Signal added stories but is removing SMS.

Submitted by flabberghaster in just_post

I just want signal to be a more secure messaging app. I don't know anyone who's in to any app that has stories.

I feel like this is a huge step backwards but I get that they have their own stuff going on. Maintaining the SMS thing is probably a lot of work, and their rationale that there's many users using plain SMS who think it's encrypted makes sense and they probably think uptake will improve if they do social media stuff. I don't think that's correct, but they didn't ask me and that's fair. If there's users using SMS who think it's encrypted, that's a UI bug and not a reason to disable SMS altogether.

I'm just really bummed.

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twovests wrote (edited )

I'm actually of the opposite opinion.

Stories are ephemeral and are lower effort and lower commitment, and it goes to all your friends. They usually come in a quasi-chronological order. It'd be inappropriate to post "makin soup", "empty bowl (done with the soup)", etc and tag every person i know

i wish signal had stories earlier, in time for each of the big adoption upticks.

also yah loosing the sms support sucks. in the forums they also cited that it was increasingly time consuming to support. but i really liked having sms in the same app.

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flabberghaster OP wrote (edited )

Currently only a few people I know use signal so if I had to maintain two appsz one for signal friends and one for just SMS friends it's going to be a big bummer and I probably will just end up not using signal. As is, I could get people to switch to signal as their main app and I could signal with them, but otherwise it was a normal texting app for them. But now his am I gonna get my mom to install signal and a regular SMS app? Not gonna happen, which means unencrypted messages.

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nomorepie wrote

plain sms is probably the main thing i would be looking for in an app like that? who wants stories smh. but then again for text based secure platform there's protonmail? maybe?

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nomorepie wrote

hmm i just read twovests comment. it is possible there exist people who would like and use that feature. i basically never had on any app so i wouldn't know (i am boring and never have anything interesting to post)

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flabberghaster OP wrote

Proton mail is like... Email. Signal is more of an instant messenger. Both useful but protonmail is for longer stuff that doesn't have to be replied to immediately I think.

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nomorepie wrote

i see what you mean but you can use email like a text message... technically

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voxpoplar wrote

So does using SMS in Signal just mean your phone sends an ordinary SMS message through the usual carrier network and it just uses the Signal UI to do that or is it something else? If it's the former that seems like a terrible idea that would only serve to confuse people as to what they're actually doing.

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flabberghaster OP wrote

Yes but it tells you that it's doing it pretty clearly and it means you only need one app for non signal and signal contacts. They can just make the notice bigger I think.

I think the reason they're dropping it is RCS though. Much more complex standard than just regular sms

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