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I joined Signal and maybe 5% of my contacts are on signal as of right now. I don't think the critical mass is there yet, but I hope more people make the switch.

I joined Signal and maybe 5% of my contacts are on signal as of right now. I don't think the critical mass is there yet, but I hope more people make the switch. I effectively cannot use Signal unless my main contacts are on it, which they aren't. The best thing I could do is try and convince all of them to move to signal so we can group chat on Signal instead, but it's a hard sell, despite the fact that most of the people I actively talk to are in tech or academia. I think many people are probably fine with moving from Android messenger or WhatsApp, but it is going to be extremely hard to convince the Apple folks to stop using iMessage (or whatever they call it). Apple has also been working hard (e.g. green texts) to ensure that people stay on or convert to iMessage.

cortesoft 6y ago
Why do you want people to stop using iMessage?
- pmlnr 6y ago
  Because it's ios only?
- andrewzah 6y ago
  The short of it is group chats lose functionality when even 1 non-apple user joins, and apple works hard to make sure you can't use imessage on other devices. It's so frustrating. I want to like apple and their approach to privacy, but then they do stuff like this that alienates non-apple users. Anyway, imessage is like a caveman compared to messaging apps like Kakaotalk and LINE. Those have more features and I like group chats on them much more than I do on imessage. Not that I had a choice; I don't think I ever got my Korean friends' actual numbers because everyone uses Kakaotalk. [0]: https://www.androidauthority.com/green-bubble-phenomenon-1021350/ https://www.androidauthority.com/green-bubble-phenomenon-102...
- screamingninja 6y ago
  For one, it happens to be a walled garden.
- ronnier 6y ago
  1) No disappearing messages 2) your messages sent to other people get backed up to their icloud 3) no cross platform support #1 being the most important to me.
  - makapuf 6y ago
    Disappearing messages can always be snapshotted arent they? I fail to see their point ?(earnest question) by snapshotted, either with system snapshot or another phone?
    - ronnier 6y ago
      That’s not the issue. The issue is so that the messages don’t get backed up or left on the phone if the phone is stolen or lost.
- lxgr 6y ago
  Besides all the other reasons already mentioned, its security model is somewhat dated. For example, it does not use forward secrecy, neither for chats nor for 1:1 calls. (Group calls do have forward secrecy.) That said, I still use it over Signal when I can – cross-device messaging is very hard, UX wise (which device receives the notification, does "mark as read" properly sync across device, how is the behavior of a device coming back online after a while etc.), and Apple has almost perfected it at this point.

cortesoft 6y ago

Why do you want people to stop using iMessage?

pmlnr 6y ago
Because it's ios only?
andrewzah 6y ago
The short of it is group chats lose functionality when even 1 non-apple user joins, and apple works hard to make sure you can't use imessage on other devices. It's so frustrating. I want to like apple and their approach to privacy, but then they do stuff like this that alienates non-apple users. Anyway, imessage is like a caveman compared to messaging apps like Kakaotalk and LINE. Those have more features and I like group chats on them much more than I do on imessage. Not that I had a choice; I don't think I ever got my Korean friends' actual numbers because everyone uses Kakaotalk. [0]: https://www.androidauthority.com/green-bubble-phenomenon-1021350/ https://www.androidauthority.com/green-bubble-phenomenon-102...
screamingninja 6y ago
For one, it happens to be a walled garden.
ronnier 6y ago
1) No disappearing messages 2) your messages sent to other people get backed up to their icloud 3) no cross platform support #1 being the most important to me.
- makapuf 6y ago
  Disappearing messages can always be snapshotted arent they? I fail to see their point ?(earnest question) by snapshotted, either with system snapshot or another phone?
  - ronnier 6y ago
    That’s not the issue. The issue is so that the messages don’t get backed up or left on the phone if the phone is stolen or lost.
lxgr 6y ago
Besides all the other reasons already mentioned, its security model is somewhat dated. For example, it does not use forward secrecy, neither for chats nor for 1:1 calls. (Group calls do have forward secrecy.) That said, I still use it over Signal when I can – cross-device messaging is very hard, UX wise (which device receives the notification, does "mark as read" properly sync across device, how is the behavior of a device coming back online after a while etc.), and Apple has almost perfected it at this point.