Whittaker said Signal would not abide by the proposed law, and highlighted concerns about privacy and the need for tech leaders to take a stand against socially accepted surveillance.
When I got off of Facebook I ended up telling people that if they wanted to get ahold of me they could reach me either by texting me or messaging me on signal. If someone wants to talk to me, they will. I haven’t heard from some people I used to talk to over messenger, and that sucks but it also shows that they weren’t super interested in staying in touch with me, and those aren’t the people I want to talk to.
I do wonder, however, how this will all pan out, because I am 100% sure parliament’s reaction to this is not going to be “oh shoot, ok, never mind then”.
Here's what will happen. They will be forced to remove from the play store and will probably need to be sideloaded. Then it will probably get Streisanded and be more popular. Then the UK government will eventually fold. My prediction.
They don't fold. They just redefine success, (and the laws of physics) to mean doing nothing at all.
Just like with their promises to cut inflation, except now external factors don't count (because who would have thought external factors would affect the economy) and anyway it wasn't a "promise" it was an "objective", which means it won't happen but now that's okay.
I love signal, but they have to step up their game. Telegram is a hundred times more fun to use and I hate that my mom and close circle uses it and I hate to say that I don’t wanna use Signal coz it’s a pain to us in comparison with other messengers like Telegram.
Please Signal, instead of doing features like “pay through signal” do something that is actually useful now instead or fun. Who wanted to pay through signal in the first place. Maybe a small audience but is that small audience your target group!?
I love signal for keeping up to their own standards of keeping privacy (until somebody else steps up as a CEO Ehe. Fuck spez). But their overall User Experience sucks compared to other apps.
I would gladly answer your question, and I know Im going to get downvoted because I won't exactly answer it.
I just want to apologize that Im not willing to invest time into re-iterating my thinking into "why I think signal is not 'fun' to use".
It would require much effort from my time to do that and in detail and we would go back and forth, so I'm just here to apologize for not responding to your question because it's a great question. I always like to give detailed answers but just not willing to invest my time into this discussion for which Im sorry. I hope you get an answer from somebody else if someone else shares the same opinion.
For context, and why I'm judging Signal harshly, I'm a software engineer at Powerfactors, and used to be a Frontend developer, now I'm professionally a Backend engineer. And I've started as a Fullstack and Freelancer. So I kind of understand both sides and trying to understand the user as well.
I make my own Project which I re-iterated many times throughout the years to make user friendly and "fun" or easy to use or actually useful for clients to use. So when I use a piece of software I think in detail what could be done better and what could have gone bad from both frontend, backend, and UX/UI and I like the OSX/Apple philosophy on this one. That's as much as you're gonna get from me, Im going to re-install Signal again and right a piece of lists coz I know this is gonna take much of my time coz it's who I am, I like writing detailed essays.
I would gladly answer your question, and I know Im going to get downvoted because I won't exactly answer it. So understandable if you downvote me for not providing an answer, all I want is to apologize coz I like actually providing productive answers.
I just want to apologize that Im not willing to invest time into re-iterating my thinking into "why I think signal is not 'fun' to use". I dont wanna invest my time into re-installing Signal, writing a list and an essay about it etc and then going back and forth with you.
It would require much effort from my time to do that and in detail and we would go back and forth, so I'm just here to apologize for not responding to your question because it's a great question. I always like to give detailed answers but just not willing to invest my time into this discussion for which Im sorry. I hope you get an answer from somebody else if someone else shares the same opinion.
For context, and why I'm judging Signal harshly, I'm a software engineer at Powerfactors, and used to be a Frontend developer, now I'm professionally a Backend engineer. And I've started as a Fullstack and Freelancer. So I kind of understand both sides and trying to understand the user as well. Like I try to understand users like my Grandmother, my mother, to a programmer or a graphic designer. I try to understand who the software is for, and how to make it appealing to them and useful.
I make my own Project which I re-iterated many times throughout the years to make user friendly and "fun" or easy to use or actually useful for clients to use. So when I use a piece of software I think in detail what could be done better and what could have gone bad from both frontend, backend, and UX/UI and I like the OSX/Apple philosophy on this one. That's as much as you're gonna get from me, Im NOT going to re-install Signal again and write a piece of list and essay coz I know this is gonna take much of my time, it's who I am, I like writing detailed essays and answers + (i accidentally deleted my last answer instead of clicking edit i clicked delete).
edit: Again, I wanna emphasize, your question is awesome, if somebody here is UX/UI specialist, or knows about user-experience in general for some reason, and has the time to invest, you have my blessing. I'm making the comparison between Telegram, WhatsApp etc. vs Signal for context and why my opinion is that Signal falls besides them. + As you can see I'm not "arguing in bad faith". Im here to discuss.:)
Among the e2ee apps out there like Matrix, Sessions, Jami, simplex, etc. Signal is by far the most normal chat app out there. Pretty much straightforward (with the exception of Stories which nobody uses) to use. The only thing I am looking forward to is making it so the phone number isn't viewable to other chat members.
Unfortunately, removal of the SMS function was what caused the few friends that had Signal to stop using it, myself included. It was great to see someone show up as a Signal contact instead of regular SMS, but also being able to reach anyone I needed without having to figure out whether they have Signal, so I can use that, or that they don't and I have to send an SMS. Now I simply don't bother with Signal and just use regular SMS all the time, and I don't think I've opened Signal ever since they removed SMS support.
Nice Signal are also holding their ground but they are a little fish in a big pond. The Government uses WhatApp heavily and there have been quite a few leaks, assume they would love a wee backdoor.