Talk:Signal (software)

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MIT Creates Untraceable Anonymous Messaging System Called Vuvuzela

http://news.softpedia.com/news/mit-creates-untraceable-anonymous-messaging-system-called-vuvuzela-497537.shtml • Sbmeirow • Talk • 14:09, 23 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This article is about Signal, not Vuvuzela. Could you please suggest exact changes and provide reliable sources? Thank you. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 14:49, 23 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Propose Table or Other Easy To Digest Comparison of End-to-End Encrypted Messaging Apps

The referenced article https://theintercept.com/2016/06/22/battle-of-the-secure-messaging-apps-how-signal-beats-whatsapp/ takes time to read and will soon be out of date, but provides valuable information including that WhatsApp has Signal baked in but also has a critical security hole in automatic unencrypted cloud backups.

It would be helpful for readers to see at a glance how they can choose among app options to trade off strong privacy with interoperability with existing user bases. Having not yet researched other end-to-end encrypted messaging apps I'm not sure whether this would belong on the Signal page or somewhere on its own.

Eecharlie (talk) 05:10, 11 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

WhatsApp cloud backups are opt-in, so we can't write that Signal is the only messaging app that excludes user's messages from non-encrypted cloud backups by default. There can also be other messaging apps which do not include cloud backups by default. For a table of end-to-end encrypted messaging apps, see the last section in Comparison of instant messaging clients. It is already linked to in the See also section of this article (and most other messaging app articles). --Dodi 8238 (talk) 08:56, 11 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough Dodi, you've done more homework on this than I have and I agree with your points. I am fine with closing this topic and the one you added re: where discussion of other apps' inclusion of Signal protocol belongs. eecharlie 04:59, 12 December 2016 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eecharlie (talk • contribs)

Other messaging apps' adoption of the Signal Protocol in this article's history section

In order for this article's history section to stay on topic, I think it should focus on the history of the Signal apps and not stray off topic by discussing the history of its developers or its components. Other messaging apps' adoption of the Signal Protocol is discussed in detail in its own section in the Signal Protocol article, and the collaboration of Open Whisper Systems with tech companies to integrate the Signal Protocol into their messaging apps is discussed in the Open Whisper Systems article. In order to stay on topic, it would be better to mention other messaging apps' adoption of the Signal Protocol in the section of this article that is dedicated to the Signal Protocol. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 09:30, 11 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Proprietary dependencies

Signal compile allways many proprietary software in the source code, example: the gms:play-services-gcm, the gms:play-services-maps and the gms:play-services-places.^[1] but I have found no way to insert this aspect into the article. The cleaner says the source code is not a primary source...

Where is a journalist who has the source code read again? --46.89.140.83 (talk) 04:23, 28 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/blob/master/build.gradle#L56-L58

The source code that you referenced is a primary source. If we begin to analyze, evaluate, interpret, or synthesize material about the source code, we would be conducting original research, which is against Wikipedia policy. The best thing to do would be to find a reliable, published secondary source that discusses this aspect of Signal. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 08:57, 28 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I do not understand, the source code still contains proprietary parts of Google, you can read it also without programming skills. And now I am to look for an interpreter who says exactly the same thing? Where can I find this qualified parrot? --46.89.140.83 (talk) 09:41, 29 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I can read the source code, but in order to verify your claims, I would need further, specialized knowledge about what those lines mean. To quote WP:PSTS:

Any interpretation of primary source material requires a reliable secondary source for that interpretation. A primary source may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts that can be verified by any educated person with access to the primary source but without further, specialized knowledge.

Articles may make an analytic, evaluative, interpretive, or synthetic claim only if that has been published by a reliable secondary source.

Your recent additions to the article are clearly your interpretations of what those lines in the source code mean. Please understand that we need reliable, published secondary sources that anyone can verify without any additional specialized knowledge. This is a policy that applies to all Wikipedia articles, not just this one. If you are not able to find such sources, then we cannot include these claims in the article. --Dodi 8238 (talk) 13:40, 29 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

On [1] the main maintainer acknowledges they have no intention to remove the mentioned proprietary dependencies (such as Google Maps) nor to comply with f-droid freedom standards. In general, while the situation here is moving rapidly and it would be great to have up to date secondary sources, software is proprietary by default and this specific software has had proprietary dependencies for a while, so per WP:EXTRAORDINARY we should keep the mention that it has proprietary dependencies until proven otherwise by a reliable secondary source. --Nemo 11:53, 21 July 2017 (UTC) P.s.: There are some pseudo-recent articles which touch on the topic, but nothing really recent and on-spot.[2] [3] [4][reply]

Version information

The [±] symbol to update the version information has vanished? Why/How can I update it now? HerrHartmuth (talk) 07:56, 1 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

One can use the following url Template:Latest stable software release/Signal. HerrHartmuth (talk) 09:56, 10 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Google Play Services

The page claims that Signal will work without play services. This is not correct. The app will not run without it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.65.45.186 (talk) 18:52, 20 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure? See this commit Jan Vlug (talk) 19:46, 20 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like that's subject to ongoing debugging: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/8402 Nemo 20:12, 20 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

[1] ttps://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/blob/master/build.gradle#L56-L58

[1]