I really want to like Signal, just... it's so shitty at times.
Discord and Slack are great. Even Microsoft Teams.
Shitty things about Signal:
1) When you set "Disappearing Messages" it's for any messages that come in after that point. I think it should be for the whole thread. Even though the UX implies it's for the entire conversation, it's really just for messages sent after the setting was changed. Moreover... let's say you change the settings a few times... you have no idea if / when individual messages will disappear.
2) When you delete a message on your phone, it's still on your desktop -- and everyone else's devices. It's really frustrating that if I send a typo, I can't delete it or fix it. Worse, it appears to delete... and being native to Discord / Slack / Teams... I expect it to delete for everyone. They did change message text from "Delete" to "Delete message for me" but even that doesn't even delete across all my devices.
3) You can't edit messages after you send them.
4) Functionality is different on a phone vs a desktop. You can't do nearly as much on the desktop version.
5) It's funky when you change phones. You can't like sync all your old messages from one device to another. It'll pull them on to a Desktop client, but it won't pull them into a new Mobile phone client. Dunno, just bad UX.
6) Signal is still based on phone numbers... I don't trust phone number based 2FA, so I don't really trust Signal to be based on phone numbers either.
But it's not all bad! Some things they added which make it feel less horrible... they finally did add meta data previews for URLs. That was nice. They added ability to give tapbacks / emjoi responses, and "reply" to messages. I think all this in the last year or so. They're working on it... but like it still feels like they're aiming for shitty old cell phone text messages as what they are trying to replace... I wish they were aiming for Discord / Slack / Teams as those platforms have really done a great job with chat.
By far, the platform with the most improvement was Microsoft Teams. They had this wonky Skype For Business who knows hybrid approach. And they had a lot of the same issues around messages not being synced between devices. They fixed that in the last 18 months. I've been using Signal since Snowden, but in my opinion Signal still has a long way to go before it's something I would actually want to use to chat with friends.
> 1) ... you have no idea if / when individual messages will disappear.
There's a small clock between the sending date and the (double) tick which indicates just that.
Also, I think it's recent, but if you select a message then click the 'i' (information) at the top there's a countdown that says exactly in how much time it disappears.
> 4) Functionality is different on a phone vs a desktop. You can't do nearly as much on the desktop version.
Which features are you missing on the desktop version? They seem to have implemented calls recently, I'm not sure what's still missing. I mostly write text messages though, so I wouldn't know.
> 5) It's funky when you change phones. You can't like sync all your old messages from one device to another. It'll pull them on to a Desktop client, but it won't pull them into a new Mobile phone client. Dunno, just bad UX.
Is it better with e.g. WhatsApp? You have to transfer the backup files anyway, right? If you're on Android it should boil down to transferring the backup files, just like with WhatsApp. It does suck on iOS from what I've read.
> 6) Signal is still based on phone numbers... I don't trust phone number based 2FA, so I don't really trust Signal to be based on phone numbers either.
Phone numbers are a problem, but they're on a good track to get rid of them while still providing the same privacy. In the meantime, I don't think it's a security risk if you have a random pin.
If you compare Signal with Discord, Slack and Microsoft Teams, Signal will never win on features. AFAIK these are not E2EE and they don't really try to reduce the metadata or even data known by the servers. Basically a feature vs. security trade-off.
> There's a small clock between the sending date and the (double) tick which indicates just that.
Cool, I see it now. But there's still no way to change it. In Snapchat, when I set the time it impacts all messages in the conversation. It'd be nice to have the timer impact all messages in the conversation, it's weird how it is set at the conversation level but doesn't apply to all messages in that conversation.
> Which features are you missing on the desktop version?
Create new group. Invite friends. Change your avatar. Change group avatar. Literally had to text myself a picture from my Macbook to my Phone so I could use it as my avatar. Oof. Windows Desktop version vs iOS app version. MacOS version I dont't think is any better.
Found another annoying thing... two actually. "Mark as unread" is device specific, not message specific. Also under the little info on each message there's a button "Delete Message" but again it's not a real delete, it just impacts the device -- all the other places they said, "Delete message for me" so they know it's confusing to just say "Delete" and not have it actually delete the message for everyone.
> It does suck on iOS from what I've read.
Good it works better on other platforms, but yeah it really sucks on iOS. Get a new phone, and you have to be re-added to groups.
> If you compare Signal with Discord, Slack and Microsoft Teams, Signal will never win on features.
Why? Doesn't seem like it'd be impossible to sync all messages across all devices. Doesn't seem like it'd be hard to allow for deletion of sent messages. It's not peer-to-peer, and they keep all the messages on the server... when you turn on Signal Desktop it goes and retrieves the messages for you going back quite a ways. They just need to sync between devices.
Discord and Slack are great. Even Microsoft Teams.
Shitty things about Signal:
1) When you set "Disappearing Messages" it's for any messages that come in after that point. I think it should be for the whole thread. Even though the UX implies it's for the entire conversation, it's really just for messages sent after the setting was changed. Moreover... let's say you change the settings a few times... you have no idea if / when individual messages will disappear.
2) When you delete a message on your phone, it's still on your desktop -- and everyone else's devices. It's really frustrating that if I send a typo, I can't delete it or fix it. Worse, it appears to delete... and being native to Discord / Slack / Teams... I expect it to delete for everyone. They did change message text from "Delete" to "Delete message for me" but even that doesn't even delete across all my devices.
3) You can't edit messages after you send them.
4) Functionality is different on a phone vs a desktop. You can't do nearly as much on the desktop version.
5) It's funky when you change phones. You can't like sync all your old messages from one device to another. It'll pull them on to a Desktop client, but it won't pull them into a new Mobile phone client. Dunno, just bad UX.
6) Signal is still based on phone numbers... I don't trust phone number based 2FA, so I don't really trust Signal to be based on phone numbers either.
But it's not all bad! Some things they added which make it feel less horrible... they finally did add meta data previews for URLs. That was nice. They added ability to give tapbacks / emjoi responses, and "reply" to messages. I think all this in the last year or so. They're working on it... but like it still feels like they're aiming for shitty old cell phone text messages as what they are trying to replace... I wish they were aiming for Discord / Slack / Teams as those platforms have really done a great job with chat.
By far, the platform with the most improvement was Microsoft Teams. They had this wonky Skype For Business who knows hybrid approach. And they had a lot of the same issues around messages not being synced between devices. They fixed that in the last 18 months. I've been using Signal since Snowden, but in my opinion Signal still has a long way to go before it's something I would actually want to use to chat with friends.