I think it's worth remembering that Signal started out as the completely decentralised TextSecure, doing opertunistic encryption of SMS messages if the person o

I think it's worth remembering that Signal started out as the completely decentralised TextSecure, doing opertunistic encryption of SMS messages if the person on the other end was also using it as their SMS client, and not getting in the way if they weren't. It worked very well and it was extremely easy to onboard people without anyone getting siloed. A lot of us early adopters remember being dragged into this reliance on centralisation and data, and remember buggy mess it was when that first started. I'm still quite annoyed and bitter about how signal evolved into signal and lost value for what it was, for the sake of trying to become another WhatsApp.