7 ms·

Although a welcome addition to Signal, personally would like to see the 'phone number sign up' 'disappear' from the app and instead add email signup. Thats all

Although a welcome addition to Signal, personally would like to see the 'phone number sign up' 'disappear' from the app and instead add email signup. Thats all.

ggm 5y ago
I'd like tablet/Android without SIM.
- afiori 5y ago
  Signal is a secure comunication app not a messaging app. All they do is optimized towards providing security, confidentiality, and/or privacy with a decent UX, but they make it very clear that the UX is on a lower level of priority. So since message transfers are a confidentiality risk they do not provide it. Signal is an analogue of the tor browser, most people get diminishing returns after an adblocker/incognito mode.
  - ggm 5y ago
    They did desktop sidecar. why not do a sidecar for SIMless tablets? they did iPad. presuambly the secure region coding for iDevices is better?
vertis 5y ago
This is one of the biggest things that stops me from using Signal. I don't have a phone number really any more (I'm a digital nomad, and pick up regional sims) I'm not really interested in the disappearing message either if I wanted that I could just use Slack Free edition :troll:. In all seriousness though, my messages are part of my memory. They're shared experience with my partner and a record of decisions. I understand they're useful for some people, but they're an anti-feature for me.
- afiori 5y ago
  > In all seriousness though, my messages are part of my memory. They're shared experience with my partner and a record of decisions. Thanks for saying this, I moved to Telegram[1] before I had a chance to learn about/suffer from Whatsapp take on backups, but it would have been devastating to lose years of messages with people over a bricked phone. [1] I know Telegram has a bad rep due to their home cooked crypto and maybe other stuff, but I like the app, I vaguely trust the author, and it works fine for me.
  - lmm 5y ago
    > [1] I know Telegram has a bad rep due to their home cooked crypto and maybe other stuff, but I like the app, I vaguely trust the author, and it works fine for me. Is that because you assume the NSA aren't reading all your messages or you don't mind if they are? Because the whole problem with dodgy crypto is that it still seems to "work fine for me" even when it isn't.
    - theshrike79 5y ago
      My main chat platforms are IRC, Telegram and Discord. None of them are E2E encrypted and don't sell themselves as such. I keep that in mind when discussing things. If I want to start doing something shady, I can pick up something else than Signal, since I don't want my phone number ending up on random people's phones.
      - lmm 5y ago
        > My main chat platforms are IRC, Telegram and Discord. None of them are E2E encrypted and don't sell themselves as such. Telegram's initial marketing heavily emphasised privacy. If I search for Telegram then the very first search result blurb starts "Telegram messages are heavily encrypted". Maybe they don't explicitly claim to be E2E, but they absolutely are selling themselves as an encrypted, privacy-friendly messenger. > If I want to start doing something shady, I can pick up something else than Signal, since I don't want my phone number ending up on random people's phones. Completely agreed, I dislike the Signal hype as much as anyone. But I trust Telegram even less.
- jacoblambda 5y ago
