Signal Private Messenger

It's encrypted end-to-end by default. It's free (made by a nonprofit). It's not owned by FB, G, or any other big ad pusher. And it does text, voice, and video. (Missing feature: "Mark as Unread"; I find I often take a quick peek at a message and find that it requires a lengthy reply that I didn't have time to write at the moment, but then forget to come back to it until much later.)

Love signal! however I've noticed a bug to PLEASE FIX♥️: the calls do NOT ring, even with notifications on in the app, and in settings, and the phone in full ring mode. it's very frustrating because I keep missing calls. DEVELOPERS, PLEASE FIX AND I'LL BE VERY VERY GRATEFUL. i use it for a lot of my messaging and it's easy to back up messages.

good app, but asked for a rating. I'll let it pass the first time but it's minus 1 star each time after that. things to know: -it requires a phone number to make an account. -signal is a not-for-profit entity or some kind, they will remind you repeatedly. -you can't find groups, only be invited to them via a link. I have not found a site with public groups. -it is secure enough for most normal people -changing or adding a device will cause some extra steps or confusion for your friends.

Does what it says... Now in America that should go without saying. But the world we live in is corruption and companies would sell out their customers in minutes if they get any money. Basically every app below Signal that says "similar apps" are all just promising everything under the sun but with 5 minutes of detective work you'll learn they can't even guarantee the sun itself. The only better app you can get is "Threema" but that costs like $9. But the security you get is VERY top notch!

Been donating and using Signal for years and encourage all my friends to do so. However in the last few months there have been persistent bugs in the app that show a decline in quality. Opening a conversation from a notification will almost always just open the app in the last conversation I was in, not the one related to the message. Conversations will often display the icon for a different chat.

Only using it with a particular group of people. It's fine. For people who really need security this offers, , I am glad they have this to use and I truly hope it helps them be safe. My two complaints are that the app is temperamental when using my Bluetooth earbuds, and sometimes I cannot place or receive calls correctly (no audio, no connection)

I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could, really only due to the fact that if you accidentally delete your app you can't get your account back, but I've heard they're working on that. Otherwise, the app is incredibly useful! Very secure, has gifs and emojis like any messaging app. The notifications you get when your screen is off doesn't display the message you got, instead the app name. You also have no ads, which is amazing! 10/10!

Excellent app. Used to get better every update but in the last several years it feels more and more like every other app out there, just making arbitrary changes periodically (at least they mostly pulled the MobileCoin scheme). It's still the best option for messaging. Just a bit of a disappointment for a user from when it was called TextSecure.

There's a glitch where after I try to add someone to a group it literally keeps sending me to verify that I am a human (Captcha) and it will ask me over and over and I can't get past it. I had to uninstall and re-install twice to get it to stop. After all that it still wouldn't let me add someone to the group. Being added to the group myself took forever because someone invited me but I couldn't even find the invite. So this app is terrible and not user friendly.

The messages are automatically replaying without my permission instead of shutting off. The SAME message will replay (not a consecutive message). I have uninstalled, shut off my phone, and checked some box in settings about notifications and nothing stops it from happening. When I am driving I have to open my phone, open the signal app, and shut it off (which is dangerous) otherwise I have to hear the same message over and over again until I stop driving. It never used to do this.

Tried to use Signal for a few months, but I'm going back to Google Messages. Signal has a permanent bug. It often fails to deliver texts or notify the recipient that a text has been received. Delays are in the minutes or hours. It's a huge issue for both sending and receiving. I say "permanent" because it's been an issue for years according to Reddits I've found. It's an issue on both IOS and Android.

I have been enjoying this app for quite a few years. Plenty of customization, reliable for messages, etc, all great. One little gripe I have is that inserting GIF's from the keyboard (SwiftKey in this case) now makes them very small, and it won't let you "reply" to another message with them (both recent developments). Exclusively a Signal issue. Not enough to deduct a star though.

Because things are the way they are, I spent a little time learning some very basic things about secure communications, and in considering an encrypted messaging app Signal stood out in a number of reviews, so I'm giving it a whirl. So far so good! It works great, has good features, it's open source... my only concern is that it's hosted on Amazon servers, subject to US subpoena power, so phone numbers and message patterns could reveal much about a user's communications. Journalists take note.

6/2023: I've had a few months of a weird glitch where no notifications come through unless I manually open the app. It's happening on all three separate accounts. Very frustrating. There doesn't seem to be an update to fix the issue? Prior review: So far this has been great. The things I text about don't pop up as advertisements on my phone later! 😍

Been happy with Signal overall up until now, but being forced to reinstall the most recent 'update' when I'm unable to due to a lack of space after having uninstalled other apps I needed and multiple photos and still being unable to reinstall regardless has been a huge inconvenience. I can't use it anymore or access previous conversations. Let us have the choice whether or not to update. Boo. Disqualifying.

Works great, only reason I gave 4 stars is because I cannot block a sender like I can on the default messaging app. If that can be fixed or if it's there make it easier to find it would be 5 stars. **update I can block spam numbers now so that makes this a 5 star app! Not only are the conversations encrypted but the available options to customize texts is amazing. Signal just keeps getting better and better.

Used the app for years, never had an issue, until I tried to migrate it to my new phone, paid for backup, completed the backup as instructed, and then during restore on the new phone none of the photos got back. (they said it may take some time but it's been 2 weeks and still nothing...) So beware... probably would be a good idea to download and save all important attachments before migration... too late for me now.

I am a long time user of Signal and I generally like it, but the transfer process to move it to a new Android phone is counterintuitive and buggy. If the transfer process fails, it locks you out of your old phone... even if you know your passphrase. The only reliable method is to move over a backup file, but even in that case there are two different pass phrases, one numeric with 30 digits and the other alphanumeric with 64 chars and it isn't always clear which one you need to enter.

This is a great app and I love the security. However, there are a few gripes: for one, I wish I could choose the colors of people's names in groupchats. But more importantly, both video and audio calls are always crunchy and choppy. I hear most people say the calls are extremely clear so I don't know why that's not the case for me, but calling using Signal is always a major hassle. I will need a different app for video calls until Signal's gets fixed, but other than that it's a great app.

Realized I can create more than one group chat for diffent types of lists and notes: gratitude list, prayer journal, texting God—and now I can pin messages? I love it. I do hope the text color can be further customized to simply white (background) and black (text/words). I'm visually impaired so it's hard to read the white words on a dark text bubble background when I send the texts.