1y ago

Signal may soon be getting usernames

nitter.lacontrevoie.fr Louis Grasset (@louisgrasset)

‼️ Sounds like the @signalapp team is nearly ready to ship #usernames to the Signal messaging app 👀

34 comments

I wish I could be excited for this but after no longer being able to use it for SMS and shoving crypto in it... Well, I just don't wanna use Signal anymore :(
- Why use Signal for SMS if they are unencrypted either way?
  
  SMS support got more people to use it, its easy to convince friends/family to swap if they can do all their regular texting in there. I understand why they removed it, but I think they did it way too early, they still needed a larger userbase.
  
  @TheEntity @bbbhltz @Lionir To have all communications in a single place/app, and be able to back up / restore in a single place, instead of messing with multiple applications.
  
  If you're trying to move from using only one messaging platform (SMS) to two (SMS+Signal), then I understand the friction. If you're like me and you have five other messaging platforms anyway, then a sixth makes no difference. This has never bothered me, but it's one of the reasons I have not moved my mother onto Signal — it's added complexity that she's not really going to understand.
  That said, I never enabled SMS in the Signal app and I wouldn't even if it came back. RCS is available now, and until Android provides third-party app developers the ability to make RCS clients, it's a dead end.
  
  Because if the username is a phone number, it is just very convenient. If someone I know switches then I keep the entire conversation with them and just continue. If I want to encourage someone I know, I can just tell them about the features they'll get with Signal rather than trying to sell them a platform which kind of sucks on desktop.

I sure hope so. This is the single biggest problem I have with Signal. Phone numbers really should not be treated as primary IDs. They are under the control of a third party and can be reassigned or fairly easily hijacked. Ideally you shouldn't need a phone number to sign up, either, especially for a privacy-focused service.

Im not holding my breath. Its been years since i heard it could "soon" get usernames.
- ~~If you want to join the Beta you can at least have the option of creating a username~~ ⬅ INCORRECT
  
  Which beta? I'm on Signal beta on Android and it isn't there yet. The screenshot does look like an iphone

Are users still required to provide a phone number?

I'll believe it when I see it. It's been "soon to come" for about 2 years now.
Edit: that said, the Signal team had done an excellent job with the app and overall UX. So much so, that my technologically inept friends are no longer asking me"how do I" and are, instead, showing me "look at this".

Hopefully this is a step towards using the same signal account on multiple phones.
- Yes, this would be a great move. I won't hold my breath but it'd be a nice surprise.
- That would be nice

I don’t want it to turn into Telegram, just give me a lightweight, secure and privacy focused messaging app.
- I mean, username vs phone number kinda doesn't matter anymore since it doesn't even do SMS anymore. This is probably the most popular change they could do and which has the least consequences on bloat.
- Why would this specific change affect these things in a bad way?
- Matrix is what you’re looking for.
  
  It will be difficult to switch my friend groups again, now that they are finally on Signal
  
  I wouldn't really consider matrix lightweight
- https://jami.net perhaps ? I've just heard about it and didn't try it myself, but it's kind of appealing to see a new decentralized messaging app (I wish tox succeeded in this field, but hey...).

Thanks fornusing the nitter url!

Fantastic ^⁠_⁠ Hopefully this can makeup for the lack of SMS support
- Ironically, I started using signal because SMS wasn’t working for a contact that I had in another country. It was that or WhatsApp.

34 comments