Signal To Roll Out Snapchat-like "Stories" Feature

Encrypted messaging app Signal will soon have an ephemeral "stories" feature, with video, pictures or text that disappear after 24 hours. From a report: Signal, often used by journalists, activists and privacy minded individuals, plans to roll out the feature on Monday, the nonprofit's president Meredith Whittaker told Axios at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal Thursday. Signal has been beta-testing the feature since last month.

User updates that last on profiles for 24 hours, often called "stories," are something popularized by Snapchat and Instagram, both companies with targeted advertising based business models who also monetize the feature, something Signal is vehemently opposed to. "The short answer is that people want [stories]," Whittaker told Axios in an exclusive interview when asked why the privacy-focused app is rolling out such a feature.

Spare the notifications, please.

[bill_mcgonigle]

Ever since groups rolled out big I can't tell if anyone has sent me a Signal message because the groups I'm in are busy so there is always a notification icon on Signal.

I really hope people updating their stories doesn't add to this.

They really need a Groups tab at least.

Re:

[kwalker]

Without knowing what platform you're on, I can say that at least on Android, you can mute individual chats (Including groups) so you can keep them from overwhelming your notifications. For me personally, I care more about 1-to-1 chats and less about groups, so those get muted and I check them when I feel like it.

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[NicknameUnavailable]

One-way groups would be nice. Personally, I like sending the same message to 5-20 people on my contact list when bored and taking in the diversity of opinions. This would be a much easier workflow if I could just create a group to put them all in wherein they can't see one another, like a 1-way mailing list, then having messages posted to it replicated in DMs for each person to handle replies. So I guess more a signal-based mailing list than a group, but with the mailing list going to a bunch of individu

Signal bloat

[VicVegas]

Hopefully it can be disabled.

No

[kwelch007]

I have no use for this.

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[AmiMoJo]

This is why I don't recommend Signal to anyone. It's too bloated, too many attack surfaces. Because Signal Inc. doesn't allow federation, you have to use their crapware client.

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[kwalker]

Then what do you recommend?

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[AmiMoJo]

It depends on your needs. For the paranoid there is Cwtch, for general chat with friends there is Session.

I would say Session is probably as close to ideal as you can get, given that it uses a decentralized network of servers, end-to-end encryption, and supports most of the common features. No video chat though.

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[kwalker]

My needs are "Something like Signal". Something that I can use across desktop and phone, something I can get my family and friends to use. I've already got chat systems (XMPP, Nextcloud Talk, etc) including audio/video chat, file attachments, etc, that work great but no one uses them.

The only way I was able to get anyone to use Signal in the first place was that it could replace their (factory) messaging app.

Thanks for the recommendations though. I'll look into them.

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[aRTeeNLCH]

For me it's the same, I need something that I can recommend friends and family, so it's WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram. I chose Signal. Still think it's the best of those three.

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[garett_spencley]

As sad as this is, I'm going to HAVE to ditch Signal because they are dropping SMS.

I don't want to use SMS, but I don't have a choice when my close family and friends won't install Signal. And as hard a time as I had convincing them to use Signal int he past, it's now going to be 1,000 x more impossible to get them to install it because then they would have to have 2 messenger apps installed: one to talk to Dad and the other to talk to literally everyone else who doesn't have Signal.

Right now there is my wi

Re:

[aRTeeNLCH]

I find that strange, although not unheard of, but most people use a plethora of apps, and when it comes to messaging, SMS isn't done properly unless by a dedicated SMS app (QKSMS for me) and even then it's not perfect, and one just replies to whatever message one gets. Most people I know have several out of the list of standard SMS phone app, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal...

Aliases over Stories, any day.

[ChrisKnight]

> "The short answer is that people want [stories]," Whittaker told Axios

Yeah, nah. I'd much rather have a username/handle/alias that I can give someone to reach me on Signal. My one gripe is that I have to expose my real phone number to someone to be even able to use Signal to communicate with them. Can we get that before they start wasting engineering effort cloning fad features?

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[slaker]

Only maybe a dozen people have my actual cell number and I don't give it out to commercial entities of any sort. I even have SMS and voicemail blocked on my cell number.

