Why does signal need a phone number? Feels gay.
Discussion
SimpleX Chat is superior in anonymity and plausible deniability. It suffers a bit in UX compared to Signal though. Worthy tradeoff for most communications I'd argue.
I have used SimpleX a lot. I haven't tried voice with it.
Oh yeah nice glad to hear you're all about it. Voice calls are decent, but uses WebRTC so it can be inconsistent depending on your browser settings. Signal works much more consistently for VoIP. Hopefully in the future SimpleX improves their call feature.
I never make phone calls anymore besides the wife really so that is why having a phone number just to chat on signal or whatever is lame.
Indeed it is.
🚩🚩🚩🚩
also why does it stop working if you don't update it. super weird.
so they can track you. Signal has backdoors.
Its definitely this. Having your identity linked to your messaging metadata is huge for state intelligence surveillance. Combine this with the fact that iOS and Google Play push notifications are sent their servers in plaintext, you then have a good setup to passively collect huge amounts of user data when they think they're being private. It doesn't help also that Signals database relies on the phones "secure" element for encryption. Placing trust in Apple's and Google's proprietary software to keep your messaging private.
These insecurities are addressed in the Molly client (android hard fork of the Signal client) on a FOSS ROM like GrapheneOS. It does not use Google push notifications and allows database encryption with a passphrase. Then using smspool.net you can get non KYC SMS codes paid with monero or lightning.
Even with all this though, nearly everyone else you communicate with will have the compromising defaults. This is what they want.
That is my instinct. They usually end up correct.
Or use self hosted matrix server (encryption by default)
“We kill people based on metadata”
Briar fix this
they say rate limiting which somewhat makes sense but they should just offer payment instead as rate limit, you can use nostr:nprofile1qqsxp4fkwhc8mm5704mezrh6g35zmp7t2v338wnxhr6yf8tyj9ezj6cprfmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujummjv9hxwetsd9kxctnyv4mqz9nhwden5te0wfjkccte9ec8y6tdv9kzumn9wsa5dz6k or hushed as signup number
I would you have to signal soooo hrd to hit a limit lol
more like rate limit on signup to prevent bots
smspool.net is a much more cost effective and convenient service for one time SMS codes like Signal requires.
Haven't heard of that 👌
you might want to reserve your number tho so other people can’t unlink your account
they say to protect against spam...
but you can just use any voip number then only use signal user names
🤙🏻
Is this still the case? Didn't they recently roll out a feature whereby you can pick a username instead of a phone number?
It’s the only identifier that has ‘proof of work’ (paid account) associated with it. Otherwise the bots would take over Signal.