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Comment by bun_terminator | Hacker News Reader

Signal is such a tragic story. They had it all during the great uprising against Whatsapp. Even my non-technical friends started switching to Signal. They were exploding, more than Telegram ever was. And then they added some crypto bs right at the height of their hype. Bummer, no second chances from me, and removed from all those friends phones as a direct effect. They blew it

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Also, they removed SMS support way too soon. That it was also a good SMS app was one of their main appeal.

I used Signal as my primary SMS app until that capability was stripped. It meant that so many of my conversations were Signal-by-default. But now, by attrition, most my conversations are back in SMS. I also find that simple things like programming the date and time of delivery - which Google Messages has - don't exist in Signal. (Or if they do, I have missed it because I'm no longer there unless I have to.

I have SMS, Whatsapp, Signal, and Threema installed, and it's a hot mess of disparate networks. I hate it.

> programming the date and time of delivery

Long-press the send button.

We probably live in a different part of the world, but where I live no one who is not very techy knows about Signal, it was never close to Telegram or Whatsapp.

Germany. Lots of privacy-focused minds. It became a bit of a topic during that crucial time when Whatsapp had some kind of scandal going on. I don't even remember the details. It was a chance of a lifetime for them. Well, in the end these apps are really all the same. I don't mind any of them really

That _is_ a tragic story!

Thankfully, your experience is not universal. It's still the primary means of communication between me and the majority of my friends, technical and non-technical alike. I believe they've walked back (or, at least, not committed to) that crypto project - at least, I haven't heard anything about it in so long that I barely remembered what you were referring to.

I'm skeptical of crypto too, but this sounds like an over-reaction that is cutting off your own nose to spite your face.

I mean it's an incredibly over-saturated market. There are so many of these apps, they're all the same. There's little room for such errors IMO. But I'm willing to accept that it might have been an overreaction

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