this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (12 children)

On the one hand I agree with them sticking to their guns re: adamantly protecting privacy.

On the other, the number of contacts I have using signal has dropped off a cliff, from 12 to just one. It certainly isn't rising. The people I know who used it have abandoned it and went back to WhatsApp.

Getting rid of SMS support was a mistake.

I'd personally prefer that when messaging with someone using WhatsApp, they make clear to you that Facebook can and will have some metadata, but not the contents of the chat itself. Shit, make it opt-in.

A big part of why nobody uses signal is because... nobody uses signal. If you could still talk to people on WhatsApp, the de facto standard in most of the world bar the US and China, more people might give it a try, and thus more people over time would be having signal-to-signal conversations.

IMO a good but imperfect solution is preferable to nobody using Signal, which is the realistic alternative.

I'll continue donating to Signal, but much like their SMS decision, I believe this to be a mistake that will severely hamper adoption.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I disagree. When sending SMS you are leaking info like when, to whom and how big message you sent to a lot of spying agencies.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You do that regardless of which app you use to send SMS.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's why I don't use SMS at all

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

Cool, but that's not an argument against SMS support in Signal.

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