I don’t know if this disfunction is related to the particular phone (iPhone XR) that I am using Signal on now or if it is the same on other phones, but the “cursor” control on Signal is a disaster now. It is a nightmare trying to move the cursor to where you want it, or to highlight a specific section of your message. I am completely unable to move the cursor more than a couple lines away from its current location at a time (and the text window doesn’t extend to more than 4 lines tall), so i have to scroll a couple lines away, click somewhere to move the cursor in the direction of where i want it to go, and repeat over and over again until it finally gets there. If i try to move it further than that, the window just jumps back to the area where it is currently located and moves it to some random location nearby.
Highlighting a portion of your message is impossible; it jumps from one end of the message to the other and will not allow you to scroll slowly to where you want to stop highlighting. It is so stupid ~ I recommend typing messages in another app and then pasting it into signal when you are done.
Also, FYI, if you want to copy text from a signal message, hold your finger on the message and then click on the little icon at the bottom of the screen that looks like two pieces of paper - nothing will ever appear that says “copy”.
I switched from WhatsApp to here because they started with the channels, and I really like the privacy, options, and simplicity that signal offers. If you don’t like stories/statuses, you can turn them off, although I don’t mind them. I never get spam, and I can’t actually imagine them forcing you to have channels since they don’t even force you to have stories. I certainly hope I’m right in my assessment, but I really do appreciate signal. I don’t use all the proxy stuff because I would guess it was slow stuff down, but I’m sure it’s probably useful for some people in restricted countries. That being said, I still would be hesitant to let my children use this assuming they had a phone, and I would like it if they made it easier to fix wrong words with the auto type function, because the blue underlined words when you use talk to type have no way to choose other options like you would on WhatsApp or other messaging systems
My friends and I got this to be we hope to be more secure, and it may in fact be that. On the other hand they do everything they can to try to make you add them to have access to contacts. There’s no reason they need access to all of my contacts, they want that so they can gather the information and eventually sell it or use it for marketing. If that’s not the case They will read this comment and fix the problem. But I suspect this is them long-term way of selling contact information. So when my friends use @…. It pulls up names so you can select who you are writing to and inserts the name you select into the text without type out my name…. However on my end when I receive it it doesn’t show my name it shows my phone number…. Both my friends, one of them by accident because it ask you so often to connect to your contacts and the other on purpose added their contacts it works properly on their end but I’ve never allowed access to my contacts nor do I plan too. Now if I click my phone number in the text that they sent my name pops up, so the program does know what my name is because it’s in my profile, but a little pop-up suggested I add my contacts…. This is proof they’re trying really hard to get access to your contacts and in my opinion and they’re gonna use it for marketing and selling later. Just be aware this program is not a panacea
Update: The bug mentioned previously in my review has been fixed as of version 5.57.1. However, I don't like the idea that there still no way to permanently prevent the donation banners from appearing at the bottom of the app. At least it will only show up occasionally now. Changed from 1 star to 3 for fixing the bug.
Original Review: This app now constantly shows banners at the bottom of the screen asking you to donate. If you decide not to, guess what your only other option is? "Not Now." Yes, that's right. The cursed "Not Now" is your only other option. And while I have no problem with donating and I may do it on my own time, just know that trying to prevent me from having a choice will make it less likely that I would do what the company is trying to get me to do; which in this case is donations. In the past, choosing "not now" would make this banner go away at least for a few months (your mileage may have varied). Now it comes back immediately after you close and reopen the app. There is no way to turn off these banners. No matter how many times you press "not now," it always comes back if you leave the app for even a second and then reopen it. I will probably delete this app if this doesn't get fixed or removed.
I have gotten so many people on this app since many years ago. Then I tried to send a big file and it has a limiter on it now. So I had to go to Telegram for large file transfers. They have to be 100% secure. I thought Telegram and you were the same company or related. But a recent article on secure apps said Telegram is not open-source. I thought I remember it being that. Anyway, when faceBook bought WhatsApp I went on there and told about 50-people on it that the data mining user abuser Zuckerberg bought this company and top people that started the app bailed over questionable “tweaks” he wanted them to do so they each resigned as got worse and now all are gone. At least the privacy-pillars of the company. This was 5-star all the way until you did away with unlimited bandwidth. Why?? Does it clog or bottleneck the system? How can Telegram get away with it and you can’t? Any plausible way of brining it back? It really the only app I fully trust besides just encrypting and decrypting with keys. Which is a pain and has its limitations too. Huge, huge fan brought 30-40 people here from FB-WhatsApp.
Just bring back the bandwidth please! I will change my review, promise.
Lots of features (Gify, stickers, reacts, self destructing messages), but it requires you to give out your phone number to everyone you talk to, does not allow specifying a different server, and beyond those privacy concerns, it has gone downhill lately in terms of usability and security as well.
