He makes valid points, I don't think anyone ever claimed signal to be the best way to message privately. What it DOES do is make private messaging easily accessible for normies.

Not that I disagree with the video though, requiring a phone number etc are not beneficial to privacy and caters to normies, maybe too much.

At least soon they'll release the feature to sign up without a number. Just took a while to get there.

Tl;dw

Signal is far away from perfect but unfortunately you have to make a tradeoff between security and convenience. The best messenger is useless if you are the only one willing to install it.

And after profusely spitting on it, what do you suggest to replace it with?

Clickbait.

Because that's the thing with these videos: they tear Signal apart, and then... nothing. No alternative proposed. And even when these people have one, it's never something normal humans actually use in any significant number.

Signal isn't perfect, I won't pretend otherwise. But my actual choice isn't between Signal and some hypothetical perfect messenger. It's between Signal and Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram. On that scale, Signal wins, and it's not even close.

And no, my family and friends are not moving to Matrix. Getting them all on Signal was already a nightmare. I'm not going to explain homeservers and Matrix IDs to my relatives. If your alternative requires a tutorial to even register, it's not a replacement, it's a hobby for tech enthusiasts.

So yes, keep the pressure on the Signal Foundation, some of it is deserved. But until a better option actually gains mainstream traction, Signal remains the only realistic way to get regular people out of Meta's and Telegram's data

The best messaging app is the most private and secure app I can actually get people to install. I can't get anyone to install SimpleX or Matrix.

"let domestic abusers find out their victims are trying to contact a lawyer’s office over Signal"

It lets anyone know you have a Signal account true, although you can (and have been able to for a while?) disable being found by phone number so...

This is letting perfection be the enemy of progress. Lots of complaints, but what realistic alternative is there?

Finally after years and years I managed to get more and more people migrating to Signal, away from WhatsApp. Only because more and more people are on signal.

It may not be perfect, but it's so much better than WhatsApp and Telegram.

No one is going to install a super secure app of no one else uses it. Most people don't care. They just want to be in touch with everyone.

This is the same argument for that Twitter is still the main platform for politicians in my country, even though it's a fascist pedo hate speech board now (the new 4chan). Politicians: "Yeah I want to move away from Twitter, but all the journalists are on there". Journalists: "Yeah I want to move away from Twitter, but I will miss all the politician's messages."

People seriously are this stupid, and in politics at the same time.

Imagine having to convince boomer parents and colleagues / boss to move to an app most of their friends, colleagues, business associates, family etc. are not using. Then imagine having to tell them they should actually move to an app no one they know uses, except me. They will tell you "fuck that shit, I have nothing to hide anyway, I'll just use WhatsApp instead."

I don't like the phone number requirement either, but is there a better alternative?

let domestic abusers find out their victims are trying to contact a lawyer’s office over Signal.

Uhhhh no, it sure doesn't do that...

I've been using Signal since before it was called Signal. I'm a big fan, and I still use it and recommend it. No, it isn't perfect, but for my needs, it's still the best all-around. I am always interested in alternatives, but they mostly haven't stacked up. Top contender for me right now is DeltaChat. I'm also playing around with Sideband/reticulum, which is a super interesting project, but nowhere near ready for primetime.

Edit: forgot to mention Veilid chat :)

One thing to note, Signal has never purported to be "private". It is "secure". There's a huge difference. Everyone has to find a balance between privacy and usability. Not having phone ID means no way to reduce the chance a user is bot as well as if you don't register a personal name or phone number or anything else traceable, it makes it difficult for users to find eachother. And as for tracking the source and destination of messages, again if those are random destination routing IDs for a particular conversation, it makes it difficult to route to multiple devices. And if you don't include source identifiers then there's no way to block a spammer or other hostile user or provide delivery receipts to the sender. If you eliminate the storage of messages on the centralized server entirely and have it just be for routing, then if a device is offline at the moment a message is composed, it can't be sent. These are just some examples of privacy vs usability. I won't go into real-time video and audio as they are even more complex.

What signal is, is a system that does not store the keys for the messages themselves, thus as long as all user's devices are secure, the messages are secure. This it does very well.

If you want a private messaging system, there are many options out there, but Signal needs to be usable for the masses of technically illiterate as well as secure. These are more for things like journalist who need privacy for whistleblowers. In that case the lack of usability is a reasonable tradeoff.

Of course I'm oversimplifying some things, but the basic idea is that Signal is not a private messaging app, it is a secure messaging app.

The gripes are valid but the title is sensational.