For anyone that's upset about this, don't focus on the SMS vs. Signal messages UI distinction giving as the primary reason. That's something a simple UX change

For anyone that's upset about this, don't focus on the SMS vs. Signal messages UI distinction giving as the primary reason. That's something a simple UX change could improve and does not justify something so radical. There's probably another reason they are doing this, these are my best guesses: - Feature parity between Android, iOS and Desktop - Moving towards Signal accounts tied to usernames instead of phone numbers - Developer resources (unlikely, since this feature has existed since the beginning and probably requires less maintenance than other features, but I'd pay for a subscription if they kept it) Whatever the real reason is, make them say so, the reason given is extremely flimsy. If they go through with this it will put lives in danger for people like activists, journalists, and anyone crossing a border who depend on their SMS messages being encrypted at rest (despite SMS not being end-to-end encrypted in transit). Using Signal instead of a different SMS app also prevents other apps from reading your SMS messages. Test this out - switch your default SMS away from Signal and sign into an app requiring SMS verification, and that SMS is probably readable by the app without any interaction on your part. Cue the Apple-ish response of them saying they're listening while not taking any of their users' valid concerns seriously at all. Very disappointed in them.