this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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I felt that removing SMS while still having it tied to your phone number, stories, and that weird cryptocurrency were not what I was looking for in a messanger.
I also don't like the fact that Signal needs your phone number and that the only way to connect to other people is by their phone number.
And that your phone number inevitably leads to being spammed
TIL Margot Robbie has strong opinions about encrypted messaging apps. My respect grows by the day.
Everybody just want to ask me about my opinion on work, nobody ever ask me about my opinion on tech.
But using an obvious AI generated profile picture and all of a sudden I can just express opinions on things now.
lol
I agree. As soon as the update that disabled SMS was pushed to my phone, signal was effectively dead.
Integrating with SMS was so smart. The person who got me into it said "there is literally no reason not to do it" because it was seamless. And I used the same argument to get other people into it. But basically everyone stopped using it as soon as SMS was removed. I don't have the brain space to remember who is on signal and who is not and go to the appropriate messenger.
I read the whole long thread on their website where the devs were arguing in favor of this and all the reasons were IMHO stupid. I think someone wanted to tank signal. Got tired of funding it probably. It was too good to be true with no obvious business model so always thought the day would come, and it did. Too bad, it was very good at what it did.
This take doesn't make any sense. Signal is funded by a non-profit and has tons of money that allows them to not worry about funding in the near feature. There is nobody to "get tired of funding" them.
Makes a lot more sense when you realize they hired an ex-Google exec to run Signal.
Meredith Whittaker? Artificial Intelligence researcher
[0], not ex-Google exec, Meredith Whittaker who "led global walkouts"[1]against Google? Meredith Whittaker who "helped lead employee protests at Google over the search giant’s military work, artificial intelligence and policies"[2], Meredith Whittaker?If that's who you're talking about, they chose the right person to lead a project that goes completely against the silicon valley M.O. of selling your private data to the highest bidder or mining it to sell ads. Her actions have demonstrated she isn't afraid of speaking up or pushing back against "the hand that feeds you", even at risk of being retaliated.
[0]https://www.forbes.com/sites/samshead/2019/04/23/google-a-i-researcher-says-shes-being-punished-for-organising-a-mass-walkout/[1]https://news.sky.com/story/google-walkout-leader-meredith-whittaker-leaves-company-following-claims-of-retaliation-11764114[2]https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-protest-leader-meredith-whittaker-015305645.htmlI like her politics and activism, I just don't think Google and ex-Google people know the features people want out of a messenging app.
Yes I'm still very unhappy over Allo.
Same, it had so much potential, but seems to have been poorly managed.