Signal - Private Messenger Ratings and Reviews

Absolute Privacy

I got Signal after an LGBTQ doxxing scare a few years ago that forced me to eliminate all social media accounts across the board, for my and my loved one’s safety. I found Signal after carefully researching and vetting the best options, and hands down, Signal is the best. It’s used by major press for anonymous tips and government whistleblowers, it’s that secure and anonymous. Signal is non-profit org based, free, 100% private encrypted, no ads, no data mining. You can speak intimately with loved ones for support when you need it, and not worry about triggering inappropriate and invasive content filters and getting flagged by crisis bots that watch for keywords (Tumblr and Facebook come to mind with that). No sidestepping topics to avoid getting slammed with inappropriate and privacy invasive ads across the web anymore. No more having to misspell things to prevent an onslaught of ads across the web. Your information and content will never be used or sold. No harassment from strangers finding your profile and starting up on you like on social media. You control how findable you are. ~Absolute peace and quiet.~ It’s the first chat app I’ve experienced that’s been stalker and drama-free… and I’ve been using chat apps since the 90s.

There’s audio calls, video calling, stickers* (you need to install them separately, for free -it’s quick and easy-, or can even custom make your own), and other features that you expect from a chat app.

Definitely worth it.

Nightmare editing messages on my iPhone XR

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”.

Developer Response ,

This bug is resolved in the most recent version of the application.

Critical 21st-Century App

Hackers can get a hold of text logs and gather bits of identifying information about you. The world’s leading governments are aiming for a state of omniscience on every citizen’s activity and thoughts. Advertising companies want everything you’ve ever said so they can feed their predictive algorithms and sell their ever more detailed profile of your personal psychology to scammers and politicians who want to manipulate you. Our conversations can be used against us in ways that are hard to predict or even imagine. The right to communicate securely and privately is #1 in the Information Age. That’s why Signal messenger, which has proven time and time again to be the cutting edge of practical, user-friendly communications encryption, is my favorite app ever. Its also just a well-featured app better than any text msg app I’ve ever used. IMHO there’s no functional advantage the FAR less secure and private WhatsApp has other than its user base (lots of ppl use whatsapp to bc its a popular app others are on across the world). Signal’s use is growing and will only grow bc the developers have done an amazing job making a smooth job that keeps people safer at a time that we all should jealously guard our information.

They try hard to get access to contacts. Beware

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

VIDEO CALL HELP!!!!

Hello, I’d first like to start off this review by saying this has been one of the best apps! I’d like to give a shout out and a big thanks to the wonderful people at Signal for doing such a great job!
I’ve been using this app for years now and I’ve only had one complaint/issue, that is when using the video calling feature of this app. We need to be able to switch the main camera view from the one calling and the one receiving the call!!! as it stands, it’s been very frustrating that when making a video call the one making the video call has to be on the small camera view the one receiving the video call is the bigger portion of the screen. SIGNAL PLEASE make an update soon! And update this feature, we need to be able to as initiating video calls be able to switch the camera as the initiator of said video call have the main larger portion of the camera screen if we choose to switch to that, because it’s very hard when trying to share something via video call to know that is being properly conveyed in the video to the receiver due to the fact, the one making the video call has no option currently except to stay in the very small thumbnail portion of the screen! To the wonderful people at Signal I beseech you please make an update regarding this!!!Thank You!!!!

I like the options and simplicity

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

(UPDATED) Begs you to donate as of version 5.57

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.

Why did you get rid of unlimited bandwidth?

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.

Mixed bag

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.

sadly, this is turned into an app of annoyance

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.