Signal is finally delivering the stuff we have all been waiting for. First, they implemented post quantum cryptography in the protocol in September, then we got message editing, and now we will finally get usernames. Awesome!
The world would be a substantially better place if Signal would 1) Not require phone numbers, and 2) Allow 3rd-party clients. While they’re at it maybe they could also add a volume control to the desktop client and then not push so many damn updates.
Can we please just have an app for our Android tablets?
Seconding Molly, based on Signal’s (lack of response), they seem to have zero plans to ever add Android tablet linking. Much to my own dismay.
I’m a recent Molly convert and so far so good. I really hope they don’t shut it down or block it somehow. For how much I love Signal, I don’t understand why they won’t focus on much needed additions that Molly implemented.
Finally
Annoyingly, this doesn’t mean that you can register without a phone number. I hope that this is only the first step towards making that happen and not some sort of compromise of the original goal.
I still use Signal because I think it’s still the best tool so far (that has people I know using it), but I’m always iffy about services using phone numbers as their primary identifier.
The people communicating with each other need a way to ensure that they are communicating with who they think they are; and for most people, they are trying to hide what they are discussing, not necessarily who they are discussing it with.
When I first got into open source I downloaded every app I saw that could make me feel like a spy, but I quickly deleted 90% of them because I had no use cases for them. I did find an app I believe based off the signal protocol which had no names or numbers and the only way to initiate contact between two people was by scanning each others qr code, but good luck ever meeting somebody to download the app.
It’s been hard enough convincing anybody over signal. Americans are pretty locked into SMS and everybody else seems unwilling to leave WhatsApp.
