[HN Gopher] Signal is testing "stories" feature
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Signal is testing "stories" feature
Author : dijit
Score : 19 points
Date : 2022-10-15 18:53 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.androidpolice.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.androidpolice.com)
| anthonyaykut wrote:
| Man, does _everything_ need likes, hearts, stories and other
| unnecessary baggage? I am happy with just one spartan, minimalist
| safe messaging app that does not have any of these and I 'm happy
| to pay for it as well.
| djohnston wrote:
| PMs never get promoted for saying "Yeah the product is solid we
| don't need any more features."
| webmobdev wrote:
| The idea being to create a social network to attract those who
| have been avoiding FB, so that their personal data can be
| datamined too? Folks, please don't forget that when a product
| that requires an infrastructure that costs money is offered free,
| your personal data is what's monetising it - whether it be Signal
| or Proton (though in Proton's case, they do have a business model
| with non-free services that may be commercially viable).
| permo-w wrote:
| as far as I know Signal is owned by a non-profit foundation
| nullc wrote:
| My understanding is that Signal is monetized through the
| premined cryptocurrency they integrated which isn't owned by
| the non-profit but by the people directing it.
| aaron695 wrote:
| pastrami_panda wrote:
| So they're removing the SMS feature but adding Stories? Sounds
| like we know where this is gonna end up.
| climb_stealth wrote:
| I wonder how many use Signal as their default sms app on
| Android. I have been doing so since the start and thought it
| was seamleas and amazing. Including the feature for message
| delivery confirmation. The announcement in the app hit me
| completely unprepared. We can't have nice things anymore.
|
| Stories sounds nice as a feature. It doesn't take away
| anything. But dropping sms support makes me bitter. I haven't
| found a replacement yet so happy to hear recommendations.
| wingmanjd wrote:
| I used to use Signal as my default SMS app (and would prefer
| to have kept it that way), but I would occasionally miss
| texts. They typically were group MMS ones, so I split them
| back out.
| nvllsvm wrote:
| I too was using SMS in Signal, but only because it was
| slightly better that the default in GrapheneOS.
|
| That said, I thought it still sucked. Sharing a photo from
| another app only showed a list of Signal chats and my
| contacts - with existing SMS chats being absent. There was
| also no way to bulk delete messages - which was particularly
| annoying when clearing out the countless Doordash messages I
| get.
|
| Kind of glad they're altogether scrapping SMS support.
| Hopefully a better, dedicated app will appear to take it's
| place as an open source SMS app.
|
| It also allows me to reevaluate whether I even want to
| consider using Signal since I only talk to two people on it
| anyway.
| climb_stealth wrote:
| Hah, good point about reevaluating. I too have only two
| people that I talk to via Signal itself. It's going to look
| quite empty in the app. But then that's the way it is for
| iOS as well. Oh well.
|
| Same on LineageOS. The default sms app is pretty terrible.
| 1MachineElf wrote:
| Maybe Signal should split into two apps. One keeps SMS for
| their large Android userbase. The other goes on to become a
| privacy-respecting TikTok/Snapchat clone. The world needs both
| of these.
|
| Had Signal been a decentralized service, maybe it would be
| possible to have both in tandem. The centralized nature of
| Signal is partly to blame for the fact that it's controlled by
| a development team who can and will piss off what may be the
| majority of their users. They have a lot to say about the
| beautiful simplicity of their protocol, so I'm skeptical of
| their arguments that it cannot continue coexisting with
| something like SMS.
|
| After this betrayal, it is foolish to continue putting faith in
| the Signal team. Continuing to be a user is an endorsement of
| their pulling the rug from under us. Searching for suitable
| alternatives, and there are many candidates, is high on my
| priority list.
| [deleted]
| manuw wrote:
| The only thing I want are "usernames" and not the binding to a
| mobile number.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| As a counterpoint to the (nevertheless valid) comments out here,
| I'd personally like a product that offers "stories" and other
| social-media-like features that's privacy respecting and not
| based on advertising and stealing personal information.
|
| Should it be in Signal itself? Maybe not. But I'd love a Snapchat
| equivalent (or similar social media product) from the makers of
| Signal that doesn't stalk its users.
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(page generated 2022-10-15 23:01 UTC)