Tech Support: If I have my name on my signal account, does it show it to everyone I add on there?

Submitted by flabberghaster in ask

I haven't added anyone on signal in a while, and those I have, already have my phone number.

In the years since, they've added usernames so you can make a new username and share that without sharing your number. So that's good. But I also put my name on my account so my friends would know it's me, but if I add a stranger, does it send them that too?

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twovests wrote

I think it shows your name and profile picture, but not your phone number. Importantly, it requires you add someone, or willingly join a group.

I think if they have your phone number in their contacts, Signal will add that to the Signal contact, and so someone can find your phone number by adding every phone number to their contacts. But I'm not certain about that.

More: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007459591-Signal-Profiles-and-Message-Requests

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rain wrote (edited )

I think it shows your name and profile picture, but not your phone number.

Correct; it’s actually best to think of the name field as “displayname”. If that’s not what you want you can change it.

Interestingly, it also doesn’t reveal your username, and allows you to change usernames without losing already existing chats. So a trick I’ve used is to change my username to something random, give it to someone in order to establish a conversation then change my username back. Now I have a conversation where neither of us can see the phone # or username of the other.

I think if they have your phone number in their contacts, Signal will add that to the Signal contact, and so someone can find your phone number by adding every phone number to their contacts

Yes, but I handle this by not allowing signal to access my contacts. It’s worth checking out your various ai and assistant settings on your phone as well but that’s a bit of another topic.

Edit: I just realized in the final paragraph the concern was other people finding out you were on signal by them giving signal access to their contact book. As I understand it, if you were trying to hide that you have a signal account from people who would have your phone number this would be genuine concern. Personally I don’t use my primary phone number for signal which makes this a non-issue. If you don’t want your normal contacts knowing you use signal then you should get a second number and register signal to it instead.

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sarah wrote

your profile (name, picture, "about") is visible once you've sent the first message (or reply)

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flabberghaster OP wrote

No my concern is that if I add a stranger, using an account name rather than my phone number, but I have my real name in my profile (which I set so that people I know will know who's messaging them), will the stranger I add also get my real name?

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sarah wrote

yes, they will.

your name, about text and profile picture are visible to your signal contacts — username and phone number aren't.

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