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So Signal is missing a basic feature like location sharing and they chose to go ahead with implementing Stories. I guess they are focusing more on getting new u

So Signal is missing a basic feature like location sharing and they chose to go ahead with implementing Stories. I guess they are focusing more on getting new users than making a great app. The thing is none of these centralized apps will ever get messaging right. Because no matter how good the intentions of the team are sooner or later the higher management or the PM wants to have bigger piece of cake. This in the end ruins the most basic functionality that a messaging app should do right: messages. What these teams do not understand is it's okay for an IM app to not keep adding fancy features. Focus on providing security fixes and minor improvements that improve user experience. If you keep focusing on getting more people you will end up with yet another social app like Instagram/Snapchat. We do not really need more of that stuff. Consider this: if people who built electric grids kept adding unnecessary features to it, we would not have a robust infrastructure like it today. They built them and then those people left to work on something more interesting. We need more of that in Software. What we currently have is millions and millions of engineers trying to figure out how to keep users glued to their app.

jimkleiber 5y ago
As a counterpoint, if I want to share a message or photo with many people on Signal right now, I have to create a large group and choose whom to invite and I think give it a name and have it persist unless I actively delete it. If I want them to be able to reply directly to me, they may have to do some gymnastics to copy and paste the photo in a private message to me or forward it to me. Since those options doesn't easily exist, I use WhatsApp or Snap or IG to achieve that because I may still want to communicate a message to all my contacts and find the outlet that lets me do this. So I hear you on the element of focus to maintain robustness, I just think it may always be a trade off between doing one thing very well and adding new things. Also, while you may see location sharing as a basic feature, I see it as an advance feature and see stories as a basic feature. Which basic feature should they add or should they not add any new things?
bostik 5y ago
For a messaging application whose intended target audience includes dissidents, location sharing even as an option sounds dangerous. Especially given this from your comment: Focus on providing security fixes and minor improvements that improve user experience - when UX includes such irrelevancies such as "avoid getting users vanished and/or killed", the guiding principle should be: no footguns.
- fragmede 5y ago
  A secret tracking device that reveals the location of the rebels secret underground base certainly sounds dangerous, but allowing dissidents to share location of the protest for everyone to gather at seems almost necessary for a modern messaging app! How else do you get to that critical mass of people in the main city square? In the end, it's just a tool that isn't inherently good or evil.
  - wizzwizz4 5y ago
    There's a difference between sharing a location (good) and sharing your location (perhaps not so good).
marssaxman 5y ago
What is "location sharing"? Sounds like people differ on what they consider to be "getting messaging right". I was happy with TextSecure; all I ever wanted was encrypted SMS.
evilos 5y ago
I'm sorry, since when is "location sharing" a "basic feature" of a messaging application? Can't you just send them a maps link to your location? Or your GPS coordinates?
- senectus1 5y ago
  > Can't you just send them a maps link to your location? this is not discrete, it also shares it with google and all their advertising etc >Or your GPS coordinates? Not super user friendly.
commoner 5y ago
> So Signal is missing a basic feature like location sharing Signal does have location sharing, but not live location sharing. You can share your location, but it will not update your location for the recipient as you move around. Here's a tutorial: https://www.hardreset.info/devices/apps/apps-signal/share-location/ https://www.hardreset.info/devices/apps/apps-signal/share-lo... If you would like Signal to implement live location sharing, the feature request thread is here: https://community.signalusers.org/t/live-location-sharing/2564 https://community.signalusers.org/t/live-location-sharing/25...

jimkleiber 5y ago

As a counterpoint, if I want to share a message or photo with many people on Signal right now, I have to create a large group and choose whom to invite and I think give it a name and have it persist unless I actively delete it. If I want them to be able to reply directly to me, they may have to do some gymnastics to copy and paste the photo in a private message to me or forward it to me. Since those options doesn't easily exist, I use WhatsApp or Snap or IG to achieve that because I may still want to communicate a message to all my contacts and find the outlet that lets me do this. So I hear you on the element of focus to maintain robustness, I just think it may always be a trade off between doing one thing very well and adding new things. Also, while you may see location sharing as a basic feature, I see it as an advance feature and see stories as a basic feature. Which basic feature should they add or should they not add any new things?

bostik 5y ago

For a messaging application whose intended target audience includes dissidents, location sharing even as an option sounds dangerous. Especially given this from your comment: Focus on providing security fixes and minor improvements that improve user experience - when UX includes such irrelevancies such as "avoid getting users vanished and/or killed", the guiding principle should be: no footguns.

fragmede 5y ago
A secret tracking device that reveals the location of the rebels secret underground base certainly sounds dangerous, but allowing dissidents to share location of the protest for everyone to gather at seems almost necessary for a modern messaging app! How else do you get to that critical mass of people in the main city square? In the end, it's just a tool that isn't inherently good or evil.
- wizzwizz4 5y ago
  There's a difference between sharing a location (good) and sharing your location (perhaps not so good).

marssaxman 5y ago

What is "location sharing"? Sounds like people differ on what they consider to be "getting messaging right". I was happy with TextSecure; all I ever wanted was encrypted SMS.

evilos 5y ago

I'm sorry, since when is "location sharing" a "basic feature" of a messaging application? Can't you just send them a maps link to your location? Or your GPS coordinates?

senectus1 5y ago
> Can't you just send them a maps link to your location? this is not discrete, it also shares it with google and all their advertising etc >Or your GPS coordinates? Not super user friendly.

commoner 5y ago

> So Signal is missing a basic feature like location sharing Signal does have location sharing, but not live location sharing. You can share your location, but it will not update your location for the recipient as you move around. Here's a tutorial: https://www.hardreset.info/devices/apps/apps-signal/share-location/ https://www.hardreset.info/devices/apps/apps-signal/share-lo... If you would like Signal to implement live location sharing, the feature request thread is here: https://community.signalusers.org/t/live-location-sharing/2564 https://community.signalusers.org/t/live-location-sharing/25...