NdMAND's comments

Single-handedly, Firefox (independently from how crappy it can be at times) is what is keeping me on Android. Its full extension support (i.e.: uBlock Origin support) is something that I can't really do without. I do wonder if the crowd here knows of other good alternatives though - specifically, Android and/or iOS browsers with "full" uBlock Origin support (no uBlock origin lite, no other blocker, ...). I would love to be made aware of a few alternatives. I am aware that there is a browser from Kagi that works on iOS (I think?) but it's still in beta and closed sourced so not ready for prime time on my device. I am also aware of some peers of Firefox like Waterfox.

I'd be careful with that - in the past there were no "mega-chicken-factories" that you'd find nowadays. So you can't quite compare spread of viruses in chicken today with the last "thousands of years" without very large asterisks

Edit: stetrain phrased it better :)

I think the idea is that Telegram servers are encrypted with keys that Telegram itself has access to (just distributed to different countries) - as opposed to e2e encryption.

Yes and no.

[1] Signal is working to support an encrypted "cloud backup feature" (some hints on this are on their code base), as per "sync" that's already done in the forward direction by Signal (by sending all new messages to all your devices) I'm sure you could provide some sort of backward sync as well. [3] Signal already supports groups up to 1000 people iirc, I'm sure a read-only channel larger than that could also be doable. [4] I'm not sure why that would not be possible.

I'm not sure exactly what [2] refers too but nevertheless I have some doubts that would cause a blocker.

I used Signal as an example since it's a well known encrypted messenger; although I must acknowledge it's not really a Telegram competitor and vice versa (one is a secure messenger and the other is a social media app).

That said, (proper) E2E encryption makes everything harder to do - again, you can take Signal as example and their development speed. But, I'd argue, is not impossible

To be fair - their hand was forced by the EU to do that. They were not forced for VR headsets and they came out with 3-4 new type of connectors for this. So I think the parent comment was fair

> Let's not conflate "normalized" with "standard".

Good point - I agree, should have phrased better.

> We already have a discovery feature in Signal

Another point I should have been more clear. I agree that contact discovery is ... well, discovery! I think what I meant is that right now you can only discover folks you already know (i.e.: have the number for) but you don't get recommendations.

So yeah... I'd say that one of the major points distinguishing Signal from a Social Media (at least one of the definitions of) is the lack of recommendations of new people to follow or things to discover. Signal in that sense is a communication platform.

[note I mean Signal the app not the company]

> bikeshedding

You mean if Signal is or isn't a Social media? Or it's run by the feds?

I mean I replied to the above company with a serious comment but I thought the original one was not particularly useful to any discussion around Stories per se.

Why did we remove SMS (step 1 into "only criminals use this app") and then start adding stuff that has absolutely nothing at all to do with messaging?

I think that "only criminals use this app" is always going to be used on anything that uses encryption by folks that are against encryption (usually governments for some reasons...). SMS or not is always going to be there. I don't think that having secure communication apps intentionally offer insecure communication is the right way to solve this. SMS was a legacy feature for Signal that just got removed now.

> adding stuff that has absolutely nothing at all to do with messaging?

Stories?

> Did a federal agent start running the show with the sole mission of destroying the entire app?

I just replied to another similar comment, not sure if it's the same person or not... but then I'd say...

Use Telegram! It's unencrypted by default! Use WhatsApp - unfortunately encrypted by default, but at least Meta will collect so much more metadata than you can keep track for. Use iMessage - It will upload your encrypted chat and the decryption key to Apple servers for you.

My point saying "it's the feds running it" without proof like that is not the most constructive conversation - Signal is by all accounts one of the most secure and private (not necessarily the same as anonymous) messaging apps out there with no clear competitors at the same level of privacy and security.

> So did Moxie leave because Signal got overtaken by Feds?

No, he worked on Signal for so long that he probably just wanted to take a break to work on other passions too - he's still on the Signal Foundation board (https://signalfoundation.org/)

> Why is a secure messenger adopting the appearance of social media?

I'd argue that Stories (or equivalent) is nowadays a standard feature in many messengers. To more directly answer your question no - Signal is missing a key aspect of Social Media: discovery. Stories is pretty much equivalent to share a picture to a group of people. You can also easily disable the feature in settings.

> Doesn't this work explicitly against the entire claimed reason for not having an account system?

I'm not sure specifically to what you refer to but in general: phone numbers is still the primary way to find new folks, but they're working on a username feature. They will still use phone numbers for simplicity as "account" but again, Stories is simply a new interface to share pictures with your contacts.

I believe they are encrypted (and decrypted on device by the Signal app). They recently had to do some rewriting of the code for iOS15 - they share some comments about that here: https://community.signalusers.org/t/beta-feedback-for-the-up... Hope it helps

Edit: wow people were fast to reply…