Signal-desktop: Create Signal for microblogging and web

Created on 15 Jan 2021 · 7Comments · Source: signalapp/Signal-Desktop

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Hello,

I am a first time user of Signal desktop app and mobile app. It is a very good messenger app.

The new idea is can you dear Signal developer, create a Signal for microblogging and web (browser)? Kind of like Twitter?

The advantage is you already have a messenger app and I think it can be integrated directly into the messenger app as an additional feature.

Source

AsUn-b2xxO7

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Most helpful comment

There are already services like Mastodon that serve this purpose.
No other messaging app (that I know of) has Twitter-type stuff embedded. The only possible exception might be Facebook, but even in there, Messenger is separate from Facebook on the phone (and _can_ be separated on the desktop).
The whole idea behind Signal is that almost everything is stored on the device, not the cloud. Twitter-type services (including Mastodon), on the other hand, store everything on the cloud. What you are asking for literally goes against the entire architecture of Signal.

For these reasons, this is probably not going to happen.

chiraag-nataraj on 15 Jan 2021

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All 7 comments

There are already services like Mastodon that serve this purpose.
No other messaging app (that I know of) has Twitter-type stuff embedded. The only possible exception might be Facebook, but even in there, Messenger is separate from Facebook on the phone (and _can_ be separated on the desktop).
The whole idea behind Signal is that almost everything is stored on the device, not the cloud. Twitter-type services (including Mastodon), on the other hand, store everything on the cloud. What you are asking for literally goes against the entire architecture of Signal.

For these reasons, this is probably not going to happen.

chiraag-nataraj on 15 Jan 2021

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Maybe it is also possible to use a peer-to-peer network instead of cloud server. Something like torrent technology.

There is no real alternative to Twitter and the web.

AsUn-b2xxO7 on 15 Jan 2021

Again, though, this doesn't fit into Signal's general architecture (same with e.g. federation). If you really want to, you can try to propose this on the Community forums or comment on an existing post. But you're likely to receive a cold reaction there for the reasons I mentioned above, so please be prepared :wink:

chiraag-nataraj on 15 Jan 2021

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@AsUn-bxxO

There is no real alternative to Twitter and the web.

That is not true. There are actually several, the most prominent probably being the aforementioned Mastodon. As chiraag-nataraj explained the functionality you desire does not really fit into Signal. I personally can not see any reason why you would want to integrate a browser into signal, or a microblogging service.

If you are looking for an alternative for Twitter you will be better off looking into one of the existing ones than trying to get people to implement into an app where it doesn't fit in.

santa-klaus on 15 Jan 2021

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Mastodon is hardly as popular as Twitter outside the US. I personally don't like their site because they are recommended by news sites that I don't find authentic, i.e. not independent etc..

Signal on the other hand is generally very popular and getting bigger. It doesn't necessarily need to be integrated into the general Signal app, but Signal could provide a microblogging service and a general web version for browsers in parallel.

In addition, Signal should also create a peer to peer network using blockchain technology.

AsUn-b2xxO7 on 16 Jan 2021

Just...stop, please. I already explained why this is the wrong place for this discussion.

Signal is unlikely to implement this.
More importantly, this isn't something Signal Desktop can implement by itself. Take it to the community forums (see my previous comment). @EvanHahn-Signal, can you please lock this thread?

Signal Devs are already overwhelmed as it is dealing with bug reports and feature requests within the realm of possibility.

In addition, I will take this opportunity to say something else. It's always easy looking in from the outside to say what should or shouldn't be done. But from the inside, it's a whole different ball-game. You're balancing different (often conflicting) feature requests, looking forward towards your own plans for the service, dealing with bug reports, and so much more. It's presumptuous as hell to think you particularly know exactly what the Signal devs should do, and you need to stop.

Multiple people here have politely explained why this is probably not going to happen, and I already pointed you in the right direction once. Yes, I'm a user, just like you, but I also understand how annoying threads (and issues) like this can be when you're dealing with actual issues and feature requests that actually make sense. Meanwhile, you're sitting over here saying they should change their entire model, just because you particularly don't like it. As you can tell, I'm pretty annoyed because I've been seeing threads like this all over the 'net (here, Reddit, etc).

This sort of shit needs to stop polluting the bug tracker. Take it to the Community Forum where it belongs.

chiraag-nataraj on 16 Jan 2021

We've recently received a high volume of GitHub issues and we can't respond to them all, but I wanted to hop into this one:

I don't think Signal will add a feature like this in the foreseeable future. In the future, feature requests are best sent to the Community Forum, which we also look at. There's a vibrant community of Signal fans there. We're trying to make this an issue tracker for bugs only, not feature requests, so I'm going to close this issue.

(PS: follow me on Mastodon, if you want!)