My routine reminder that Signal doesn't have these features because they genuinely care about privacy and metadata security, and will withhold basic messaging app features until they know how to provide them without (a) creating a database of every pair of communicating users that they retain serverside and (b) leaking information about conversations to traffic analysis. See: user profiles, GIF sharing, both with really interesting explanations of how Signal ultimately figured out how to implement these features.
It does make Signal a little less usable than some other messengers, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't use Slack a lot more than Signal. But this is also why Signal is what I use when the secrecy of what I'm talking about actually matters.
Signal might care about the privacy of my information with respect to themselves or eavesdroppers but it is not very effective at protecting my privacy with respect to people I might want to talk to because I have to give them my phone number, which reveals my location and potentially my identity if it is linked to Facebook or something similar.
I really like the idea of Signal and try to use it as much as I can, but man it’s an ugly app. There must be a way to design the UI a bit better without compromising security and privacy.
> But this is also why Signal is what I use when the secrecy of what I'm talking about actually matters.
Which is fine but will never work with the average WhatsApp/Telegram user. First, they have to be educated, they have to care, they have to decide if what they are typing affords that extra level of protection, if the inteded destination is on Signal, etc. It's too much.
I've tried to convert friends and family to Signal but not a single one continued to use it after a few days.
But I think it's fine that Signal is making these compromises in favor of security and privacy. Maybe we don't really need mass adoption, as long as the people that really need it know where to look.
If they care about privacy then why do they require a phone number which is linked to identity and location? If they worry about bot registrations, they could require a small fee in Bitcoins to sign up.
It does make Signal a little less usable than some other messengers, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't use Slack a lot more than Signal. But this is also why Signal is what I use when the secrecy of what I'm talking about actually matters.