this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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Signal requires a phone number on setup.
Also, matrix has bridges, which alone make it worthwhile for me. They, of course, don't help privacy, but they are so so nice for convenience.
Matrix is definitely slow though, and a grand majority of the clients are heavy terrible buggy electron apps. There are a few good ones ( nheko and the new beeper clients ), but even they have some rough edges.
I still use matrix all the time and love it.
If max privacy was the goal I think simplex looks wonderful. No required info for sign up, no way for them to possibly collect any metadata ( because there are no identifiers sent over internet for anyone at all ), E2EE, and decentralized.
It is dumb and annoying and inconvenient but doesn't affect its use or privacy.
I do agree that SimpleX seems like the best chat option.
It creates a cost for spammers. They have to have an account with a Telco, which isn't free, which in a lot of countries comes with some sort of National ID to register. That's the reason.
No they don't, you can sign up with a VoIP provider.
It affects its use for me definitely. I don't want to have a phone number. At all.
How do you even exist without a phone number. How do you get cellular data? Does the government not require you to have one? Your employer? What about all the services that require one?
To be clear, I have a phone number, but I do not WANT to have one. Most aspects of my life I have removed my phone number from. There are still a few services ( like signal! ) which requires one, and I cope. Cellular data is also something worth avoiding, from a privacy perspective. It is very possible to live a life where you're never very far from wifi, especially in a city. I do not currently do this, but would love to one day.
I have to wonder if you could use a burner number and just disable it after setting up your username
I think you'd have a theoretical issue if the next person who got that number also tried to set up a signal account.
You might be right. I'll have to go double check, but I don't think that you can just set up a new account with the same number without the password you set up.
I might be wrong, though.
Sure but it allows VOIP numbers. I'm using a jmp.chat number with it just fine.
Good to know!
Is the phone number required for 2fa codes or anything like that at any point ?
I got an initial verification code and haven't heard from signal since. Signal doesn't support totp or SMS 2fa. But has a pin code set along with your password. A new device that is added doesn't have access to old messages unless you have the correct seed key iirc
Not anymore.
You can choose to share a username instead of a phone number, but they still require the phone number at setup iirc.
True.
Yes it does
You're right. Only for setup though, which is something I guess.