For some people (e.g. journalists) this is exactly what they need, because forgetting to set disappearing before sending a message could be problematic, and I'm glad they added this feature for that use case.
It is also still missing a key point we've been asking for for awhile, message archival. That's the big thing keeping me from using disappearing messages, because I don't want to take a screenshot anytime anything important is said. That's a terrible way to search for messages. With an arbitrary delete function (only limit I see is Signal's servers don't accept delete commands after 24hrs) you can have consent from the other party about archiving messages while disappearing messages is on. This provides a tremendous amount of utility.
I used to defend Signal a lot here. But with a lot of decisions they've made in the last year they seem to be just another company that "knows better" than the user. We don't need another tech company that's disconnected from users and makes changes just to make them[0]. (Beyond that, Signal isn't large enough to make people stick around when dumb decisions are made) I think this is a fine stance to take when it comes to the security portion --there are fairly objective "best practices" here-- but not for UI/UX and privacy functions. But with the latter there's a lot of subjective preferences and needs by different people and groups. Signal, you do not need to be and look like WhatsApp. Just be Signal. The progress has been very slow, new features come with footguns, and there is a lack of communication. They only seem to take communication from their community forums which has an extreme echo chamber and is the textbook example of "we know better than you" mentality. It's very frustrating and it's caused me to stop recommending Signal to people (my friends did the same for similar reasons). I just will not understand why when given the chance to continue to grow Signal decided to shoot themselves in the foot.
Boy does this hit close to home, whenever I think of Firefox and its accelerating decline.
Yeah, that's my read too.
The article's title is confusing and should be changed. I was worried they were going to change the defaults on me, and I was going to have to rush in and reset things.
But that is exactly what the default should be and what's needed to thwart large-scale blanket surveillance of the whole population.
If the mere fact that ephemeral messages are enabled raises a flag, that kind of defeats (part of) the purpose.
While I haven't had my devices seized, two acquaintances had their device seized for an investigation. They were just on the wrong place at the wrong time.
This meant that months and months of our chats were potentially read by a third party.
Yes, the messages are only on your phone; Signal doesn't have them.