Anyone here have experience or comments on using the Signal app?

It boasts having end-to-end encryption.

I heard that the Signal developer, Moxie Marlinspike, was interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast. I checked it out - I still have about an hour of the show to finish. Personally, I found the interviewed guest hard to understand and maintain interest in listening to him. What saves the interview is the humour and animated dialog by Joe.
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* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Hi August,

On 2020-12-29 11:10:16, you wrote to All:

Anyone here have experience or comments on using the Signal app?

I have it on my phone, but hardly ever use it, because very few people I know also have it. And when you do want to send them a message they also have whatsapp, and you don't remember they also have signal...

Usage wise it's just like Whatsapp or Telegram. There's not much difference between them...

It boasts having end-to-end encryption.

That's why I installed it.

And then there also is 'Wire' messenger, which is supposed to be also pretty good regarding privacy, but I use it even less...

Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

August Abolins wrote to All <=-

Anyone here have experience or comments on using the Signal app?

I've been using it for a few years. I've had some problems with the group chats.
I've recommended it to several family members and friends, and most still use it,
though 3 have stopped using it.

If someone leaves a group while another member is not connected (through wifi or
mobile data), the group doesn't get updated. In my case, this resulted in a friend
who had left the group kept receiving messages I sent to the group. But he didn't
receive messages from any other member, only me.

I don't know if it's still an issue.

There's another weird thing where anyone can add anyone to a group. You can't ban
someone from a group, only block them individually. But I think that's changed now
so there can be a single "admin".

https://signal.org/blog/group-links/

Otherwise I like it. For me, call quality is better over Signal than my regular

cell carrier. I can send images and it uses the wifi very reliably. I can send a
quick voice message. It appears as a regular text to the other user in the chat,
and he just needs to click "play".

I think another downside is that if I'm not connected to the Internet and someone
sends me a message on Signal, it won't get rerouted as a regular text message though my cell carrier.

I haven't done much video-conferencing with it so can't say anything about it.

It's similar to Whatsapp, but Whatsapp is owned by Facebook now and I prefer, when
available, to use the "open" alternatives.

--
-Andy


... 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
-+- MultiMail/Linux v0.52

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5
* Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38)

Hi August,

On 2020-12-30 22:14:00, you wrote to me:

I have it on my phone, but hardly ever use it, because very
few people I know also have it. And when you do want to
send them a message they also have whatsapp, and you don't
remember they also have signal...

WhatsApp is owned by FB now, isn't it? If so, I'd drop it.

Afaik it is. And would be something I would avoid as much as possible. Except I have no real choic in the matter, because I'm required to have it on my (company) phone...

It also seems that the user environment is so saturated with alternate/similar choices that people either don't care or don't
want to change from what they are current using to connect to
their existing list of contacts.

And then there is the matter of privacy. Nobody seems to care -
unless of course their email accounts get hacked or their private
pics are somehow copied all over the internet.

I think privacy awareness is getting better. But people still choose the easy way. Instead of trying to convince others to use the better option, they just use what's already available/installed/used by most people.

I have roped in one family friend onto Telegram. We both feel it
is a better platform than FB's messenger that clearly has a
reputation that it monitors content. We have never had a "live"
chat between us (our online schedules are so different) so
Telegram's private/live chat and its exploding message feature
has never been tested. But Signal sounds better.

Me and my 2 brothers use it to communicate amongst eachother. There are some coworkers that have it available, but most of the time still use whatsapp to start a conversation. I try to stear that to Telegram sometimes, but not with great success... :-/

Does Signal have a desktop app similar to what Telegram offers?

I had to look it up myself. There are clients for several platforms: windows, mac, linux (only debian based). For my distribution the client is in the application repositories, but not for the older version I'm currently using.
So not as good as Telegram, but almost as good...

(I wouldn't ask that if I had internet access at this time. But I
have to wait until Jan 4 to get my mobile data back, or I have to
wait until I can connect to the DSL at my shop tomorrow morning
even to send this.)

So you sent this message from the shop?

I like Telegram's offerings across ALL devices, especially the
desktop. The desktop version permits much better editing
performance.

I like it too!

I have had some extended personal exchanges on FB Messenger
*before* I realized that it would probably be good to not
continue and share info that way.

I only have a fake FB account to be able to view links to FB you sometimes get. I have never used it to communicate with anyone I know.

It boasts having end-to-end encryption.

That's why I installed it.

Telegram has the same claim (now) doesn't it?

Afaik: Yes.

And then there also is 'Wire' messenger, which is supposed
to be also pretty good regarding privacy, but I use it even
less...

Never heard of Wire. I'm a bit curious. I will have to try and
remember to research that - after Jan 4 ofcourse. :(

On their frontpage they claim: "The most secure collaboration platform"... And clicking further you can read:


End-to-end encrypted:

All communication through Wire is secured with end-to-end encryption - messages, conference calls, files.

Independently audited:

Wire is the most extensively publicly audited collaboration and communication software on the market.

Multi-device messaging:

One account works on up to 8 devices. Messages are encrypted for each device.

Trusted conversations:

Verify each conversation partner's device fingerprints for maximum security.

Forward and backward secrecy:

New encryption keys are used for each message, so a compromised key has minimal impact.

100% open source:

Wire's source code is available on GitHub for anyone to verify, modify and improve.
Code on GitHub


But they also seem to be a commercial platform now. Didn't know that, maybe that has changed...?


Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)