Free and Open Source Software

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After over a decade spent creating Signal, Moxie has departed to focus on new efforts. (mastodon.world)

submitted 1 year ago by bbbhltz@beehaw.org to c/foss@beehaw.org

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[–] communist@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah, so, what it really seems to come down to is that since it's centralized, it's easier to make it work for everyone, no?

[–] Viktorian@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Being centralized isn't the only reason, but basically yes. The concept behind the protocol is simpler because your decryption keys only ever live on one device. You don't really have the entire trust (and key sharing) model for devices that Matrix has. Signal's desktop app works very similarly to WhatsApp where your single main device needs to be connected at least intermittently for "guest" sessions to be able to send and receive messages. I haven't used Signal desktop though, that was just the impression I got from it. Would make sense though because WhatsApp is allegedly borrowing from Signal's protocol quite a bit.

[–] WeirdOrange@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

You don't need your main device connected to send/receive on the Signal desktop app.