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Comment by all_blue_chucks | Hacker News Reader

Unless Signal's usability matches what the average user expects, nobody will use it, and it will therefore fail at being able to be secure and private.

It takes two parties to install it for it to be beneficial, and so far those I've asked to use it have uninstalled it because of usability.

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The only people I know complaining about "usability" are very young. People missing custom stickers and stuff like that.

Otherwise I didn't hear about any relevant issues with general users I got to use it.

What usability issues did those you ask have?

I'm guessing you haven't used Telegram, since you believe that only those who miss custom stickers complain about usability on Signal. You should try Telegram for a few months and compare it with Signal. The difference is night and day, especially once you get used to using not exposing your phone number to random people, fast and reliable message delivery, using multiple devices and platforms (including a web browser) with synced conversations, editing messages, using bots for different purposes, etc.

I do have used telegram. It's unfortunately the only way to get in touch with my local openstreetmap community. I didn't see anything there I would miss on my Signal app. I also don't see the phone number thing being an issue as the people I communicate with on Signal do already have my phone number. I also have the Signal Desktop program on my PC. Nothing to be desired there too. Works flawless. Haven't seen a single bot doing something I'd require from an app I use to communicate. What bots would you miss in Signal?

I brought up the stickers issue because this is what I heard in complaints before.

I mean, I'm 33 so being considered "young" is a matter of perspective I suppose.

I don't really care about stickers, but I do care about being able to back up my conversations, being able to use any device I have at hand, and being able to do so with Siri voice activation if I'm driving.

No need to take this personally. I just said what I heard from the people I know and who complained. The rest did not as most of them use Whatsapp and there is nothing they miss in Signal. So saying "Unless Signal's usability matches what the average user expects, nobody will use it" is a matter of perspective I suppose.

btw It looks like the backup problem is something you should blame Apple for https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/905. It works flawlessly on Android. As for your Siri issue, I wouldn't say it's something "the average user expects". I don't know anybody doing what you wanted to do there.

I use it.

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