Signal is great, but it is centralized. Session messenger is a great example of decentralizes e2ee messaging.
this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Privacy
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I used Session for a couple of years, but switched back to Signal because it did a poor job with media sharing.
It's been a while since I switched back, so maybe it's fixed now?
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why are you making a post instead of replying to a comment?
So i can open a discussion on this question (specificaly)
The problem is that you didn't bring much, and it sounds like you're trying to spread FUD yourself:
- didn't quote the original comment
- didn't elaborate on misinformation and how it could be a problem to signal
- the questions immediately assumed it (whatever it is) is true
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if this is true
It's not. Can be closed
Requires you to use a phone number, your phone app needs to be online 24/7 to be connected, and hosted in a questionable jurisdiction with questionable human rights. Try Matrix. It's selfhostable, doesn't need a phone number to sign up and the foundation is British, which while this country from what I know has gone down the water, they still have some niceities from time they were in the EU, like GDPR.
The 5 eyes CCTV GCHQ British? The rabid USSA, Shitrael bootlickers?
No thanks
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They don't allow third party clients.
They are open source, and you can run your own, but it won't ever be allowed to connect to the standard signal server.
Signal has a piece they say is for fighting spam so they can't release the code to it. So you just have to trust them.
https://signal.org/blog/keeping-spam-off-signal/
"We build Signal in the open, with publicly available source code for our applications and servers. To keep Signal a free global communication service without spam, we must depart from our totally-open posture and develop one piece of the server in private: a system for detecting and disrupting spam campaigns"
Signal is not perfect. It's better than most.
I personally use Matrix as I can go to another server or run my own. I run multiple clients. It is NOT perfect and has it's own issues.
Your mom uses Matrix? You could set up something with random people you just met? Because we're at that stage with Signal. It's private and convenient. If I want to have some soort of anonimity I'll use different platforms, indeed.
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Its not what I would use while communicating with someone else who values anonymity, but, its probably the best out there for communicating with people that dont care about any of that and just want something easy that works. Its easier to onboard people on to it.
Signal is fine for normal/social chatting. It is centralised which makes it much harder to obscure identifying conversation metadata, and I wouldn't recommend it for comms with a state threat model. I like SimpleX for addressing those issues.
If you just want to chat to friends and nothing else, I probably would recommend Signal for the most polished experience and most widely adopted open-source private messenger.