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Are normal people still using Signal? After Signal got rid of SMS supported, everyone I knew just got rid of Signal. I had on-boarded all my friends and family

Are normal people still using Signal? After Signal got rid of SMS supported, everyone I knew just got rid of Signal. I had on-boarded all my friends and family. But now, it's just me and a few techie friends who still use it.

fransje26 2y ago
> Are normal people still using Signal? Some of us do, yes. But maybe we're not normal and we don't know it..
casenmgreen 2y ago
I used it from the early days. Then Signal jumped the shark, with the server-side data forced PIN fiasco - the app had a full page, non-dismissable popup on start which you could only get rid of by agreeing to use and supplying a PIN for server-side data, which meant I could not use Signal. After a month of not being able to use, it went away, but at that point I no longer trusted Signal. I'm also troubled by the year long period where the published source code wasn't updated. I think in general people use WA, but all the people I talk to have Signal as well. I'll be moving on once I put the time in to find a replacement. I know in Switzerland, only Signal is used by State employees - teachers writing to parents and so on.
JoshTriplett 2y ago
Signal now has usernames (not just phone numbers), and has a way to migrate most of your history onto new devices without having to use the terrible backup UX. If it gets to the point of migrating all your media (not just the last N days) as well, it'd be to the point that I'd start asking everyone I know to use it without reservations.
- pixxel 2y ago
  [dead]
poincaredisk 2y ago
I use it, my friends use it, my family uses it, and it's often the only chat app I have in common with a stranger when I need to keep in touch. I didn't onboard my family, they use it independently. It's quite popular over here.
- frereubu 2y ago
  Where is "here"?
loughnane 2y ago
I’ve been using it a long time. At first only had my wife, but over time got my friend group on it and other random folks. Interestingly I’ve seen more random people sign up for it it(I get an alert if their phone number is already in my contacts) in the last month than any month ever.
giancarlostoro 2y ago
I still use it, but it was primarily me and my wife. Since the Messages app on iOS has encryption, we haven't felt the need to continue. I use it with other tech friends. I feel like Signal could have been bigger if they adopted usernames long ago. I don't want to share my number with anyone anymore.
zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago
Several of my friends still use it. But yeah it's not as prevalent as it used to be
Certhas 2y ago
Absolutely exists in Germany. E.g. the parent chat group for day care is Signal. Not as ubiquitous as WhatsApp (which was the chat of the previous day care) but not obscure either.
jszymborski 2y ago
I have friends who came to use Signal just because it had a decent desktop and phone app. Ironically, its my tech-savvy friend group that are on discord while my family is on Signal. I think all my friends would be on Signal if it had a "server/channel" UI like discord.
nelblu 2y ago
"SMS support" is not something that most of the people in the world (barring North Americans I guess) cared about. So there were "normal people" using it before and there are "normal people" using it now. I primarily use it for closest friends and families. For everyone else there's WhatsApp which I can go dormant for days.
GuB-42 2y ago
Signal used to be a pretty good SMS app, even disregarding the cryptography aspect. That how I treated it, and that's how it became successful among "normies". It was a good SMS app with encryption as a bonus. So much that as Signal discontinued SMS access, I was tempted to take an older version of Signal, strip out all the crypto, making it play well with the Android SMS system, and republish it as a simple SMS app. But it seems that Signal failed grasp the importance of SMS, instead of fixing the ongoing issues, they let it rot before discontinuing it completely. Yes, SMS is bad for privacy, but they are not in a position to change that, they don't have the critical mass that Whatsapp has. They thought they could take advantage of the boost they got with the Whatsapp/Facebook controversy and Elon Musk "use Signal" tweet to make people change their ways, probably not realizing that privacy is not that strong an argument for people outside of their bubble and that they have to offer "something else", and good SMS integration is "something else". And yes, having users that have "nothing to hide" is important for a privacy-focused app, because otherwise, the simple fact that someone is using that app can make him a target (see: EncroChat).
- mvieira38 2y ago
  SMS almost doesn't matter outside of the USA. No one in my circle has once asked if Signal had SMS support, neither have I ever received an SMS since like 2010.
  - GuB-42 2y ago
    I live in France, SMS is really big here. Not as much as it once was, but it is still one of the most popular way to send text messages, probably not the most popular anymore, but close. In addition, it is still the standard way for businesses to notify you and for 2FA when they don't have a dedicated app.
    - em-bee 2y ago
      but is it big enough that people will refuse a messaging app that does not support SMS?
homebrewer 2y ago
I've had the exact same experience you did. Burned a bit of appearance of having "technical wisdom" on that one, won't be pushing anyone anywhere anytime soon.
zxexz 2y ago
Huh. Opposite experience here (New England). Signal increasingly feels like the de facto messenger. I met more random people with Signal, than with iMessage, WhatsApp or Messenger.
- fwn 2y ago
  My German bubble is also maybe half Whatsapp and half Signal. Many contacts have both. It looks the same, feels the same and does the same. Notifications appear in exactly the same place, regardless of the messenger. I don't understand why people are so passionate about not using the supposedly more private service next to the trivially less private one. I also don't think adding messengers is such a big deal in non-technical circles, given the need is there. They just install it and its done. An example: One of my younger generation family chat groups moved from Facebook Messenger to Signal because Messenger started blocking links to some streaming services in 2018. - No blocked links since.
AlyssaRowan 2y ago
Basically all of my friends use it. I insist. I trust it; I don't trust WhatsApp (not because WA's crypto is weak, just because I don't trust who runs it now).
waveBidder 2y ago
I've seen a pretty massive uptick in usage among my non-techie friends in the past couple of months.
marssaxman 2y ago
No idea what normal people do, but it's still by far the dominant messenger among everyone I know. I have a couple contacts on WhatsApp, and half a dozen or so people who are still using SMS, but everyone else - and all the group chats - are on Signal.
bjoli 2y ago
I have 123 signal contacts. I have a total of 504 contacts in my phone book, many of which don't have phone numbers attached to them. I would say it is pretty popular, at least in my social circle.

