5 ms·

Conversely, it wouldn’t really make sense for Signal to interoperate with apps that don’t offer the same level of privacy.

dylan604 5y ago
Even with E2E, if both platforms offered the same standarized encryption, would this allow for cross-platform messaging? Of course, some mechanism for exchanging of public keys would be needed as well.
- meribold 5y ago
  I guess not since both platforms use centralized protocols. With the Signal client being FOSS [1] and WhatsApp being proprietary, I also think that me using Signal to message someone on WhatsApp would still downgrade my privacy because I don’t know what the WhatsApp client is really doing with my message. [1] In reality I don’t know that the Signal app on my phone is actually built from the publicly available code.
  - tut-urut-utut 5y ago
    Why not build yourself from source?
    - meribold 5y ago
      I'm on iOS and I believe I'd have to pay Apple an annual fee for the privilege of building Signal myself and/or installing the compiled app. (Maybe I'd also have to buy a Mac or MacBook?) I also think I would have to reinstall my own build every few weeks and it wouldn't have access to my current chat history. But I've never tried. I'd love to learn about any misconceptions.
      - tut-urut-utut 5y ago
        I am using Android and building from source there is not complicated at all [1]. I was under wrong impression that using own build under iOS is not much harder :( [1] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/How-to-build-Signal-from-the-sources https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/How-to-buil...
  - InsomniacL 5y ago
    > because I don’t know what the WhatsApp client is really doing with my message. You don't know that the person receiving your signal message hasn't jailbroken their phone and installed spyware unknowingly. When you first message someone using a different platform, Signal could display a warning ~"This contact is using Whatsapp and Signal cannot confirm that communication will be secured, do you wish to continue?"
- viccuad 5y ago
  The Axolotl ratchet is the basis of both current Signal and WhatsApp. The standarized layer you are looking for is Matrix, which uses the same encryption approach.
viccuad 5y ago
Like Matrix, then.
InsomniacL 5y ago
Would an Error similar to Google Chrome's warning for non HTTPS sites not work? ~"This contact does not provide a secure means to communicate with them, click below to ignore this warning however your communication may be monitored."

dylan604 5y ago

Even with E2E, if both platforms offered the same standarized encryption, would this allow for cross-platform messaging? Of course, some mechanism for exchanging of public keys would be needed as well.

meribold 5y ago
I guess not since both platforms use centralized protocols. With the Signal client being FOSS [1] and WhatsApp being proprietary, I also think that me using Signal to message someone on WhatsApp would still downgrade my privacy because I don’t know what the WhatsApp client is really doing with my message. [1] In reality I don’t know that the Signal app on my phone is actually built from the publicly available code.
- tut-urut-utut 5y ago
  Why not build yourself from source?
  - meribold 5y ago
    I'm on iOS and I believe I'd have to pay Apple an annual fee for the privilege of building Signal myself and/or installing the compiled app. (Maybe I'd also have to buy a Mac or MacBook?) I also think I would have to reinstall my own build every few weeks and it wouldn't have access to my current chat history. But I've never tried. I'd love to learn about any misconceptions.
    - tut-urut-utut 5y ago
      I am using Android and building from source there is not complicated at all [1]. I was under wrong impression that using own build under iOS is not much harder :( [1] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/How-to-build-Signal-from-the-sources https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/How-to-buil...
- InsomniacL 5y ago
  > because I don’t know what the WhatsApp client is really doing with my message. You don't know that the person receiving your signal message hasn't jailbroken their phone and installed spyware unknowingly. When you first message someone using a different platform, Signal could display a warning ~"This contact is using Whatsapp and Signal cannot confirm that communication will be secured, do you wish to continue?"
viccuad 5y ago
The Axolotl ratchet is the basis of both current Signal and WhatsApp. The standarized layer you are looking for is Matrix, which uses the same encryption approach.

viccuad 5y ago

Like Matrix, then.

InsomniacL 5y ago

Would an Error similar to Google Chrome's warning for non HTTPS sites not work? ~"This contact does not provide a secure means to communicate with them, click below to ignore this warning however your communication may be monitored."