> It has never been possible to send an unencrypted message on Signal.
Irrelevant nitpick, but hold down on the send button and select "Insecure SMS"
Irrelevant nitpick, but hold down on the send button and select "Insecure SMS"
It isn't persistent. Signal always defaults to secure messaging, which caused me regular headaches when I used it. More than a few people I knew installed Signal, used it briefly (or not at all), and went back to sms. Signal would always default to sending securely, and I'd always send these people a message that they'd never see, because they were no longer using Signal.
After some time I'd realize they didn't get it and would have to resend as an insecure sms. Missed more than a few time-critical communications because of that.
I really, really wish they'd made it a per-contact default I could have set.
Presumably (I don't have one) iPhones lack this feature as Signal can't replace Apple's messaging app inside the Walled Garden.
Your iPhone doesn't let anybody do that, just like it doesn't let Mozilla provide a different web browser and so on. This has upsides and downsides for security which I'm sure you've already thought about, for me it's a good reason not to own an iPhone, but the rationale for the opposite decision is sound.