Signal-Android VS TextSecure

Haven't used Signal FOSS, but as it happens Molly bas just implemented OSM support, perhaps when it lands you might have better luck with it. Anyway, is there no issue tracker for that fork? I tried looking in their repo and found it disabled

Try using the Signal FOSS version from https://www.twinhelix.com/apps/signal-foss/

Yeah I followed that whole story. Since then some forks have been created that do not care what Signal Foundation thinks about using their servers. Molly and Signal-FOSS for example, both compatible to regular Signal. Those two forks will not keep SMS support, Molly never had it, and Signal-FOSS will most likely drop it because they think it's too much work to keep it while staying compatible and up to date. I hope there is going to be another fork specifically dedicated to keeping SMS support. We'll see.

You can get a completely open source version without the Google stuff here: https://www.twinhelix.com/apps/signal-foss/

Signal FOSS removes proprietary google blobs https://www.twinhelix.com/apps/signal-foss/

Signal - Molly , Foss-Signal

Maybe they had outdated info from when the server software was not updated for a long time. Or, it's regarding the dependencies on closed-source Google Mobile Services and Firebase libraries, though those can be removed... and have been in this fork.

Moxie's reasons for disallowing Signal distribution via F-droid always rang a little flat to me ( https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/127 ). Lots of chatter about the supposedly superior security model of Google Play Store, and as a result fewer eyes independently building and testing the Signal code base. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but independent and reproducible builds seem like a net positive for everyone. Always struggled to understand releasing code as open source without taking advantage of the community's willingness to build and test. Looking at it in a new light after the XZ backdoor, and Jia Tan's interactions with other FOSS folk.

Signal has documentation on how to reproduce their Play Store builds and compare them with what you've installed locally:

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/blob/main/reprod...

There's nothing on Signal blog as of yet, but Signal's git repository was tagged with v7.0.0 yesterday and we can see from the commit history since the previously tagged version (v6.74.4) that there will be a setting to hide one's phone number [1], as well as disabling the previous default behavior of advertising that one is on Signal to all their contacts already using it [2].

[1] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/commit/8797236b5... (PNP stands for "Phone Number Privacy")

[2] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/commit/6097e6c30...

Signal works the same but without the user tracking from Meta/Facebook. Many people use it as well but I'm surprised that a majority sticks to WhatsApp.

Telegram and Signal solve this.

Sadly yes: Looks like an open issue 13290 for Signal, sounds like they were/are indeed still interacting through google's push notification service, wat, and per a link at that issue it was a chore for Tutanota to break away once they realised it was a problem some years ago (though at least they thought about it years ago? wtf Signal...)

Here is one: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/tree/main/reprod...

Rule 1: Posts to r/signal must relate to Signal.