this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2026
302 points (98.1% liked)
Technology
88252 readers
6394 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I don't get why the fuck are you getting downvoted if you're saying the actual and only truth.
They have a centralized infrastructure, need lots of permissions that are unnecesary for an app like that, require you to use a phone unless you pay, and, exactly as WhatsApp (and, surprisingly, unlike Telegram), they don't want unofficial clients because that way they'll lose control, while using paternalistic "it's for your security" arguments. They're just a wolf disguised as a sheep.
It is basically WhatsApp 2, with a source-available client. The client isn't free unless forked and used with some other server, because Signal can ban you solely for using a fork. Not being federated may have minor security benefits, but there is no excuse for not having the client accept connecting to multiple servers; they just want to lock you in. Normal people should use Matrix, or XMPP. I am much more concerned about Signal paywalling things and locking me in and so on than about someone knowing at what time I send messages to someone.
I don't think you understand what "source available" means. Their client has a GPL V3 Licence. That's FOSS. It does use some non-free libraries like play services, but that still isn't what source-available means.
Because the source of the play services is not available.
Based.
"Nooo, but XMMP and Matrix can be so hard for normies"
Ewww... Not actually, that's only if the client has a horrible UX, but Conversations and Cheogram for XMPP and idk, Extera Next or Sable Next for Matrix are pretty straightforward for that.
It is not harder than email, which everyone uses.
Because the statement is false. Signal discourages third-party clients because they might not be secure, as was the case with the modified version US government officials were using, and sometimes takes steps to disable known-bad clients. Clients like Molly and Flare remain usable.
But even if so, they ban you from the official server when you use some client as Molly or Flare. It's pretty useless then to use them if you'll have to self host, something that for Signal is pure cancer, thus in practice that's equivalent to banning third party clients.
If you have a citation for this claim, please share it. I did not find evidence that Signal routinely bans accounts for using third-party clients with a quick search, and I have used Flare with no account issues.
I wouldn't be surprised if Signal banned an account for using a client that was sufficiently ill-behaved as to resemble an exploit attempt, but that's different.