this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Messaging apps curse is exactly that... No matter how good they are, if nobody is using it... In WhatsApp I have +100 of my contacts, in Telegram, 20. In Signal, less than 10, so...
Signal kinda put themselves out of the messaging app battle when they dropped SMS support
I totally get why they did it, but I think a lot of people stopped using it for this reason, unfortunately
I don't really want to start a debate on the Signal SMS dropout but ...
They could have put a big red warning and a disclaimer you have to read once for the unsecured SMS. It would have been fine.
Yes, you would have to maintain that but I think it would definitely have been worth it considering how much reach they lost dropping this feature.
I stopped using Signal when they did, and that's one less tech user advertising their secure app.
It's a shame because I think this will slowly kill the project.
I tend to agree
I don't think anyone uses or cares about SMS where I live
Lucky you. SMS is still the primary way people message each other where I live.
That's rough. I guess at least it's universal
I don't mind it so much. At least it's not Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp. I'd rather die than put those on my phone.
Facebook Messenger is dogshit but WhatsApp works well imo. More features than sms or even rcs. Dogshit privacy though, even if security might be good.
I've never used it, and I never intend to. I know SMS isn't ideal for privacy, but at least I can use FOSS apps to interact with it, and it doesn't mandate intrusive features like "reactions" or read receipts
I'm not sure what's intrusive about reactions but you can turn off read receipts. Yeah it isn't ideal either but video calls, sending media/files, group chats (do NOT suggest MMS. Never MMS.) and so on. Lots of features, secure, but yeah privacy is dogshit. Signal is great but I've only managed to convert a few people to it.
I'd welcome the chance to use something more privacy based than Signal
I just never like reactions in an app used for general messaging. They make sense on a more memey plaything like Discord, but not in a messaging app that I'm supposed to take seriously as my primary way to communicate. In fact, simple text only without any other formatting would be ideal. That's kinda what I like about this place, with the exception of upvotes/downvotes, which could be removed for all I care.
I think images can be useful and even reactions when it's a (large) group chat. Haven't had anyone use them 1-1
I've got a group chat going in SMS with several family members, and I always cringe when I get the message "[brother] laughed at an image," and I don't even know what fucking image it was because I don't have an iPhone.
Reactions just seem like something that should have never been implemented in a place where they're not universally supported. Maybe I'd feel different with Signal, since I could simply not pay any attention to them. But if someone can't simply have the time to say "I like that," then why even react at all? I don't need to know that you lived, laughed, loved at my image.
I think it's less annoying with a large group chat to have people react to an image than 20 identical messages. I've seen some do group votes through that (👍 vs 👎) which seems like a good use case. Tbh I haven't seen people use reactions much so probably partly because of that they don't bother me.
I guess it would be preferable to getting all the disembodied "x laughed at an image" or "x loved an image" messages without even knowing which image it refers to. One could simply ignore the feature if it were less intrusive.
Realistically, out of the very few people (in relative terms, of course) that use signaly, I highly doubt there was a huge number that relied on it for SMS. Or even knew about SMS. First, you have to rule out anyone who was using it on iOS (by this point, you probably have thousands of people left out of the entire pool - yes I'm kinda pullin that out of my ass but you get my point - which is nothing).
So killing SMS definitely wasn't the make or break for Signal. Not even close to being likely.
Yeah, I guess I'm not sure about the actual statistics. I do know it was the point when I realized I wouldn't personally use Signal because everyone I know uses SMS, SMS federates with email, and if I tried switching to a non-SMS app, I'd be screaming into a void.
The only other message apps people around here use are Snapchat, FB Messenger, and WhatsApp, and I'd rather cut people off than use any of those.