It now it forces a PIN even if you don’t want one. Private keys are sent through the server to enable moving from one device to another. Signal used to store private keys in hardware and it was impossible to export them. This ensured that nobody could ever covertly get your key. They removed this security protection and do not even provide an option to use the more secure key storage. The Signal developers could have enabled a smooth device transfer and kept the keys in hardware by having the old key sign the new one so others will 1.) know that the new key is new 2.) know that it is legitimate, and 3.) be able to verify the move using another communication channel if they suspect something is amiss. The Signal developers decided against this.
Given the developers’ recent decisions, and their unwillingness to allow people to use their system without divulging their phone numbers, earns this app 3 stars. If they put more focus on privacy, security, and allowed connecting to private servers, it could easily be a 5-star app.
Every time you load the app and asked if you want to turn on notifications doesn't give you the option to to dismiss that pop up permanently. It just says rudely "will remind you later." you'll remind me later? I don't want you to remind me later! I have the notifications turned off for a reason. Just because some people like having notifications doesn't mean that all people do. Clearly, the developers are just harassing their customers to do what they want you to do. Absolutely no respect at all.
To make matters worse, I attempted to nicely suggest that they change that pop up. I sent a message through the app to them. They just responded. Oh, you have the wrong version of the app. Please update it. Well went into the App Store. And confirmed that indeed I do have the most recent version of the app. So then I email them back in response to the email they sent me where they have "please reply above this line"and they just really say you can't email us this way you have to respond through the app
Well guys, I have to say I have never seen such rude in confidence in my life. That's why you get one star. Really if there was an option to give you zero I will give you zero.
The service has now become pretty much useless. I no longer receive an audible or visual notice when people send me a message. Only once I click on the Signal icon do the alerts actually come in. Now I have to keep opening the app to check for messages. This is not the case with other messaging platforms. Yes, I allow full permissions for Signal.
Additionally, I came here to update, but I dare not as Signal now allows third party stickers/ads. This now opens up a backdoor for hackers. Soon, Signal will shut down all users that don’t update.
I use to boast how secure Signal was. Obviously the developers of Signal had long term plans to monetize their once highly secure communication service?
What do we expect for Free anyway? Obviously Signal’s original Mission Statement has changed. Third party advertising has now become a security concern.
I’m only here as a means to communicate with other hi level parties who feel safe using this app. That’s now going to change as word gets out that a backdoor for advertising has been installed in Signal’s app.
Though no communication service is bullet proof, adding an additional layer of script to monetize Signal, (in my opinion) opens up a serious security breach that will eventually be exploited by hackers.
Signal is not the only game in town. Once I get all of my contacts to migrate to a more secure app, I’ll be uninstalling Signal, as it doesn't alert me any more anyway.
Cheers!
This app needs to be edited so that the administrator/creator of a group can select multiple people to remove from the group at once. Another much needed feature is for the administrator/creator to be able to delete all the old messages in a group from EVERYONE. That way, certain chats can be set up one time and then easily maintained by removing temporary members & outdated irrelevant messages WITHOUT deleting entire chat—only to have to set up another chat afterwards with the same group name—and then having to invite all the permanent members again and wait for them to accept etc. Also I don’t know why the app doesn’t easily detect all contacts from my phone Contacts when building groups and adding members. It easily detects some Contacts, but not all. The ones who aren’t detected by name, I have to look for their phone number, type the phone number into the Signal search field. It becomes cumbersome when we are building a dozen or more chats with the same 30 people in each chat. Hope the developers can offer an update with these features soon. Thank you!
This is simply the best privacy app with everything neatly bundled into it. It has a nice authentication feature, sms & mms messaging & disappearing messages with people [to keep them clean if you’d like], calls, and keeps it all private, app switch privacy [keeping the screen blank for privacy while switching apps so wandering eyes cannot see the screen], and many more features packed into this powerhouse. To anyone experiencing any issues with calls, make sure your notifications are on and properly set with the app, and look into the settings in the app itself and it easily shows how to have your calls show up with the name [if you would like to] or just a call without a name. The settings are a breeze and make it very easy to understand.
Very rarely you’ll have to re-register for push notifications, but that’s also very easily accomplished.
If I could rate higher than 5 stars I would. 10 stars out of 5 stars is more like it...
