I don’t use Telegram but they don’t enable encryption by default? Last time I used Telegram I needed a phone number still, so, I’d say Signal has always been on top.
they don’t enable encryption by default?
Indeed, only secret chats use it, that’s it’s biggest drawback.
Last time I used Telegram I needed a phone number still
Yes, for registering purposes. However, you can set up your own username and give that to whoever you want instead. You can even restrict some or all people from seeing your actual number.
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.
This is how Signal should have been designed in the first place.
Without phone-number based contact finding signal wouldn’t be relevant enough to matter.
IRC, AIM, and BBM did ok without it. We humans like talking to each other. We figure it out.
*Yawn!* Wake me up when they stop requiring phone numbers to sign up.
So it’s instant messaging with encryption?
Pretty much. Signals servers just initiate connection between clients, who in turn negotiate parameters with each other so that messages can be encrypted and sent privately between the clients. The messages never has to touch Signals servers, unless you’ve turned on certain features. It’s what you could call a “peer-to-peer chat”.
It’s apps for Android and iOS are available on GitHub, as well as libraries dedicated to the Signal protocol that you can use and implement in your own projects.
So it’s transparent, private and secure. Pretty boss. Waiting for someone to correct me on this one ^^;
I’m 99% sure that signal isn’t peer to peer. Afaik all messages go through signal’s servers, but they’re end to end encrypted so the server can’t see message contents, or who the messages are coming from.
The only thing that’s peer to peer are calls, but you can turn on ‘Always relay calls’ from settings to relay them through Signal’s servers.
If you wanna boil it that down that much, sure. It’s also run by a non-profit with publicly available source code. And it’s not just “encryption,” but end-to-end encryption (E2EE), meaning the server and company don’t know what you’re messaging.
