this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2026
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302
Signal Will Let You Sign Up Without a Phone Number — For $3 (itsfoss.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Crumpled6273@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] roundabout@feddit.org 2 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] DeckPacker@piefed.social 1 points 9 hours ago

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.

[–] Kangae_Hishiryo@scribe.disroot.org 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] roundabout@feddit.org 1 points 3 hours ago

It is not harder than email, which everyone uses.