing stuff. Telegram (indirectly), Whatsapp (directly) owe signal a great debt. The reverse doesn't seem to be true. End to end ecryption for the masses is a huge, huge win that Moxie can take a vast amount of credit for making happen, then improving and increasing. So there's a little hero-worship for Moxie, a man with whom politically I probably have very, very little in common. It's a good feeling when you can do that.

izacus 6y ago

Almost every time I start it after a few days it just purges all my conversations, demands I relink my phone and then doesn't show any conversation history. It's hard to call it useful when it's so unreliable and broken.

secfirstmd 6y ago

Lots of people don't know about that feature...If anyone is wondering. You can send a message (for example on your Desktop) to "Note to Self" on and it will be available for you on your other Signal versions (e.g. on your Phone). Very useful.

deweller 6y ago

I installed the desktop app precisely to use this feature. And it didn't work. When I send a note to self on my phone and it never shows on my desktop.