I registered for Signal using a VOIP line registered to one of my customers. There's no requirement that the number you give them is your own.

I don't need Signal and I don't think I've ever sent a message through it, but I just checked and my account is still active.

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[Ksevio]

They used to restrict VOIP numbers but it appears that's changed recently

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[NicknameUnavailable]

That's a pretty horrible idea. Handles mean increased spam and the platform devolving into literally-snapchat, flooded with e-thots.

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[ChrisKnight]

How is having a handle, or perhaps a uuid, more likely to result in increased spam? You'd still need to share it with someone so they could contact you.

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[NicknameUnavailable]

It's turning a fundamental protocol into an app. Though from what I recall signal is already dying so yolo I guess (the other month they said they were unwinding SMS support entirely, which basically invalidates the utility of the app for most of the userbase - especially for the non-nerds the security nerds got to join who still have a bunch of SMS-users to speak to because they barely converted, which will cascade into total erosion of the platform - they should have gone the opposite direction of adding

Why?

[bradley13]

Have a simple app that does what it's supposed to? I know! Let's (a) remove an important feature used by lots of users (SMS with non-signal users) and (b) add something no one asked for!

Why? What's wrong with just keeping a stable and proven feature set. Why do they feel the need to compete with apps like Snapchat?

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[Luke has no name]

Alternate take: Let's remove a feature that allows non-secure messaging to occur through the app we market as secure, and add a feature that might draw in more casual users who would also benefit from the privacy the service offers.

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[slaker]

I'm pretty sure the grandparent poster's point of view is a more realistic take on things. SMS sucks but almost everyone in the USA (except me) uses them.

Realtime chat is a cesspool. Your options are the zero-standard of SMS/RCS/imessage, a bunch of bullshit owned by Meta or sketchy Russian guys or else Signal, the app that's been adopted by tens of people.

You know what works? Email. In the era of smartphones and 5G networks, it's just as realtime and doesn't have the issue of vendor lock-in.

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[kwalker]

Yeah, how well does this work with your younger/older family members? You know, the ones who have full voicemail boxes because they never check them. The ones who can't be bothered to check their e-mail because they're constantly on Discord or Messenger, or are planted in front of the TV.

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[slaker]

I'm the youngest person in my family. I disabled SMS and my voicemail box at the carrier level because I don't believe anyone should have my cell number unless I specifically give it to them.

A small number of people and commercial entities are given a google voice number they can SMS. I receive their messages as email.

I can filter email and use it for IFTTT triggers. It works in a way that a lot of other tools do not.

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[MeNeXT]

Sure lets make the app less relevant as a communication medium in order to meet some peoples vanity. I don't see why you would need to securely publish a public message. I don't get your alternate take.

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[GuB-42]

I use Signal because it is a decent SMS app, with the added bonus that if the other person has Signal, we have e2e encryption.

If they remove SMS, as they intend to do, I will uninstall Signal. No real need for it anymore. All of the people I care about can be contacted by other means (SMS, WhatsApp, ...) and I don't want to bloat my phone with countless messenger apps. I have done away with FB Messenger, Line and Skype because they are not necessary to reach the people I want to reach anymore, I will do awa

Back to the old drawing board then

[korgitser]

I hope they will roll out the "not going to drop SMS" feature. Having ten different messaging apps on the phone is a real bummer. Signal has been great for helping to keep the clutter in check a bit, while providing opportunistic encryption for those contacts that can be arsed with installing it. I will go out on a limb here and say that this opportunistic encryption is what has been Signal's killer feature, and the leaders of Signal are going to misunderstand that for their own peril.

I am seriously considering dropping Signal if they will go through with dropping SMS. I am fed up with the proliferation of messaging apps on my phone.

TFA is a signal to me that Signal has been infested with the MBA plague and is being led to chase some asshat's pipe dreams of being Zuck or something. This is why we can't have nice things. Every time there's a nice thing, someone gets the genius idea of turning it into a cheap knockoff of something else, losing first mind share and then market share, and ending up in the graveyard of what once was. How about "if it works, don't mess with it"? Is that really so difficult of a market strategy to ask for? Do we really have to ruin everything that is actually good for something?

