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Manila Bulletin devider Technews devider Why Signal Messenger is the only messaging app that matter

Why Signal Messenger is the only messaging app that matter

Published Mar 4, 2024 03:38 am


Signal, Private Messenger is finally rolling out username support. This, along with the recent news about using post-quantum encryption, makes Signal the best messaging platform in the market today. If you have not seen the username support yet, update your app and you will see the new feature, with settings that allow your mobile number to be hidden.

You still need a mobile number to create an account to establish your identity. After this, you can create a username and use that. A mobile number is required to at least limit account creation abuse. I think this is better than tying your account with a credit card, right? BTW, the username can be changed at any time, too.

Signal is owned and controlled by a foundation, which protects it from being acquired by another company and being enshittified. This is in contrast with services like WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Google Message (or whatever it is called today), Viber, LIne, Threema, SimpleX Chat and even Apple's iMessage. If you are using any of these, make sure that you know the business model of the company that offer the service, i.e., do they sell your data to others, like advertising companies? If so, then be careful.

Signal encrypts everything, your mobile phone number, all metadata and all content. Signal does not have any means of accessing your communications. Others will claim that they also have end-to-end encryption, but the metadata is not protected. What this means is that the service provider might not know what you are communicating about, but it knows who you are communicating with, when and from where. Again, know your provider's business model before deciding whether to use the service or not.

Signal is the closest to being the perfect messaging service in the market today. If it can let go of using the mobile number requirement without sacrificing anything (other services do this but in the expense of poor user experience, e.g., it is cumbersome to give a 64 character ID just to be able to connect with you, right?), then it would be awesome.

Signal's post-quantum encryption makes it future-proof (the future when quantum computers are everywhere), but Apple's iMessage, starting with iOS 17.4, extends that by adding key-rotation. I wish Signal will do the same soon.

Signal is also dependent on a centralized service - a directory service. Whilst the directory/identity service has multiple redundancy to make it resilient, if Signal can find a way to make this a decentralized service, like what SimpleX.chat has right now. And oh, yes you can self-host it, too.

If you still have not transitioned to using Signal, the best cross-platform, privacy-preserving and secure messaging platform in the market today, then you are missing a lot! Go setup your account now

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