I have been using this app for about 2-3 years now. I closed my whatsapp account when FB bought it. I closed my FB account as well. I have promoted this app among my family and friends, however, I’m getting a little annoyed with the fact the every time I open it I must verify that I’m not a robot in order to be able to continue messaging. Many times the screen with that message freezes and doesn’t do anything. I need to close the app completely and open it again to find that I must click on the squares that have traffic lights to be able to read messages and/or send them. Why is it that I must verify every time? I make a small monthly donation but it still asks me to donate (granted, this donation request has stopped but only just recently). I hope you will be able to check (or to explain why) this issue. Other than that, I enjoy using the app for my written messages or phone calls (clear connection) with my family that lives overseas. Thank you so much
I was really happy to begin to use Signal because I was reading reviews that said that the telegram app is owned now by Google which is a spy/database of everything you ever use the Internet for. I read that there is a button you need to push in Telegram settings to make your communications private. Probably most people never find out about that. I felt it was a betrayal of trust. I thought that signal was more trustworthy. However, I did see there was also a similar setting in signal that may be exactly like telegram. I guess true privacy is impossible? One other puzzling thing is that after entering my new signal password I discovered that when I tried to use it for the first time (and ever since then), the locked screen password entry page for my iPhone pops up instead. Does it give Apple text-message-censorship capabilities in Signal’s app? My entire intent is to have greater privacy, not to have my personal (I thought) text messages leaked to ... anyone.
Less noise and more Signal please! That's been my mantra since going on a Social Media diet years ago, focusing more on what privacy means to me, and what it means for where we're going as a society. Signal Messenger aligns well with my values. I know it's not for everyone, but it really should be. Has all the features I need to communicate safely with my inner circle and not worry about big corps cashing in on my communications in any way, because it's not a profit driven entity. I do still have to use other messengers because of folks who just haven't made the switch, but at least they're also encrypted. One thing I do wish is that more Open Source desktop projects packaged Signal as a messaging client with their distros same as they do with the Firefox web browser. I think that would help Signal get even more traction. Otherwise it's my default on every platform I use and one of the first apps I install.
With everything going on in the world today, it's nice to know there are alternatives to having your private conversations listened to, or your texts read by anyone else except for the people you sent them to.
While I think most people are not involved in anything that would warrant any government agency from looking into the private conversations between people, I can understand the need for any government to have the right to acquire the permissions necessary for the purposes of national security.
In the United States, that bar and burden of proof to seek these exceptions is extremely high, as it should be. And, (at least at this point), they are extremely rare.
I am happy to have found a way to feel confident that my messages are not being scrutinized by any other eyes than those I intended to see the message.
The app is easy to navigate and use, and the response is lightning fast. I have had very good experiences with texting and with voice calls as well, with the tools to know that the message was both sent and received. Sending a voice text is also easy and incredibly fast compared to other texting platforms.
The sending and receiving of large files is also very easy and fast.
I would highly recommend this app if you're looking for a secure channel of communication with both text and voice.
C’mon people… Are you comfortable with any random person reading the messages you write to your friends or family? How easily can your OWN words be taken out of context and used against you? Think about it… How would you like a random person interpreting YOUR words with THEIR limited knowledge of who YOU are or who YOU are communicating with…Think about it.. Anyone who has the POWER to access your communications, and has the time and resources to do it OBVIOUSLY wants to compromise YOUR position.. Why make it easier for them??? PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES BY OFFERING THEM PRIVACY from people who would only harm NOT PROTECT you. use SIGNAL if you care about your thoughts, ideas, feelings, plans, locations, anything that could give an adversary an advantage over you… Play life smart. Survive.. Here is a simple tool built by people who value one of the few tenets that make our existence free… PRIVACY
I love the security and privacy of this app. Also, it is usually superb for sending photos and video clips. Far superior to iMessage for photos and videos. But there are some weirdisms that creep in for some reason. Sometimes I won’t get a message for up to 24 hours when it was sent earlier. Usually I have good cellular or Wi-Fi coverage. Also, the grammar is a bit weird and when you tap on a word that’s not the right word it doesn’t give you other options like other text programs. Makes it more difficult to edit text messages. The one that bothers me the most is the sequence you go through to send a message. Especially when you attach a photo. It’s very easy to think you have sent a message when you haven’t. I can’t really explain why this is. I just know that on several occasions I thought I sent a message but when I go back to that thread it hasn’t been sent. You really have to pay attention. Make sure the message has been sent. Just weird. But other than that it’s a fine texting app. Overall I recommend it.
Love the app, and until this last version I would say that all it really needed was a way to assign any custom iPhone alert to an incoming message. The current version gives options, but doesn’t allow you to use any alerts on the phone. That, however, is a customization, so no big deal, but this last version broke the attachments. Now when I attach anything from the Signal side or to Signal through the phone side, it doesn’t immediately show up. Sometimes you can exit the chat itself and go back in, and sometimes if you shut down the app and reopen they will show, but most of the time I have to wait for a reply for it to show, so I never know if it was sent. I’ve also noticed that it sometimes puts my messages in the wrong order. For instance, I will see the reply above the original message. That, too, eventually fixes itself but it’s very annoying and has only started happening since the newest version was installed.
