• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    310 months ago

    I don’t understand the hype; how many people are chatting with people they don’t know on Signal?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      410 months ago

      With usernames now it would be a better option. Before you had to share your phone number and hence your name

      • Miss Brainfarts
        link
        fedilink
        English
        210 months ago

        You’d still share your name, no? As far as I understand it, these usernames only serve to get in contact, nothing more

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          2
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          You’d share a username, which is way different if you ask me. I don’t mind sharing my username, Kusimulkku, here but I wouldn’t want to share my phone number and real name.

          If you use the username to get into contact then your phone number isn’t visible to them iirc. Same other way around, your username isn’t visible to people you’ve got into contact with a phone number. So no need to worry about your phone number leaking or your friends and family seeing that you also go by “MonsterCock2000” or something.

          • Miss Brainfarts
            link
            fedilink
            English
            310 months ago

            What I mean is that the username only serves to connect two users. But the profile they then see of each other is their standard Signal profile, with whatever name and other info it contains.

            At least that’s how I understood their blog post

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              210 months ago

              I think that might be true, but you could just have your first name as your name or something less private than full name + phone number etc.

    • @something_random_tho
      link
      English
      210 months ago

      For me it can replace DMs everywhere. Put your username in your profile and get actually secure DMs.

      • Extras
        link
        fedilink
        English
        2
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        But wouldn’t that just put you at risk of spam and other malicious messages?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          010 months ago

          In addition to what the other user said, usernames are both optional and easy to change in order to prevent spammers from finding you. Plus, they can only make so many accounts themselves, with the phone number limitation in tow.

        • @something_random_tho
          link
          English
          010 months ago

          Don’t accept the message/block them? Same as any other DM system. Or just change your username.

      • mac
        link
        fedilink
        English
        110 months ago

        Wasn’t this what Matrix was for?

        • @something_random_tho
          link
          English
          8
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          Matrix isn’t private at all. All metadata is shared+stored by both your server and mine (no sealed sender). Encryption is worse (no double-ratchet) and there’s no guarantee of encryption at all (some clients don’t even offer it). It’s also a lot harder to get set up and IMO the clients are much worse.

          • mac
            link
            fedilink
            English
            110 months ago

            Well then. This is useful information.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      210 months ago

      That was exactly my first thought. Might be something for various underground groups, but the normal use case seems to be just regular communication among friends & family.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      110 months ago

      I’m going to put a UN or QR code on my website for another form of tech support. (Think of WhatsApp numbers)