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They kinda were forced to by Android limiting what they can do: https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-blog-removing-sms-support-from-signal-android-soon/47

by Vinnl 4y ago

They kinda were forced to by Android limiting what they can do: https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-blog-removing-sms-support-from-signal-android-soon/47954/57 https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-blog-removing-sms...

agundy 4y ago
Great context, though from an end user's perspective it was clear why and just left hanging with "find a new SMS messaging". The integration made adoption/integrating new users easier by allowing some to have one messaging app with progressive security for contacts on Signal.
- Vinnl 4y ago
  Yeah absolutely, messaging wasn't great, although that's a hard thing to get right, especially considering how they have both very technical and pretty non-technical audiences.
rch 4y ago
This post seems say that they'd rather avoid the difficult programming challenges of working with the varied devices and protocols people use for communication generally, and just compete with other walled garden apps instead. I wish them luck, but it's a different trajectory than they were on a year or two ago.
- CameronNemo 4y ago
  How? They've always been keen on the centralization aspect.
- Vinnl 4y ago
  It's not a "difficult programming challenge" if you don't even get access to the APIs for the new protocol, I don't think... But there's also certainly something to be said for deciding where to spend your time. Sure, getting regular SMS right on many different devices might be a difficult programming challenge, but if that means you can't spend time on making sure your service scales, or that people are able to hide their phone number, or... Then that's not laziness, that's making a hard choice.
- blitzar 4y ago
  > I wish them luck, but it's a different trajectory than they were on a year or two ago. MobileCoin which is Signals self printed crypto (think what FTT was to FTX) was released: December 6, 2020 Their trajectory a year or two ago is no different
srcreigh 4y ago
There is (sometimes?) a way for Signal users to deregister from RCS which should presumably cause other devices to send messages via SMS instead of RCS. People's Android devices can be opt in to receive messages via RCS based on phone number with either Google or their carrier. If the number is registered via Google, the number can be deregistered using a form. [1] For Verizon, it seems you can call Customer Support at 800-922-0204 to disable RCS. [2] Presumably other carriers have similar options. Once RCS is disabled at Google/carrier level at the phone number level, other RCS compatible phones will fall back to SMS/MMS for delivering messages, which will cause the Signal app to be able to read messages via Android SMS APIs. Seems like quite the hassle to set up an SMS app. [1]: https://9to5google.com/2020/06/19/google-messages-disable-rcs-form/ https://9to5google.com/2020/06/19/google-messages-disable-rc... [2]: "How do I turn off Advanced Messaging" https://www.verizon.com/support/advanced-messaging-faqs/ https://www.verizon.com/support/advanced-messaging-faqs/
- ikawe 4y ago
  Disabling RCS, which apparently is encrypted with the Signal protocol for G messaging, so that people can continue to comfortably use unencrypted comms (sms) in Signal messenger itself would be a really wild course of action. https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-google-messaging-services-android https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-google-messaging-... https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/06/google-enables-end-to-end-encryption-for-androids-default-sms-rcs-app/amp/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/06/google-enables-end-t...

by Vinnl 4y ago

agundy 4y ago

Great context, though from an end user's perspective it was clear why and just left hanging with "find a new SMS messaging". The integration made adoption/integrating new users easier by allowing some to have one messaging app with progressive security for contacts on Signal.

Vinnl 4y ago
Yeah absolutely, messaging wasn't great, although that's a hard thing to get right, especially considering how they have both very technical and pretty non-technical audiences.

rch 4y ago

This post seems say that they'd rather avoid the difficult programming challenges of working with the varied devices and protocols people use for communication generally, and just compete with other walled garden apps instead. I wish them luck, but it's a different trajectory than they were on a year or two ago.

CameronNemo 4y ago
How? They've always been keen on the centralization aspect.
Vinnl 4y ago
It's not a "difficult programming challenge" if you don't even get access to the APIs for the new protocol, I don't think... But there's also certainly something to be said for deciding where to spend your time. Sure, getting regular SMS right on many different devices might be a difficult programming challenge, but if that means you can't spend time on making sure your service scales, or that people are able to hide their phone number, or... Then that's not laziness, that's making a hard choice.
blitzar 4y ago
> I wish them luck, but it's a different trajectory than they were on a year or two ago. MobileCoin which is Signals self printed crypto (think what FTT was to FTX) was released: December 6, 2020 Their trajectory a year or two ago is no different

srcreigh 4y ago

There is (sometimes?) a way for Signal users to deregister from RCS which should presumably cause other devices to send messages via SMS instead of RCS. People's Android devices can be opt in to receive messages via RCS based on phone number with either Google or their carrier. If the number is registered via Google, the number can be deregistered using a form. [1] For Verizon, it seems you can call Customer Support at 800-922-0204 to disable RCS. [2] Presumably other carriers have similar options. Once RCS is disabled at Google/carrier level at the phone number level, other RCS compatible phones will fall back to SMS/MMS for delivering messages, which will cause the Signal app to be able to read messages via Android SMS APIs. Seems like quite the hassle to set up an SMS app. [1]: https://9to5google.com/2020/06/19/google-messages-disable-rcs-form/ https://9to5google.com/2020/06/19/google-messages-disable-rc... [2]: "How do I turn off Advanced Messaging" https://www.verizon.com/support/advanced-messaging-faqs/ https://www.verizon.com/support/advanced-messaging-faqs/

ikawe 4y ago
Disabling RCS, which apparently is encrypted with the Signal protocol for G messaging, so that people can continue to comfortably use unencrypted comms (sms) in Signal messenger itself would be a really wild course of action. https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-google-messaging-services-android https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-google-messaging-... https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/06/google-enables-end-to-end-encryption-for-androids-default-sms-rcs-app/amp/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/06/google-enables-end-t...