The perfect app. I love this for my long distance relationship. We don’t have to spend tons of money for international calls, we just use signal. Plus we each have tons of sticker packs and have so much fun sending the stickers and leaving each other voice messages. Love the sense of privacy as well. It’s great that signal also saves all your photos. I can easily go back and find his selfies or video attachments. Even a search feature for the chat so I can find a specific conversation if needed. Couldn’t hardly ask for a better app.
The only suggestions I would have is to have an edit option (like discord has) so I can fix typos easily. And I would like to be able to have that “delete for everyone” option be always available. Especially since all the media we send stays under the media tab, it would be nice to clear out photos or videos we don’t need anymore.
Thanks a bunch !
It needs to be as sufficient as WhatsApp. Multiple calls easier and able to share files, pics and videos etc. Needs a bit more work. I would like to be able to use it solely instead of relying on WhatsApp for the things that signal can’t. I do love signal but needs to be perfected !!!! ASAP. should be friendlier to conduct business as well personal stuff. WhatsApp is not better than signal. But Signal needs to grow some balls for all the people that just signed up for it. And not let them down. As they would look for another platform that can do all the aforementioned!!! Over all it’s a great app.
For one. Sharing a file, image or a video is not possible when pushing the share button as the menu opens with all the other apps to share with. You can share with all except signal. As it freezes. You push on the signal icon and nothing happens. Then you’re forced to copy and paste it. It’s time consuming. Pls fix this issue as to maybe fix it to where you can also see WHEN a recipient read the msg. THAT WOULD BE GREAT. !!!
Cons:
You usually won’t get a notification when someone messages you on Signal (occasionally it works but not often). This has been a complaint with everyone I use Signal with… to the point we SMS each other the word “signal” to let each other know we just sent a message in Signal. 🤦♂️
Also, registration requires an SMS authentication, which is just horrible given how easy it spoof a phone #. The messages may be secure but you really don’t know who you are talking to.
Finally, maintaining your message and account history after a phone upgrade is touchy at best. There’s a good chance you’ll lose your conversation history and you might even get locked out of your own phone number. Account transfer is not well implemented.
Pros:
Decent user interface (not as good as Apple Messages so if that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll be disappointed).
Viewing media in Signal isn’t great. PDF, images, etc., don’t display as well as you would expect (compared to Apple Messages). But, it works, just annoying.
Text editing and cursor navigation has become very glitchy. Recent updates have made it very hard to edit long messages.
And of course, end to end encryption and security. If that’s what you are looking for Signal is probably the leading app… at least for now. Other options are coming fast (like Session, which is a fork of Signal, but it’s still young and needs time to mature).
To have protective means to share feelings or the importance of concealing confidentiality of business(though, legal) is crucial to my ability to safely discuss aspects that under the Patriot Act. When encryption and guaranteed protection has never been more critical. Laws that can be used effectively to exposé transactions or bidding on project can effectively destroy a business. Exposure without strict privacy protocols may be subjected to a summons/subpoena and quite a few of admissible court documents allow a competitor to utilize your tactics or choice of personal approach is susceptible to malicious intent. Without protecting your business model an adversary may find through open channels a necessary means to infiltrate your intimate and professionally protected approach with information regarding a particular or specific piece of information that may in turn hurt your bottom line and overall success.
I know you guys are busy of late with user migrating over. I have had the app since it’s release. One thing I was wondering is if Send with Siri functionality will be added in any upcoming future release. Where this really comes in handy is 2 fold for me; 1. In the car with CarPlay, so I can just speak the message without needing to see the screen. 2. Anywhere else I might be in iOS, like a WEB Page & want to share that with a friend. While the Signal app, shows in the list of app, that takes multiple taps to invoke the send option, but for apps that support it, users & the respective app, will show as a “recent” item, which allows you to save multiple steps in selecting both the app & the person to deliver it to in a single touch. Even the most recent update this week, added an extra step to have to tap (tho I know it allows for sending to multiple people). So, I would love to see sending with Siri & iOS share sheet “Recent” support. RMM
I was a very happy customer of this app since I found out about it but the insane race to the lowest common denominator, adding “stickers” to an app whose main purpose is secure and reliable communications have broken the application. Messages do not send, or send after hours, and in one epic case over a day later. No other application has an issue connecting to the internet or sending messages, including WhatsApp and FB Messenger. The “sending” icon gets stuck and nothing happens. If you go to the settings, you can see the “network status” switching between “connected” “connecting” and “offline” And before anyone blames my settings, I made sure the app has all the recommended rights, low battery mode is disabled and no app or connection restrictions are set on the app. This happens on both WiFi and LTE, so it is not tied to a bad WiFi or data connection, especially since I have tested it on multiple WiFi networks and not just my home one. So, tl; dr, add stickers, make communications impossible. Great move , I hope people enjoy their little cats and stuff while I look for a proper secure communications app...
