Comment on What's the deal with Signal?

• bg10k@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  That was a pretty wild decision

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  • zergtoshi@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Handling SMS and handling secure/encrypted messages could’ve made people think they communicate securely while relying on text messages instead.
    Not handling SMS fixes this source of confusion and I applaud their decision.

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    • AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The problem is that most people don’t want multiple text apps, they just want one. I had gotten a number of people using signal, and it was secure when we talked, but when signal dropped SMS, almost every one of them stopped using it, so then none of their conversations were secure.

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      • zergtoshi@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yeah, the never-ending weighting between convenience and security.
        But are you going to tell me that those people don’t have Whatsapp, Threema, Telegram or any other IM installed and just use plain SMS instead?

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    • Acamon@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I think the number of people who care deeply about privacy and cannot tell the difference between an sms or signal message is minimal. There were plenty of ways signal could have highlighted DANGER UNSECURE CHANNEL if they had wanted to, or made it an off-by-default option, rather than drop SMS entirely. For myself and many other people it meant that family members dropped Signal rather than have an extra messaging app, and so I’m still stuck with WhatsApp on my phone…

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    • guy@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If only the was some indicator for unsecure messages, such as a grey send button and an open padlock. 🙄

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    • Landless2029@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I think having an unlocked symbol for standard SMS would’ve helped that…

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      • zergtoshi@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        And you seriously think most people would look at and act on such an icon instead of just ignoring it?

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    • bg10k@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      There were ways to make it clear that it was insecure that didn’t alienate an arguable majority of their casual userbase.

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  • kn33@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It was very unpopular with my girlfriend, who I had just gotten into using Signal a few months prior.

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• guy@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  This was such a dumb decision

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• IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  This might be offtopic but:

  Fun Fact, you can use an open source app like Secure Space Encryptor (SSE) (on iOS its called “Paranoia Text Encryption”) to send an encrypted ciphertext over any medium, like SMS, without the internet. (Most encrypted messaging apps require you have to have internet AFIAK, so people without a data plan is fucked, but with SSE, you can just send ciphertext over SMS) Its not intergrated with SMS, so you’ll have to type plaintext in the app then copy paste the ciphertext it spits out.

  Or you can also PGP over SMS

  I remember when Signal used to intergrate with SMS, and I kinda liked that more than the Signal today where you have to use the internet and go through their servers.

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  • guy@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Getting people to switch to Signal was difficult in the first place
    Imagine trying to get them to use PGP lmao

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    • IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      xD

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  • WimpyWoodchuck@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is how TextSecure worked before it was renamed to Signal and removed SMS support.

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  • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    there’s oversec on f-droid that can almost automate this

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    • adespoton@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      This got me thinking that it should also be possible to automate on iOS with Shortcuts….

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    • IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Oh yea that overlay thingy, kinda glitchy last time I tried it. If someone is techy enough to manage that clunkiness, then they probably can figure out how to manually copy-paste with SSE.

      Btw, these apps are for nerds, not for the average person. No one irl that I know (besides me) would be willing to use either app.

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