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pelario | 3 years ago

Seems global outage: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/25/whatsapp-is-down-globally.ht...

Each time this happens I try to recruit more people to use Signal.

discuss

order

sschueller|3 years ago

How is Signal any better? US based, centralized, hostile towards alternate clients. Not much better IMO.

Heikete|3 years ago

Actually very nice to integrate with. I'm not using Google or Apple in my life. On the phone I'm using sailfish OS, so the main stream apps are not usually ported natively. Fortunately someone used libsignal and added frontend so signal is my main means of communication with friends. And I still don't have to drown into Google or FB services.

palata|3 years ago

Much better in that it is open source (so you can audit the e2ee), and it does a lot about metadata. It is actually better at protecting metadata than many decentralized alternatives.

Nobody said it was perfect. It's just better.

RNAlfons|3 years ago

I'd say it's a lot better since it doesn't do unknown things with your address book. It actually doesn't do any unknown things and the fact that they're US based is irrelevant since they have nothing to give away thanks to E2EE.

arcanemachiner|3 years ago

Is this not just another centralized point of failure?

berkes|3 years ago

I'm presuming GP does not put Signal forward as a solution to outages. But instead uses the opportunity to talk about messengers and show that there are alternatives in general.

At least, that is what I do.

zhte415|3 years ago

Call me old fashioned. I email.

palata|3 years ago

Why not IRC? That's old fashion, and amazing :)

the_duke|3 years ago

Signal is just another centralised architecture.

You should recruit people to Matrix , which supports Federation.

theelous3|3 years ago

Yep. I host my own server and have it federated. That part was simple.

It was a struggle to get my core group of friends to sign up, and I just sort of haven't bothered trying to get anyone outside that group to try it. They are not technical people in the hn sense but are vastly more competent than the average joe.

It's the normies at large who dictate comms platforms really. Things like matching emoji support and easy + performant video and picture sharing are absolutely crucial.