This program was recommended by a friend who thought the government was after him. Turns out, they were not, and still don’t care at all, but now I have this texting program which is extremely secure and also probably easier to use than actual texting. It doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, it sends clearer voice messages than any program I have used , texting is easy, there’s different gifs here, and anyone w a smart phone can use it. I am converting everyone I know to it! If I had more money I would donate, and it’s on my list to do when I start making more. Plus, you can talk about how the moon landing was faked by Bigfoot when his contract with the CIA to fight lizard people at the flat earth ice wall was over and not worry about what people think! What a time to be alive. Except for JFK. Thanks a lot, Amelia Earhart.
I love the fact that signal has an end to end encryption, and we don’t have to worry about our data being collected and sold. However, my family and I recently moved from WhatsApp group chat to signal group chat. Sending multiple picturesOn the WhatsApp group chat was possible, but sending them on the signal group chat doesn’t seem to be. I have an iPhone XR, and I try to select multiple photos from inside the app to send to my family, but an error message appears for about a quarter of a second before disappearing, and doesn’t work. I also try going into my photos app, selecting multiple photos and sending them via signal that way, but it also doesn’t work. How can we make it so that we can send multiple pictures easily? I don’t have this problem with text message app, Facebook messenger app, WhatsApp, or telegram. Only signal. I want to keep using this app, but the photo problem makes it very hard
It actually works. It keeps others from getting into messages if your phone gets searched. I know this for sure. The only thing i would change is make it so as a default your messages dissapear at a certain time. Instead of having to manually go in and change it. Have it to where you have to manually change it to where they dont dissapear. And im not sure if you can make it to where you can send your location to someone or not. But i couldnt get it to do that when i tried. That would be a good add. But other than that. It keeps your messages private. It verifies you from time to time so noone is using your account that shouldn’t. It is a killer app. Keeps private private. And that is hard to come by in these times. I use it and recommend it. And its free. Why wouldn't you use it. Good app!!!!!
I started using Signal about two years ago, after being disillusioned with Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts and WhatsApp. I tried Telegram and then Signal. Signal had some polish missing, but it was by far the best in terms of security and also in terms of my ability to communicate. I can easily keep conversations going on my phone and multiple desktops independently, something I believe no other secure chat application has, and I don't have to worry about big tech spying or censorship.
Signal today is in my opinion a much better experience than Facebook or Google delivers, or even what you get from Telegram. The UI design is better than WhatsApp at this point. In fact, I noticed recently that Facebook Messenger copied the Signal UI for giving arbitrary emoji responses to messages.
Download the app. You won't regret it.
I love signal, and I try to get everyone I know to use it. There’s a lot of friction for that, unfortunately, but such is life. Thanks to the developers for making a secure mode of communication.
I’m giving this four stars for two reasons:
1) signal calls are much less reliable than regular Wi-Fi calls from other apps. I’m not really sure why this is, but it seems like when I call others sometimes the phone just doesn’t ring. I’ve called my wife’s phone while it was in the same room to test this, but I’ve seen it happen with others numbers too (I.e. it’s not just her phone from what I can tell). Dead reliable calling would really help me recruit more friends to this app.
2) please please please make it so the app can go into wide mode when the phone is turned on its side. For those of us with large hands and normal size iPhones typing on the portrait width keyboard is somewhere between annoying and painful. One must crook one’s thumb at pretty sharp angles to hit all the keys especially those on the palm adjacent side of the keyboard. I have no idea why this app doesn’t have this feature when most apps seem to. Honestly if the App Store didn’t allow typing in this fashion I may not have written this review!
Thanks again devs for a safe channel of communication.
Guess who just joined signal! Any one of anyone on your phone contact list who just joined signal, or, better yet maybe even you! I really love the security feature of blasting to everyone in your contact list that has signal that you just joined signal! It's perfect for maintaining secrecy and discretion, letting everyone in my whole contacts with signal know I just joined signal helps me signal to them that security is one of my primary concerns. This way, anyone else trying to be discreet and secure is fully aware that I'm also available for secret, private p2p direct IM. It's kinda like, okay, if you're on signal and part of the elite secrecy, end-to-end encryption specialists, the very first thing I'd like to so is broadcast to everyone I know with the app that I'm finally part of the club! Really pretty genius feature!!
Hey signal I love this app I appreciate an app that can respect my privacy but recently I have been having issues receiving messages. Often I get messages but no notifications and sometimes they all come in at once in a large batch if someone was sending message during a period of time. This use to happen sometimes but now it seems to be happening more and that’s not good because sometimes the messages are time sensitive and very important so please would you address this issue. And I would gladly give you 5 stars if it is addressed.
