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I love that Signal generally seems receptive to features that users ask for. It's far from perfect, as there are certain features I've seen repeatedly requested

I love that Signal generally seems receptive to features that users ask for. It's far from perfect, as there are certain features I've seen repeatedly requested that are still yet to be implemented, but over the years that I've used it, Signal has come much closer to a full-featured WhatsApp alternative while taking the harder path of maintaining privacy for these additions. My personal wishlist: - Making the app available on F-Droid, either on the official repos or just hosting a third-party one - Bringing the Android backup solution (encrypted blob) to iOS - Bringing the iOS backup solution (direct device transfer over Wi-Fi) to Android - Signup with usernames/emails as an option instead of only verified phone numbers - A more reliable desktop client, because most of my contacts on Signal (myself included) have experienced syncing issues, message decryption issues, notification issues, etc. I do like that the desktop client is temporarily standalone in that the phone running the app does not need to be available, although I have had to re-connect the two every once in a while so I don't find it reassuring to depend on the desktop client alone.

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
There is bad blood between F-Droid and the Signal devs. I don’t expect the app to ever appear on F-Droid. Signal’s developers are on record as preferring the Google Play store as the official distribution method, and even downloading the APK directly from the Signal website is something they tolerate only grudgingly. Plus, some are predicting that forthcoming changes to Android – Google possibly mainstreaming its “advanced protection” model so that phone owners cannot install the F-Droid APK except through enabling ADB and pushing it to the phone from a computer over the command line – will further marginalize F-Droid.
- sliken 6y ago
  Not sure about today, but didn't f-droid sign all apps with an f-droid key, meaning you have to trust f-droid instead of Whisper systems? From a security point of view it seems quite reasonable to object to f-droid handling all signatures.
  - codethief 6y ago
    Exactly, that was the reason Moxie gave for wanting to avoid F-Droid back in the day. Besides, I hear the .apk one can obtain from signal.org these days comes with an integrated update mechanism, anyway? As much as I am a fan of F-Droid, I really don't understand the criticism here. What advantages does F-Droid provide here?
  - hiq 6y ago
    If you browse the F-Droid website they actually mention that it's possible to use the .apk distributed by the developers, if the apk is reproducible. It's cumbersome and requires a lot of goodwill from both the developers and the F-Droid maintainers, but it's not impossible. The thing is, people using F-Droid are most likely already aware that they can install the .apk directly from https://signal.org/android/apk/ https://signal.org/android/apk/ so there's not much to gain (the .apk prompts the user when an update is available too).

Mediterraneo10 6y ago

There is bad blood between F-Droid and the Signal devs. I don’t expect the app to ever appear on F-Droid. Signal’s developers are on record as preferring the Google Play store as the official distribution method, and even downloading the APK directly from the Signal website is something they tolerate only grudgingly. Plus, some are predicting that forthcoming changes to Android – Google possibly mainstreaming its “advanced protection” model so that phone owners cannot install the F-Droid APK except through enabling ADB and pushing it to the phone from a computer over the command line – will further marginalize F-Droid.

sliken 6y ago
Not sure about today, but didn't f-droid sign all apps with an f-droid key, meaning you have to trust f-droid instead of Whisper systems? From a security point of view it seems quite reasonable to object to f-droid handling all signatures.
- codethief 6y ago
  Exactly, that was the reason Moxie gave for wanting to avoid F-Droid back in the day. Besides, I hear the .apk one can obtain from signal.org these days comes with an integrated update mechanism, anyway? As much as I am a fan of F-Droid, I really don't understand the criticism here. What advantages does F-Droid provide here?
- hiq 6y ago
  If you browse the F-Droid website they actually mention that it's possible to use the .apk distributed by the developers, if the apk is reproducible. It's cumbersome and requires a lot of goodwill from both the developers and the F-Droid maintainers, but it's not impossible. The thing is, people using F-Droid are most likely already aware that they can install the .apk directly from https://signal.org/android/apk/ https://signal.org/android/apk/ so there's not much to gain (the .apk prompts the user when an update is available too).