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Which one do you trust the most for your privacy?
(kerala.party)
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this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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Earlier this year. It no longer functions as an SMS service and you now have a username instead. I think the changeover was in March or April.
Hm? Not sure which Signal you’re using. But it very much still requires a phone number to use. Usernames are not available just yet. There’s activity related to usernames in the GitHub repository, but no release yet.
They did remove the ability to send and receive SMS from their Android app. That was about last year or so.
https://signal.org/blog/sms-removal-android/
Usernames have not been released yet. When they are released, phone number will still be required for registration, but you will be able to hide it from other people on Signal.
I knew about the SMS thing (Android only), but thought they had yet to release user names as a feature. I see no settings related to user names on iOS. The SMS retirement was to remove the ability to use Signal to replace an SMS app on Android.
Forgive me, you're correct. I stopped using it when it dropped SMS, because I had only ever able to get people on it through SMS, but at the time had read plans about eventually dropping the phone number requirement. I mixed those things up in my head.
From what I understand, they're fully invested in dropping the phone number requirement though, and some more googling says that they've had versions of Signal PNP (phone number privacy) running for a while now.
You're correct, that part hasn't actually changed over yet, but it's in the works.
It is planned, and “in the works” for at least two years at this point. It’ll happen, eventually.
They do not at this time intend to drop the phone number requirement, as they see it as an anti-spam measure. Meredith Whittaker has said as much. Phone number privacy is a project independent of requiring phone number at signup, and it just prevents other users from seeing your number.
Hehe! I was just bitching about them dropping SMS (and a crapton of users) in another post.
It used to be the perfect app to get people into secure messaging. Now it's just another chat app to most people, who tend to think "who really cares when you've got WhatsApp etc, that actually have users? Why would I want some obscure app on my phone? More shit to think about."
Usernames still aren't a thing. What are you talking about?