***update***
Previous issues were fixed but after most recent update the keyboard will now cover over top of the current conversation which I find very annoying please fix this thanks.
Bummer that audible notifications no longer function. I’ve mostly stopped using the app because of this as I have to consciously look to see a visual indication that there is an unopened message.
My biggest issue is with the “read more” function. If a message exceeds a certain number of characters it truncates and provides a handy “read more” button to expand the message. The issue is that when you tap it, the message expands and moves all the way to the bottom of the message vice expanding the message right at the point where it is cut off and the “read more” button is located. You have to scroll up to find where you left off. Really? This is a backwards UI. The message window should just expand from the point of the button and you can then continue to scroll down as you read instead of the current behavior.
Everything about this app is pretty much spot on it is the best way to chat with your friends and not feel nervous of people watching. The timer feature is extremely useful in allows both parties to set a Time limit on the message very helpful. I have been using this app for almost 2 years now and have sent all my friends over only way to communicate. Reason for writing this review is I would like to change one option if that is something you guys would consider and that is changing the calling feature so it gives you another menu so you don’t just click it and it calls right away and tells the user that you try to call them. Just make some other second screen that allows you to confirm the call but other than that this app is perfect.
Several bugs, not nearly as optimized as other messaging apps.
While the concept of this app is good, it cannot live up to its name. There are numerous bugs, and none of them are getting resolved. The most critical bug is that you cannot send videos to people, even short 1-2 minute videos. It kees circling and never ends up sending. Also, this often happens while sending photos as well, which is odd. How can someone switch to Signal without using two of the most utilized and essential features of a messaging app?
Additionally, there are several other bugs, but the two mentioned above are the most critical. Before I end this review, I have to mention: for the love of God, Signal, please consider adding a proper backup&restore feature. It would also be nice to transfer my data & chat to a second device like telegram and continue where I left off in my original device.
There is certainly a lot of room for improvement. I, for one, will not use nor commit to Signal just yet.
On 3 separate occasions, Signal has completely failed to notify me of messages (and yes, I have all notifications turned on (sound, banner, lock screen, etc.)). Given that I only use Signal to talk to a couple people roughly once a week because it's the only messenger program they use, 3 times is a lot! None of my other messaging apps have this problem, and it's totally unacceptable from an app whose primary purpose is communication.
On two of those three occasions, Signal did finally give me the notifications the moment I reopened the app to double check the conversations several hours later. On the remaining occasion, I was expecting Signal to potentially fail again, and so I kept the app open and switched to it every few minutes. *Despite this*, the thread only updated the next morning, finally notifying me of a message that had been sent to me the day before. During this entire period I had continuous internet access.
For me, the added security Signal affords is completely overshadowed by this glaring deficit.
I have been a Signal promoter for years. I even pay to support Signal. So it pains me to give it a 2-star rating. But here’s why: the new anti-spam measures are generating way too many false positives.
Context: in an effort to harden our team against BEC, I had my team (~25 people) join Signal so we can use it as a secure method for out-of-band confirmation of sensitive requests and I created a group of the team for sensitive announcements (e.g. “We think there may be a malicious actor on the network!”).
The problem is that one or more of these actions has now apparently marked me as a spammer and every time I try to message a team member I am forced to go through multiple rounds of Captchas! It is AWFUL. Practically unusable.
I’m not trying to spam anyone! But now I’m envisioning how panicked I will be if I’m trying to send a warning to the team and instead Signal is making me jump through Captcha hoops!
It will also be embarrassing if I now have to move the entire team to some other usable messaging app. They’ll be like, “Ugh! You just made us do all this!”
We even took the time to verify numbers! Why does Signal think I am spamming people with whom I have verified numbers?!?
😞
I like the privacy and protection Signals offers, end to end.
What I do find annoying is the inability to retrieve your password or key to change in the very likely instance when you forget your password and/or lock yourself out, misplace 36 numbers and you’re done, finished. You lose all your contacts. I get the security aspect but it’s rather unsettling knowing I mistake and you loose everything.
Additionally I recently had to replace my phone and the restore process would not work not matter what I tried. The app is great but I question the security when key features fail.
And as of recent the app has been not working properly, can’t call out, calls not connecting messages not being received, what’s up as of late?
I would give this 5 stars, originally I would give it 6 stars if it were possible, but am now concerned about potential hack ability. Even with end to end encryption, a big selling point here was that everything was stored locally and there was no server access. Now I can use delete for all. That means the server has access after the messages have been sent.
I am also unhappy that I have to give out my phone number.
I am hearing rumors of possible 3rd party products. And commercialization. I am willing to PAY for Signal just to keep it free of these. The more access to the platform others have, the less secure everything becomes. And no one likes commercials.