  Honestly you might want to look into Google Fi (Even though google is evil and just being under their umbrella makes me consider leaving) since their plans automatically work in most countries [1]. I want to find a better cell plan with a company I am not ethically opposed to but Fi is so good that it makes it really really hard to beat. [1]: https://fi.google.com/about/international-rates/ https://fi.google.com/about/international-rates/
  - vertis 5y ago
    Google Fi has actually been reasonably useful despite the fact that I can't get it to work because I'm not in the US. They have a web messaging interface that I can collect 2FA from. I avoid phone based 2FA where possible, but the few that I have are sent there. But it's not really for non-US, and they've really started cracking down on people that use it exclusively internationally. Which is a real shame. It's absolutely the service I want/need as digital nomad.
- vineyardmike 5y ago
  If you don't mind me asking, how do you handle 2FA and companies that require a phone number(eg. my bank)? Do you have to constantly cycle through numbers, do you have a VOIP number?
  - thefr0g 5y ago
    > If you don't mind me asking, how do you handle 2FA and companies that require a phone number(eg. my bank)? I'm note vertis, but I wont give out my cell phone number, so: Companies that require 2FA via phone just don't get my business and about all banks in germany offer chipTAN. The chipTAN devices are all made by shady companies and are less than open but I still trust them more than any smartphone or the mobile network.
    - vertis 5y ago
      Yeah, for the most part I use either time based tokens or my Yubikey. Where that's not possible and I can't avoid dealing with the provider as you mentioned it's Google Fi since they have a web gateway I can retrieve them on.
fastball 5y ago
Or at least allow me to change my number without losing all my history.
jraph 5y ago
Yes. Or, at the very least, support people who have a phone that is not Android or iOS by allowing them to register from a desktop application. Does not seem misaligned with Signal's aim for privacy.
- boondaburrah 5y ago
  One of the things I've noticed is that Signal doesn't seem to care about privacy at all. They care a lot about security though, which is a different thing, and tell you that's privacy.
  - beermonster 5y ago
    See Best WhatsApp alternatives that respect your privacy[1]. Signal has: Pros Free Very good encryption Almost no metadata kept Protocol independently audited Seamless to use on Android Disappearing messages E2EE text, voice, and video group chat Cons Requires a valid phone number to register Hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) [1] https://protonmail.com/blog/whatsapp-alternatives/ https://protonmail.com/blog/whatsapp-alternatives/
    - uuddlrlr 5y ago
      Google Play Services or microg is also required.
      - iHaveRegrets 5y ago
        This hasn't been true for quite a long time. Signal works perfectly fine on a google-free phone. Edit to clarify: Signal sets up a background connection instead, which still results in real-time notifications (the same way that Wire works on a phone without Google Play services)
        jraph 5y ago
        Your comment was dead, I vouched for it. I think you are correct. It was correct a while ago anyway. A year ago or two, I wanted to build Signal for Android without the proprietary library that talks with google play services. It was possible by modifying the source code a bit, because the code checks for the presence of the handles the absence of the Google play Services and enables some sort of fallback. I would not know if it is still the case today, I don't currently own an Android device.
pmlnr 5y ago
That is called XMPP.

