I was so annoyed when I saw this. Luckily you can deactivate it. I've done so, moving on with my life. Can't believe how much I hate modern design pet-peeves and features... mozilla VPN app recently switched to having a menu bar at the bottom for 'home' (default view), 'messages' (update notifications and crap) and 'settings'... because this is how to do it now... of course it has fancy rounded corners... sigh...
For all the people still complaining about the SMS thing: I get it, at the same time, I don't. When I first installed Signal I was surprised and annoyed it wanted to be my default SMS app. What does SMS have to do with encrypted messaging? I immediately saw people would use Signal, send SMS, and assume they were securely messaging. Now Google is pushing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services which Signal can't implement.
Are they supposed to 'keep' people esp non-techies from using RCS 'by default' and make them use SMS? The app that cares so deeply about encrypted communication?
My thinking: integrating SMS into Signal was a dubious move to aid adoption. I could make the reasonable argument it should've never been done. With the arrival of RCS and SMS falling by the wayside more and more, it just can't be justified any further.
Sucks for adoption? Maybe. But honestly, Signal can't want people to use SMS, right?
> Are they supposed to 'keep' people esp non-techies from using RCS 'by default' and make them use SMS? The app that cares so deeply about encrypted communication?
While I agree with most of what you said, it appears you are implying that RCS provides a security guarantee somehow that Signal is impeding. RCS is badly fragmented, mostly not E2E (except Google private E2E extension), and does not have Apple's buy in. Signal does clearly indicate that SMS chats are not secure.
Signal originated as ChatSecure- the encrypted SMS app.
Historically, Signal (then known as Text Secure) was encrypting vanilla SMS between users! If you got rid of the app and somebody texted you through it you would get an encrypted chat! Then they moved away from sms, partly to allow for more anonymity (i think) from metadata and a better experience. So the sms capabilities are more historical than a design choice to do both.
I think menus are moving to the bottom because phones are so big now - that's where your thumbs are. Probably the only reason phones ever had menus at the top is because they were just copying desktop app UI.
For all the people still complaining about the SMS thing: I get it, at the same time, I don't. When I first installed Signal I was surprised and annoyed it wanted to be my default SMS app. What does SMS have to do with encrypted messaging? I immediately saw people would use Signal, send SMS, and assume they were securely messaging. Now Google is pushing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services which Signal can't implement.
The official announcement back then did not provide enough context, this here does https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-blog-removing-sms...
Are they supposed to 'keep' people esp non-techies from using RCS 'by default' and make them use SMS? The app that cares so deeply about encrypted communication?
My thinking: integrating SMS into Signal was a dubious move to aid adoption. I could make the reasonable argument it should've never been done. With the arrival of RCS and SMS falling by the wayside more and more, it just can't be justified any further.
Sucks for adoption? Maybe. But honestly, Signal can't want people to use SMS, right?