YSK: Signal is a great secure private messenger app comparable to others on the market.
“When you use Signal, your data is stored in encrypted form on your devices. The only information that is stored on the Signal servers for each account is the phone number you registered with, the date and time you joined the service, and the date you last logged on.”
I still don't understand why they did that, I used to use Signal for everything and while it was clear that it couldn't encrypt basic SMS I could at least do all my messaging in one place. Now, I can't communicate with 80% of my contacts via Signal even if I wanted to, forcing two separate messaging apps.
Just let me send unsecured messages. It's fine. As it stands now I don't think I've even opened Signal in nearly six months even though I'd much rather use it than the default messenger.
Basically, it makes the whole platform less secure because you could accidentally send a non-encrypted message at any time. With SMS-free Signal, at least mistaken sent messages are still E2E encrypted.
Is their goal to become the new de-facto messaging app? Or is their goal to become the most secure messaging app for whistle blowers, etc for whom a single mistake could mean losing their life or their freedom?
Have unsecured messages be opt-in and have a warning banner on non-encrypted messages. Maybe even a confirmation dialog.
That way people who want our need to be that paranoid can be, but the rest of us can have something a bit more convenient.
By disallowing SMS messaging they've just made it so a lot of people who were being secure when their contacts allowed, aren't being secure at all.
TendieMaster69
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