this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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Privacy
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Oh, and I also heard something about signal I think, could anyone explain the situation and if it's bad suggest alternstives?
Tuta, Mullvad and SimpleX. Done. Replaces Proton Mail, Proton VPN and Signal.
yeah, Signal is a tricky one for me. I used to use it for a long time, but never felt really safe and comfortable with the whole thing. I'm not entirely sure why, perhaps because the features did not match the money it would take to build something like they have. Naturally people called this a honeypot from a government - but the app in opensource and auditable, right? Signal still doesn't feel right to me, here is the only stories I know beyond my own feelings that make it sus:
However if you don't feel the same way and still want to use Signal with some extra peace of mind, there is always the Signal fork "Molly" I moved to Session, which has lots it funding RIP and will be closing down soon. For now, I'm using Element and it's going great so far.
Am I right in understanding that if you move to Session, Element, SimpleX etc., you can still only message people on those particular apps? So if you (say) move to Session and only 5 of your 300 contacts are on it, you can only message those 5 people and have to use WhatsApp for the other 295, because let's face it, they are probably on that?
I ask because I see so many people say "I moved to X app", but surely it's more complicated than that if the critical mass are still on the likes of WhatsApp?
It can't be as simple as just moving to another app, surely?
I think I am understanding you, yes, you can only message those who have moved or download those apps to speak with you.
For me, it was that simple. In my situation, I asked my friends at the time to download Signal -- they didnt even want to download that. Only the closest to me ended up doing that. It turns out I am no longer friends with anyone who wasn't using whatever I was using, so I have no need to go back to that. I never will even if I am asked. I'd rather even email lol.
So, anways I'm not saying necessarily there is any correlation between a true friend and someone who does not move apps with you. But I am also not not saying that.
Lol, what I'm hearing is that unless all my family and friends move to a better messaging app, they are dead to me.
Seems legit.
Edit: How many livers have you stolen?
Ya I see this advice often. "If they do that change apps then just stop talking to them". They don't even realize they sound like the crazy one constantly asking people to change apps.
I use Signal the most simply because that's the app I can get most people to actually install that is the safest. And I still have friends that refuse to use it and will only message me on Discord. I'm not going to drop my friends simply because I care about privacy and they don't.
Signal is just an E2EE message service. It's a good protocol, but you won't find VPN/email/whatever else that you may be expecting with Proton.
The only real argument that I've heard for not using Signal is that they're based in the US, but their protocol remains secure from government requests at any rate.
They do require you to sign up with at least one device that has a cellular ID.
There are four people in my family and only three phones. My wife, my one kid and I use signal religiously. When the youngest became of age to be able to handle typing and reading, we decided we would add him on. First I tried using his tablet to create the account. It straight up didn't work. I started screwing around with it and eventually loaded up my Google Voice account over there. I could get it SMS me once. But the account kept stopping. So I flipped it back over to my real phone and tried to sign him up from that with my Google Voice account. It kept commingling his account in my account together. Turns out underneath the sheets it's using the digital ID of my cell phone, whenever I would flip back to my account, his account would eventually stop working.
At some point we got him a cellular watch and I was able to use the SMS on that to make the account and it was fine.
I'd like to think they're only using that to make sure people don't make unlimited multiple spam accounts, but requiring a cellular IMEI like number to make a signal account is kind of extra creepy.