Finally
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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Now if they'd just let me run the damned client on more than one device so I can reply to messages from my tablet.
I'm running it on phone, tab (long ago), and desktop... What do you mean?
Maybe they mean how the messages don't sync between devices
Ah, I thought that was by design.
But they do sync. They just don't keep messaging history, which is, as you say, by design. Signal doesn't keep copies of your messages so they cannot give you old message history if you connect your account to a new device.
That's true, but once you trust a new device, there's no reason the authority (your phone that has all history) couldn't transfer the history over to the new client.
I get it would add some complexity, but it could be done in a secure and private way.
I feel like that is also by design. If your account is compromised, you wouldn't want them to be able to pull messages from your existing devices. It kinda defeats the purpose of them not being stored on the servers.
They could just make it opt-in, no?
"New device X has logged in to your account. Do you want to transfer existing history on this device to it?"
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They could sync those between devices on the same network. It’s definitely possible to have both.
Yup, exactly. I switch between phone and tablet during the day and signal is the only messaging client that makes me stop what I'm doing and pick up an entirely separate device to check messages and reply. A bunch of my friends ended up on telegram or matrix because the usage model just doesn't work for people who use multiple android or iOS devices.
Probably mean run it on more than one phone. I'd love to run it on my iPhone and my android phone but it can't be run without a phone number on a phone afaik
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Take a look at Molly for your tablet!
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Still sucks you will need a phone number to use it though. Hopefully they adopt meshnet type technology similar to https://berty.tech so people can communicate even when the internet is shut off across all platforms with end to end encryption
Another day, another chat service.
Berty looks cool but is it just forming a BLE mesh or an I misunderstanding?
What is this stupid website. Cant open it because they have banned my IP. Why the fuck do they ban MullvadVPN servers?
Some malicious users do use VPNs to send spams and many websites automatically bans these IPs. Normally switching to a different VPN server will resolve the issue.
Banned on my VPN, too, good to know I shouldn’t be aggravated at my service.
Surprisingly it's fine on Tor.
Tor probably can’t carry enough traffic to concern them
Try a different server. I've never had any issues accessing bleepingcomputer with Mullvad.
Why are phone numbers a requirement anyway
People are putting too much thought into this. It's discovery. Signal is a WhatsApp alternative. You switch from WhatsApp and want to know which of your contacts you can still talk to? No action necessary, you can do it right away.
Simple as.
Try doing that without a phone number.
I guess that's true, but I'd prefer the phone number part being optional. If you don't give it, you don't get access to the easy migration or discovery features, but you get to hide your phone number.
Edit: It's not that I don't trust them, either.
To validate that a user is a person. The idea is to trust the phone companies that a person who happens to possess a phone number is actually a person.
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I never said it was a good solution. There is no way to trust any validation that a user on the Internet is a person. But this way is cheap easy and most people aren't gonna go through the effort of masking their identities.
Also one discrepancy in an audit of a phone number trusted user base sticks out enough for cops to make some progress.
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omg i’m so excited for this
c'mon Signal, gimme that apk & I give you some logs in return, don't make it hard on me
They want you to do just that: https://community.signalusers.org/t/public-username-testing-staging-environment/56866 That link has instructions on how to sign up.
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Download and installed but it still insists on a phone number. I don't see a way to bypass.
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