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[MeNeXT]

I started telling people if they need to get a hold of me either email or call me. Messaging is too fragmented and getting worse.

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[kwalker]

I'm right there with you. The loss of SMS is going to render Signal irrelevant. WhatsApp already does most of what Signal does and has a much larger network. My wife has been complaining about it constantly since the last update popped up that message at the bottom of SMS chats. I can't even get my paranoid father to use Signal exclusively. I've been trying for years to get my whole family onto Signal but still half of them can't be bothered. According to Signal's own (in-app) stats, I'm less than 50% encry

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[slaker]

WhatsApp should be out of the running because it is a Facebook property. Nothing owned by Facebook belongs in any discussion of technology standards.

RCS is a pick-your-poison deal because, while it is an open spec, carriers were able to choose how they implemented it and it basically didn't work until Google took over the implementation in ~2018. No, thank you.

iMessage is never going to be anything like an open system and also doesn't deserve a seat at the table.

Guess what is essentially real time in 98% o

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[kwalker]

I don't disagree with most of what you've outlined above. I try to avoid Meta properties, and I'm not at all comfortable with how much Google tries to pry into my life and I've taken serious steps in getting away from them (And I'll never forgive them for breaking GTalk federation). As for iMessage, I don't have any Apple hardware anymore, so I don't use it (But let me tell you, seeing messages like '$so_and_so liked "$your_last_message"' get irritating quickly).

But let me ask you a question, if you don't m

Re:

[slaker]

I have a central mailbox at home that collects messages from a bunch of different places. I'm a Google Workspace administrator for around 40 domains and I've collected accounts from a number of others over time. Everything still winds up in the same place, which is a system in my home that I control. I have forwards set up to ship all my email around as I need it and to interact with IFTTT if need be. It actually works pretty well; The modest amount of communication I'd prefer not get scraped by Google just

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[aRTeeNLCH]

I don't get this, most or all other messenger apps don't have SMS, but if Signal drops it to be on par, you're dropping Signal?

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[korgitser]

What's there not to get? I already have other messaging apps. Not because I choose to, but because I have to. These people are on WhatsApp, I need to talk to them, so I have WhatsApp. These people are on Skype, I need to talk to them, so I have Skype. And so on. Comparing features is pointless here, the only thing that matters is network effect.

Signal is not a competitor to the other messaging apps. Nobody is on Signal like they are on Whatsapp or Skype. Signal does not have network effect. Everybody I know

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[aRTeeNLCH]

Thanks for your answer. To clarify, I don't know anyone who uses Signal for SMS, perhaps because SMS are only free with subscriptions, and many people I know are using prepaid SIM cards. On top of that, sending an SMS abroad can be expensive, even when you have a subscription package. I got quoted USD 0.60 a week ago when I briefly crossed the border... So everyone I know who has Signal uses it because they want to get away from other messaging networks. Now do you see that with that in mind, your situation

Signal is Sketch

[neonman]

As a non-federated system, the fact that it is "open source" is almost meaningless. Creator Matthew Rosenfeld (AKA "Moxie Marlinespike") has frequently argued in favor of centralized systems to enable faster iteration, conveniently ignoring the fact that they also centralize power and are antithetical to the principles upon which the Internet was built. The MobileCoin fiasco should have eliminated any doubts about his conflicts of interest.

Got this a few days ado

[trawg]

They shoved it into the interface in a very ugly way, taking up almost 25% of the bottom of the screen with two buttons that just flipped between Stories & Messages.

At first I thought this was just insane designer trash but I think it was just a slightly ham-fisted way to surface this new feature in front of users - after a couple days they updated it again to remove it.

Not sure I'll use it - the sorts of people I'm connected to that would be interested in Stories are all in Whatsapp, and they don't use

Ah, Stories

[dohzer]

Stories; the reason I left Snapchat. Similar to when Facebook added basically any feature other than posting pics and messaging friends.

Sounds useless, but have at it

[ChoGGi]

I already switched away from Signal now that there's no SMS.

I don't want stories.

[nothinginparticular]

Add that vote to your tally