I switched from What’s App about 9 months ago and never looked back! The updates continuously improve the App and started financially supporting the dev team once I was hooked. The emoji message tagging is definite improvement over What’s App. If I could recommend one feature to improve it would be the requirement for the desktop version to download the thousands of messages each time it loads. That seems unnecessary and time waiting but I don’t pretend to understand the architecture that may require that download. WA doesn’t need to do this. All in All, I prefer Signal over WA for many reasons and I believe the dev team deserves your support to keep the product secure and pure!!
How is it privacy focused if it announces to the whole world that you are on signal?
The developer responded “it’s not anonymous” and suggested their app is only about encryption. On their website, however, the first thing they tout is “an unexpected focus on privacy”. Still not sure how to square broadcasting your name to every single person on Signal that you might be connected too has anything to do with a “focus on privacy”. It sounds like the gist is that no one is snooping on your messages, but everyone knows your on there. What’s silly is that signal thinks it needs to be “more pervasive” for its concept to work, but with unexpected outting of your privacy it’s never going to become more pervasive because it sets the tone by undermining your expectations right out of the gate. Signal should stop using the word “privacy” in its marketing materials and replace it with the word “encryption” because that is all it’s offering. If you’re that worried about it, I’d just use a burner.
Question: If I use the “reply to” feature, what does recipient see on their screen?
Question: If I use the “reply to” feature, on the recipient’s screen, do they see “replying to you” or would they see “replying to their name?” I had changed a contact’s name in my phone and didn’t realize until after I’d hit send that I don’t want them to see what I’ve re-named them in my contacts list.
So on my screen, it says “replying to contact’s name.” (I don’t usually use the reply-to feature, which quotes the message.) But I have a message from a different contact who used the reply-to feature to me to quote something and what I see on my screen is “replying to you.” (Not “replying to my name.”) Can anyone at Signal confirm whether the recipient can see what I see on my sent screen or if they see a different screen saying “replying to you?” Thank you.
Nickfrikiname is very wrong! This is a great app and I've always promoted the app to my friends. He's upset because of his particular situation. What he failed to understand is, signal really does protect your privacy, from anyone and everyone. Unfortunately in this world we live in privacy seems to be very scarce and signal helps bring that back! I do wish the phone call feature was a tad bit better as far as the recipient being able to hear what I'm saying, but I totally understand that being encrypted can't be a easy task and probably very complex but at least they are trying. Recovering old messages shouldn't be an option and should stay that way no matter what. This is what the app is built around and how they promote it!
Signal is great. You configure the settings to your liking & it’s very private. You can enable face-ID, Thumbprint, & a pin. It allows disappearing messages, & calls, even video calls. The video calls rival FaceTime, which is surprising because I’ve tried many different video call apps, all seem to be sub-par to FaceTime. However, Signal is right there. I wish more were using it so the government can’t pry at our messages & companies like Facebook & Google can stay out of our conversations. Keeps us away from ad trackers with the combination of the VPN. None of your phone listening to you talking or typing.
4/5 stars simply because 5/5 makes no sense. People wouldn’t read the review & I want the company to make it better over time, not get complacent & do no future updates. It can improve in certain areas.
By far the best calling and texting all ever. Whenever I can’t hear someone on my regular phone due to static or bad connection we go to signal and the connection is flawless. Can hear them clearly and loud. I also love the fact that I’m in control of who gets what messages for how long. You have the last day so on who gets to keep your conversations. Making it really private private. I also I’m thrilled with the fact that they are not interested in saving anything on the cloud so whatever u delete is really lost for ever. No way for someone to blackmail u with nothing. The ease of access and user friendliness is also above and beyond expectations. I highly recommend this app to everyone wanting to keep things private and secure.
Find a better way to save chats without linking phones
Find a better way to save chat history or stop updating the app every time because whenever I update I’m forced to delete the app and have to redownload it because all functions on the app don’t work including linking accounts to save my chats. Apparently Signal shuts all functions down when they want you to force update.
I have an issue where my phone simultaneously has an old deleted Apple ID that is primarily registered but cannot sign in/remove because it “doesn’t exist anymore” along with a new Apple ID that I’m using currently. So whenever I decide to update signal it tells me on the App Store that I’m “Unable to update” which makes me force delete signal and redowload again only to find out that all my ALL my chat history has been deleted. This happens everyone you guys decide to force an an update and it’s totally annoying!!! Other apps do have a better way of saving chats…
This supposed encrypted messaging is similar to all the other messaging apps. But many developers like all browsers don’t recognize it and often does not put the links and photos directly into Signal. Work arounds are easy to do. I often have to cut and paste into my mail app and then cut and paste into Signal. A bit painful at times. Often I find myself just going back to using Apple’s messenger. I trust Apple more than other texting apps. I used to trust WhatsApp but not as much anymore as it is a Facebook app. It too is supposed to be encrypted. Most people around the world use WhatsApp or Apple Messenger. But in reality if you are really worrying about total privacy, stay in a cave and never use any electronics. Or develop a private encryption that requires special changing coding -decoding books. All in all, its fun seeing old friends appear on Signal as it gains popularity.
