They already lost users in authoritarian countries like Russia or China, where Signal is blocked and you can't get an SMS via a VPN, so registration or logging in with 2FA becomes impossible.
this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2026
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My biggest issue with Signal is that it doesn’t reliably work. I’ll message back and forth with a friend on there and then receive a text message a week later asking why I’m not responding on Signal. And it’s because I didn’t receive the messages.
That's really weird. I use it for my out-of-band chat for work since we all mute our Teams after hours. It's been reliable the entire 3 years we've been using it. Maybe I'm just really lucky?
Do you have google play services installed? If not, your power optimisation settings might prevent signal from running in the background, which it needs to to receive messages
Works on my machine. :P
Never had that myself. My family and i have been using it exclusively for years now.the only tine we fallback is when someone is in an area without data or wifi. Maybe once a year.
Ive had this issue as well. I find it happens when i leave my wifi and go to cell signal. Not sure if its the same for you. I dont think ive had it be almost a week later but its been a few hours or maybe a day
I'll be happy if it happens but I need to see it. It would be significant to use Signal without phone number but one option they are considering to combat scam is to use bank card payment... Signal's issue still remains the centralisaion
It would be good if true, for a privacy first chat, asking for your phone number is the first and biggest red flag.
Someone knows how Delta Chat handles the spam problem? Or spam is only a problem that comes with wider adoption?
Headline:
Signal is working on registration without a phone number. But what form will it take?
30 July 2026 10:30 CEST
Signal is working on a way to optionally sign up without a phone number. The feature has not yet been officially confirmed, and it is not yet known whether it will be available to all users or in what form.
Thank you!
Haven’t they been working on this for months? I could have sworn I heard of this well over a year ago.
I've always said it. Best form to prevent spam is to have allow list as a default. You should only be able to receive messages from pre-approved people.
I have allow listed my email for ages and it's great.
But obviously advertisers and business hate it because then they need your true consent to send you shit.
And in the case of Telegram, if they did that why would anyone sign up for their premium account?
I tried using Telegram and the amount of spam I would receive was annoying, but what was even more annoying was finding out that the 'Restrict messages from users not in your contacts' setting is paywalled. Telegram profits off of the spammers on their network.
Just a FYI, the nomenclature has moved to block/allow lists.
I had no idea. Makes sense. Thanks for saying.
Yeah, I had it pointed out to me last year.
They say they need to figure out how to counter/avoid spam/abuse first. And that makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, just look at Telegram (which is ironically going the opposite route nowadays).
Telegram requires a phone number, last I checked, and Desktop needs to be signed in to from mobile. So the same as Signal for "Abuse Prevention" (TM)
And it's only good for connecting to bot networks to deliver... Questionable content.
Most of my torrents ceom from Telegram bots, now that sites keep getting taken down who hosted them.
As to actually using it?
Well, the only contacts I have are pirate bots, and that will never change.
Still more than I have on Signal, though ;)
I don't believe Telegram desktop needed a mobile connection before and I used it for years and didn't use a mobile client. I mostly used it as a bridge client for IRC and Matrix as the client itself was superior if you didn't need privacy or encryption.
And yet I get tons of spam on telegram, and the only way to prevent it is to subscribe to Telegram Premium
Telegram requires a phone number, last I checked
(which is ironically going the opposite route nowadays)
Well, I was worried about losing contact with the bots when I cancel my phone service, but maybe I won't have to ;)
You can keep your number when switching networks.
This is the main reason I don't use Signal, so depending on if and how it gets implemented, I may finally use it. Getting other people on board will be its own fight of course.
Ten years too late.
This could have had a far greater impact when whatsapp exodus or controversy happend in 2021. I bet they have reached a stall in the number of new accounts and donations are drying out.
I have also read rumors about them thinking about tying this to a one time payment to prevent bot registration
Another W for Signal
Considering I've been sending everyone to Session instead, since I refuse to put a phone number linked to my name, address, and payment information in to a "privacy focused" messenger...
Will this allow people to install it on multiple devices? Right now I can't have it on my phone AND tablet and it sucks...
I’m on beta (testflight) on IOS and the latest version now allows adding a second phone. But I think previously you could already link an iPad or a laptop.
Not my experience:
- Signal (Android) on my phone
- alternative client (SfOS) on the same phone
- Signal desktop on my Linux laptop
All work with the same number/registration, i.e. they're in sync.
While I don't use it because of privacy concerns over the number I have it installed, and configured to recieve messages from people who insit on it.
I have it on my phone, and linked to Desktop via the native Linux port, but if I log in to my table it logs me out of my phone.
Then you probably registered your tablet to the phone number instead of setting it up as a secondary device.
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We had an encrypted chat for a bit before I realized it was completely pointless with literally everyone in it but one or two having entirely stock phones with in-built Ai and tracking mechanisms. We used XMPP.
Since it was for a Jellyfin server, it basically meant anyone on an unmodified Google or Apple phone was basically a door to a seach of that data from either company for the text logged into each chatroom by each user, and displayed. Unless everyone is secure, no one is.
I have no idea if this is true or not. But I heard the government has an app called “Pegasus 2”that can read all of your signal messages as long as they know your phone number.
If your phone has been compromised, nothing is safe. That’s not a signal problem.
Throw the phone away and get another one.
You can never be sure if your phone has been compromised or not…. Hell, after the patriot act, how can you feel safe?
Like I said, that has nothing to do with signal or how secure it is.
While the capabilities of Pegasus may vary over time due to software updates, Pegasus is generally capable of reading text messages, call snooping, collecting passwords, location tracking, accessing the target device's microphone and camera, and harvesting information from apps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_%28spyware%29
Once installed, Pegasus has been reported to be able to run arbitrary code, extract contacts, call logs, messages, photos, web browsing history, settings, as well as gather information from apps including but not limited to communications apps iMessage, Gmail, Viber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Skype.
"Once installed" is operative here. Pegasus isnt a magic wand that you can swish to read all text messages on every phone. It needs to be deployed.
The opnly confirmed thing I have heard is that they can read signal messages via your notifications, if they are enabled, so always check the app manually and do not use their push service.
Just use SimpleX
Honestly in an effort to avoid american tools I went for ot then I found out the guy behind SimpleX is a climate change denier Maga supporter and all around lunatic and regardless that the project is open source I don't want to be found near that thing.
Sessions seems to be a decent alternative though but if I want a chance to convert people to try to use more privacy respecting chat tools Signal is the best compromise.
simplex is European. it's developed in the UK, though has had funding from American technofascists.
I suggest you read up on the software.
Russia is big mad about it, and likely will be banned in the US soon for similar reasons.
I have already done enough research on it. I am not touching that software with a 10ft pole. I even sat through the whole techlore interview and was somewhat into the project. But then when I discorvered his socials it came crashing down. I also have to admit that I find it odd that it's in the UK with shit privacy laws.
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