Although a welcome addition to Signal, personally would like to see the 'phone number sign up' 'disappear' from the app and instead add email signup. Thats all.

ggm 5y ago

I'd like tablet/Android without SIM.

afiori 5y ago
Signal is a secure comunication app not a messaging app. All they do is optimized towards providing security, confidentiality, and/or privacy with a decent UX, but they make it very clear that the UX is on a lower level of priority. So since message transfers are a confidentiality risk they do not provide it. Signal is an analogue of the tor browser, most people get diminishing returns after an adblocker/incognito mode.
- ggm 5y ago
  They did desktop sidecar. why not do a sidecar for SIMless tablets? they did iPad. presuambly the secure region coding for iDevices is better?

vertis 5y ago

This is one of the biggest things that stops me from using Signal. I don't have a phone number really any more (I'm a digital nomad, and pick up regional sims) I'm not really interested in the disappearing message either if I wanted that I could just use Slack Free edition :troll:. In all seriousness though, my messages are part of my memory. They're shared experience with my partner and a record of decisions. I understand they're useful for some people, but they're an anti-feature for me.

afiori 5y ago
> In all seriousness though, my messages are part of my memory. They're shared experience with my partner and a record of decisions. Thanks for saying this, I moved to Telegram[1] before I had a chance to learn about/suffer from Whatsapp take on backups, but it would have been devastating to lose years of messages with people over a bricked phone. [1] I know Telegram has a bad rep due to their home cooked crypto and maybe other stuff, but I like the app, I vaguely trust the author, and it works fine for me.
- lmm 5y ago
  > [1] I know Telegram has a bad rep due to their home cooked crypto and maybe other stuff, but I like the app, I vaguely trust the author, and it works fine for me. Is that because you assume the NSA aren't reading all your messages or you don't mind if they are? Because the whole problem with dodgy crypto is that it still seems to "work fine for me" even when it isn't.
  - theshrike79 5y ago
    My main chat platforms are IRC, Telegram and Discord. None of them are E2E encrypted and don't sell themselves as such. I keep that in mind when discussing things. If I want to start doing something shady, I can pick up something else than Signal, since I don't want my phone number ending up on random people's phones.
    - lmm 5y ago
      > My main chat platforms are IRC, Telegram and Discord. None of them are E2E encrypted and don't sell themselves as such. Telegram's initial marketing heavily emphasised privacy. If I search for Telegram then the very first search result blurb starts "Telegram messages are heavily encrypted". Maybe they don't explicitly claim to be E2E, but they absolutely are selling themselves as an encrypted, privacy-friendly messenger. > If I want to start doing something shady, I can pick up something else than Signal, since I don't want my phone number ending up on random people's phones. Completely agreed, I dislike the Signal hype as much as anyone. But I trust Telegram even less.
jacoblambda 5y ago
Honestly you might want to look into Google Fi (Even though google is evil and just being under their umbrella makes me consider leaving) since their plans automatically work in most countries [1]. I want to find a better cell plan with a company I am not ethically opposed to but Fi is so good that it makes it really really hard to beat. [1]: https://fi.google.com/about/international-rates/ https://fi.google.com/about/international-rates/
- vertis 5y ago
  Google Fi has actually been reasonably useful despite the fact that I can't get it to work because I'm not in the US. They have a web messaging interface that I can collect 2FA from. I avoid phone based 2FA where possible, but the few that I have are sent there. But it's not really for non-US, and they've really started cracking down on people that use it exclusively internationally. Which is a real shame. It's absolutely the service I want/need as digital nomad.
vineyardmike 5y ago
If you don't mind me asking, how do you handle 2FA and companies that require a phone number(eg. my bank)? Do you have to constantly cycle through numbers, do you have a VOIP number?
- thefr0g 5y ago
  > If you don't mind me asking, how do you handle 2FA and companies that require a phone number(eg. my bank)? I'm note vertis, but I wont give out my cell phone number, so: Companies that require 2FA via phone just don't get my business and about all banks in germany offer chipTAN. The chipTAN devices are all made by shady companies and are less than open but I still trust them more than any smartphone or the mobile network.
  - vertis 5y ago
    Yeah, for the most part I use either time based tokens or my Yubikey. Where that's not possible and I can't avoid dealing with the provider as you mentioned it's Google Fi since they have a web gateway I can retrieve them on.

fastball 5y ago

Or at least allow me to change my number without losing all my history.

jraph 5y ago

Yes. Or, at the very least, support people who have a phone that is not Android or iOS by allowing them to register from a desktop application. Does not seem misaligned with Signal's aim for privacy.

boondaburrah 5y ago
One of the things I've noticed is that Signal doesn't seem to care about privacy at all. They care a lot about security though, which is a different thing, and tell you that's privacy.
- beermonster 5y ago
  See Best WhatsApp alternatives that respect your privacy[1]. Signal has: Pros Free Very good encryption Almost no metadata kept Protocol independently audited Seamless to use on Android Disappearing messages E2EE text, voice, and video group chat Cons Requires a valid phone number to register Hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) [1] https://protonmail.com/blog/whatsapp-alternatives/ https://protonmail.com/blog/whatsapp-alternatives/
  - uuddlrlr 5y ago
    Google Play Services or microg is also required.
    - iHaveRegrets 5y ago
      This hasn't been true for quite a long time. Signal works perfectly fine on a google-free phone. Edit to clarify: Signal sets up a background connection instead, which still results in real-time notifications (the same way that Wire works on a phone without Google Play services)
      - jraph 5y ago
        Your comment was dead, I vouched for it. I think you are correct. It was correct a while ago anyway. A year ago or two, I wanted to build Signal for Android without the proprietary library that talks with google play services. It was possible by modifying the source code a bit, because the code checks for the presence of the handles the absence of the Google play Services and enables some sort of fallback. I would not know if it is still the case today, I don't currently own an Android device.

pmlnr 5y ago

That is called XMPP.