Signal did what those things failed to do which is to actually gain some popularity outside of HN. I hope Matrix takes off! In the meantime if people are convincing their families and friends to get on Signal then that's a net positive to me.

@ynniv - because if you can coax a friend who isn't on anything but Facebook to use Signal over, say, Messenger, then it is a net win. Is it perfect? No. Is it a better situation than the current? Yes.

Exactly. Signal's most important feature is that it isn't Facebook.

What's the point of gaining traction if it doesn't deliver on its fundamental promise?

Because the theoretical possibility of being monitored on Signal is preferable to the near-certainty of being monitored on Facebook Messenger.

That's a strawman: you need to beat boring SMS and PSTN, not Facebook Messenger.

Until I started forcing them to when I quit Facebook, I had no acquaintances that used SMS, they all use FB Messenger. This is the problem.