The only reason I switch to Signal is because I wasn’t going along with WhatsApp’s new “privacy policy”,I love that signal respect people’s privacy👍🏼But it could use some improvements
I have now been using Signal for a couple years I love it in my opinion everyone should switch from WhatsApp to Signal they actually care about privacy. I did have some pretty bad problems with bugs but they keep on making updates so they keep on getting better I have now been using Signal for a couple years I love it in my opinion everyone should switch from WhatsApp to Signal they actually care about privacy. I did have some pretty bad problems with bugs but they keep on making updates so they keep on getting better
Updated review: I have really tried to give this app a long-term chance but I am continuously frustrated with its lack of ability to handle voice messages. If something interrupts your message, for example, a low battery notice, you will lose the entire recording. I still experience situations where messages are lost with no explanation. It is baffling and the frequency of these events is enough for me to ditch it altogether. I do not understand how Signal is not taking this opportunity of so many people moving over from WhatsApp to improve this particular aspect of their app. Goodbye Signal.
Prior review: I appreciate how secure this app is, but it loses voice messages if you don’t tap directly on the tiny “send” word (it’s not even a button). The message just disappears if you tap anywhere outside of that area. It is a complete waste of time. This overlooked problem is a dealbreaker. Also, you can’t scrub through received voice messages.
Warnings/options needed for joining signal notifications (for user safety)
I really like Signal. It’s just pretty awful that it notifies people in your phone contacts that you’ve made an account and there didn’t seem to be an explicit opt out at account setup. I forgot I had the phone number of a man who sexually assaulted me, (didn’t realize signal would notify everyone) and it was terrifying when Signal still allowed him to send me messages even after I deleted him from my contacts shortly after creating my account. It would be great if there was a way (or at least an easy way for dumb folks like me :P) to opt out of letting Signal notify folks in your contacts that a you created an account.
The bare minimum would be to have an explicit and accessible (no legal jargon that you need college level English comprehension for) warning that Signal will notify people in your contacts on account creation. That would have been better than nothing.
We just moved a large group from WhatsApp to signal. Initial experience was good. But somehow, after we removed some users as admins and added others, the entire group has become read-only with respect to updates of group name, membership, and any group features. Even admins cannot update any of these.
We can still send/receive messages. But members cannot leave, we cannot change admins, or change group name — all group updates are rejected. The specific error we get is “Group could not be updated” with no further details on how to resolve the issue. I suspect we triggered a bug in the protocol after we removed/added a bunch of users as admins.
We were joking that now have an extremely secure group — members cannot join or leave and no changes allowed! :-) Anyway, I hope Signal gets in touch with us so that we can troubleshoot the bug and get it fixed.
Read an article today about signal and wanted to see what the hype was about. It’s almost like the WhatsApp platform. What I would like to see already is the option to change the chat wallpaper, and more options with stickers. I do enjoy customizing my chat and changing things around. My husband and I use this app and trying it out but more options would be nice. For now I am giving this app a three star for what I am currently seeing within the app, maybe when I see updates and more improvements I will come back here and provide another review. Oh before I forget I do like that the messages are encrypted and privacy does play a big part for me and my family and friends. But let’s just hope the developers will see this review and come up with some brilliant ideas to make this app #1 .... I’m looking forward to this journey.
Signal is a messaging app with privacy at its core. It is free and easy to use, with strong end-to-end encryption that keeps your communication completely private.
• Send texts, voice messages, photos, videos, GIFs, and files for free. Signal uses your phone’s data connection, so you avoid SMS and MMS fees.
• Call your friends with crystal-clear encrypted voice and video calls. Group calls supported for up to 40 people.
• Stay connected with group chats up to 1,000 people. Control who can post and manage group members with admin permission settings.
• Share image, text, and video Stories that disappear after 24 hours. Privacy settings keep you in charge of exactly who can see each Story.
• Signal is built for your privacy. We know nothing about you or who you’re talking to. Our open source Signal Protocol means that we can’t read your messages or listen to your calls. Neither can anyone else. No back doors, no data collection, no compromises.
• Signal is independent and not for profit; a different kind of tech from a different kind of organization. As a 501c3 nonprofit we are supported by your donations, not by advertisers or investors.
• For support, questions, or more information please visit https://support.signal.org/
To check out our source code, visit https://github.com/signalapp
Follow us on Twitter @signalapp and Instagram @signal_app
