this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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Signal is publicly testing letting users add usernames to their accounts so they don’t have to share their phone number to connect via the encrypted messaging service.The test was announced via a post on the Signal forums by VP of engineering Jim O’Leary, who referred to the feature as “pre-beta” and warned that there’ll be rough edges including crashes and broken push notifications.
Although accounts will still be associated with a traditional mobile number at setup, the username feature means you’ll be able to connect with and message other users without having to share what can be an important personally identifiable piece of information.
PCMag points to a note in the service’s wiki mentioning that signs of the feature cropped up as early as 2019, and Whittaker has been open about the Signal’s plans for it.
There are indicators that competitor WhatsApp is working on a similar feature, though the Meta-owned messaging service is typically less open about its future development plans.
But the ease of installing these test clients varies, and you’ll only be able to talk to other users running similar pre-release software.
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