fransje26 2y ago

> Are normal people still using Signal? Some of us do, yes. But maybe we're not normal and we don't know it..

casenmgreen 2y ago

I used it from the early days. Then Signal jumped the shark, with the server-side data forced PIN fiasco - the app had a full page, non-dismissable popup on start which you could only get rid of by agreeing to use and supplying a PIN for server-side data, which meant I could not use Signal. After a month of not being able to use, it went away, but at that point I no longer trusted Signal. I'm also troubled by the year long period where the published source code wasn't updated. I think in general people use WA, but all the people I talk to have Signal as well. I'll be moving on once I put the time in to find a replacement. I know in Switzerland, only Signal is used by State employees - teachers writing to parents and so on.

JoshTriplett 2y ago

Signal now has usernames (not just phone numbers), and has a way to migrate most of your history onto new devices without having to use the terrible backup UX. If it gets to the point of migrating all your media (not just the last N days) as well, it'd be to the point that I'd start asking everyone I know to use it without reservations.

pixxel 2y ago
[dead]

poincaredisk 2y ago

I use it, my friends use it, my family uses it, and it's often the only chat app I have in common with a stranger when I need to keep in touch. I didn't onboard my family, they use it independently. It's quite popular over here.

frereubu 2y ago
Where is "here"?

loughnane 2y ago

I’ve been using it a long time. At first only had my wife, but over time got my friend group on it and other random folks. Interestingly I’ve seen more random people sign up for it it(I get an alert if their phone number is already in my contacts) in the last month than any month ever.

giancarlostoro 2y ago

I still use it, but it was primarily me and my wife. Since the Messages app on iOS has encryption, we haven't felt the need to continue. I use it with other tech friends. I feel like Signal could have been bigger if they adopted usernames long ago. I don't want to share my number with anyone anymore.

zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago

Several of my friends still use it. But yeah it's not as prevalent as it used to be

Certhas 2y ago

Absolutely exists in Germany. E.g. the parent chat group for day care is Signal. Not as ubiquitous as WhatsApp (which was the chat of the previous day care) but not obscure either.

jszymborski 2y ago

I have friends who came to use Signal just because it had a decent desktop and phone app. Ironically, its my tech-savvy friend group that are on discord while my family is on Signal. I think all my friends would be on Signal if it had a "server/channel" UI like discord.

nelblu 2y ago

"SMS support" is not something that most of the people in the world (barring North Americans I guess) cared about. So there were "normal people" using it before and there are "normal people" using it now. I primarily use it for closest friends and families. For everyone else there's WhatsApp which I can go dormant for days.

GuB-42 2y ago

Signal used to be a pretty good SMS app, even disregarding the cryptography aspect. That how I treated it, and that's how it became successful among "normies". It was a good SMS app with encryption as a bonus. So much that as Signal discontinued SMS access, I was tempted to take an older version of Signal, strip out all the crypto, making it play well with the Android SMS system, and republish it as a simple SMS app. But it seems that Signal failed grasp the importance of SMS, instead of fixing the ongoing issues, they let it rot before discontinuing it completely. Yes, SMS is bad for privacy, but they are not in a position to change that, they don't have the critical mass that Whatsapp has. They thought they could take advantage of the boost they got with the Whatsapp/Facebook controversy and Elon Musk "use Signal" tweet to make people change their ways, probably not realizing that privacy is not that strong an argument for people outside of their bubble and that they have to offer "something else", and good SMS integration is "something else". And yes, having users that have "nothing to hide" is important for a privacy-focused app, because otherwise, the simple fact that someone is using that app can make him a target (see: EncroChat).

mvieira38 2y ago
SMS almost doesn't matter outside of the USA. No one in my circle has once asked if Signal had SMS support, neither have I ever received an SMS since like 2010.
- GuB-42 2y ago
  I live in France, SMS is really big here. Not as much as it once was, but it is still one of the most popular way to send text messages, probably not the most popular anymore, but close. In addition, it is still the standard way for businesses to notify you and for 2FA when they don't have a dedicated app.
  - em-bee 2y ago
    but is it big enough that people will refuse a messaging app that does not support SMS?

homebrewer 2y ago

I've had the exact same experience you did. Burned a bit of appearance of having "technical wisdom" on that one, won't be pushing anyone anywhere anytime soon.

zxexz 2y ago

Huh. Opposite experience here (New England). Signal increasingly feels like the de facto messenger. I met more random people with Signal, than with iMessage, WhatsApp or Messenger.

fwn 2y ago
My German bubble is also maybe half Whatsapp and half Signal. Many contacts have both. It looks the same, feels the same and does the same. Notifications appear in exactly the same place, regardless of the messenger. I don't understand why people are so passionate about not using the supposedly more private service next to the trivially less private one. I also don't think adding messengers is such a big deal in non-technical circles, given the need is there. They just install it and its done. An example: One of my younger generation family chat groups moved from Facebook Messenger to Signal because Messenger started blocking links to some streaming services in 2018. - No blocked links since.

AlyssaRowan 2y ago

Basically all of my friends use it. I insist. I trust it; I don't trust WhatsApp (not because WA's crypto is weak, just because I don't trust who runs it now).

waveBidder 2y ago

I've seen a pretty massive uptick in usage among my non-techie friends in the past couple of months.

marssaxman 2y ago

No idea what normal people do, but it's still by far the dominant messenger among everyone I know. I have a couple contacts on WhatsApp, and half a dozen or so people who are still using SMS, but everyone else - and all the group chats - are on Signal.

bjoli 2y ago

I have 123 signal contacts. I have a total of 504 contacts in my phone book, many of which don't have phone numbers attached to them. I would say it is pretty popular, at least in my social circle.