Signal - Private Messenger Reviews

by Ncg444

I was a very happy customer of Signal since I found out about it but the insane race to the lowest common denominator, adding “stickers” to an app whose main purpose is secure and reliable communications have broken the application. Messages do not send, or send after hours, and in one epic case over a day later. No other application has an issue connecting to the internet or sending messages, including WhatsApp and FB Messenger. The “sending” icon gets stuck and nothing happens. If you go to the settings, you can see the “network status” switching between “connected” “connecting” and “offline” And before anyone blames my settings, I made sure Signal has all the recommended rights, low battery mode is disabled and no app or connection restrictions are set on Signal . This happens on both WiFi and LTE, so it is not tied to a bad WiFi or data connection, especially since I have tested it on multiple WiFi networks and not just my home one. So, tl; dr, add stickers, make communications impossible. Great move , I hope people enjoy their little cats and stuff while I look for a proper secure communications app...

by Schwadam

I don’t know if this disfunction is related to the particular phone (iPhone XR) that I am using this app on now or if it is the same on other phones, but the “cursor” control on this app is a disaster now. It is a nightmare trying to move the cursor to where you want it, or to highlight a specific section of your message. I am completely unable to move the cursor more than a couple lines away from its current location at a time (and the text window doesn’t extend to more than 4 lines tall), so i have to scroll a couple lines away, click somewhere to move the cursor in the direction of where i want it to go, and repeat over and over again until it finally gets there. If i try to move it further than that, the window just jumps back to the area where it is currently located and moves it to some random location nearby.
Highlighting a portion of your message is impossible; it jumps from one end of the message to the other and will not allow you to scroll slowly to where you want to stop highlighting. It is so stupid ~ I recommend typing messages in another app and then pasting it into this app when you are done.
Also, FYI, if you want to copy text from a this app message, hold your finger on the message and then click on the little icon at the bottom of the screen that looks like two pieces of paper - nothing will ever appear that says “copy”.

by J Micah

I am unable to call my wife using this app. We have poor cell phone reception in our apartment, so we regularly use WhatsApp to call each other when one of us is at home but the other is not. I have tried to call my wife using this app multiple times without success, however, WhatsApp and FaceTime will complete the call no problem. I am able to call friends and family who are in another country, but not my wife. Messages work fine, only audio and video calls to her don’t work. If this app wants to truly take some of WhatsApp’s user base, they need to improve their software.
Addendum: I am also having multiple issues trying to attach photos to messages. Signal simply crashes when I try to attach photos from within Signal . (This is on my iPhone and iPad.) I can send photos using the Photos app sharesheet, but not from within this app. I keep hoping the next update will fix these issues, but they persist.

by Vikencowboy

Bummer that audible notifications no longer function. I’ve mostly stopped using Signal because of this as I have to consciously look to see a visual indication that there is an unopened message.

My biggest issue is with the “read more” function. If a message exceeds a certain number of characters it truncates and provides a handy “read more” button to expand the message. The issue is that when you tap it, the message expands and moves all the way to the bottom of the message vice expanding the message right at the point where it is cut off and the “read more” button is located. You have to scroll up to find where you left off. Really? This is a backwards UI. The message window should just expand from the point of the button and you can then continue to scroll down as you read instead of the current behavior.

by Woutwat

It needs to be as sufficient as WhatsApp. Multiple calls easier and able to share files, pics and videos etc. Needs a bit more work. I would like to be able to use it solely instead of relying on WhatsApp for the things that this app can’t. I do love this app but needs to be perfected !!!! ASAP. should be friendlier to conduct business as well personal stuff. WhatsApp is not better than this app. But this app needs to grow some balls for all the people that just signed up for it. And not let them down. As they would look for another platform that can do all the aforementioned!!! Over all it’s a great app.

For one. Sharing a file, image or a video is not possible when pushing the share button as the menu opens with all the other apps to share with. You can share with all except this app. As it freezes. You push on the this app icon and nothing happens. Then you’re forced to copy and paste it. It’s time consuming. Pls fix this issue as to maybe fix it to where you can also see WHEN a recipient read the msg. THAT WOULD BE GREAT. !!!

by George McFly 2

Lots of features (Gify, stickers, reacts, self destructing messages), but it requires you to give out your phone number to everyone you talk to, does not allow specifying a different server, and beyond those privacy concerns, it has gone downhill lately in terms of usability and security as well.

It now it forces a PIN even if you don’t want one. Private keys are sent through the server to enable moving from one device to another. this app used to store private keys in hardware and it was impossible to export them. This ensured that nobody could ever covertly get your key. They removed this security protection and do not even provide an option to use the more secure key storage. The this app developers could have enabled a smooth device transfer and kept the keys in hardware by having the old key sign the new one so others will 1.) know that the new key is new 2.) know that it is legitimate, and 3.) be able to verify the move using another communication channel if they suspect something is amiss. The this app developers decided against this.

Given the developers’ recent decisions, and their unwillingness to allow people to use their system without divulging their phone numbers, earns Signal 3 stars. If they put more focus on privacy, security, and allowed connecting to private servers, it could easily be a 5-star app.

by Cmcfi

I love the fact that this app has an end to end encryption, and we don’t have to worry about our data being collected and sold. However, my family and I recently moved from WhatsApp group chat to this app group chat. Sending multiple picturesOn the WhatsApp group chat was possible, but sending them on the this app group chat doesn’t seem to be. I have an iPhone XR, and I try to select multiple photos from inside Signal to send to my family, but an error message appears for about a quarter of a second before disappearing, and doesn’t work. I also try going into my photos app, selecting multiple photos and sending them via this app that way, but it also doesn’t work. How can we make it so that we can send multiple pictures easily? I don’t have this problem with text message app, Facebook messenger app, WhatsApp, or telegram. Only this app. I want to keep using Signal, but the photo problem makes it very hard

by Lewisstructure

I have gotten so many people on Signal since many years ago. Then I tried to send a big file and it has a limiter on it now. So I had to go to Telegram for large file transfers. They have to be 100% secure. I thought Telegram and you were the same company or related. But a recent article on secure apps said Telegram is not open-source. I thought I remember it being that. Anyway, when faceBook bought WhatsApp I went on there and told about 50-people on it that the data mining user abuser Zuckerberg bought this company and top people that started Signal bailed over questionable “tweaks” he wanted them to do so they each resigned as got worse and now all are gone. At least the privacy-pillars of the company. This was 5-star all the way until you did away with unlimited bandwidth. Why?? Does it clog or bottleneck the system? How can Telegram get away with it and you can’t? Any plausible way of brining it back? It really the only app I fully trust besides just encrypting and decrypting with keys. Which is a pain and has its limitations too. Huge, huge fan brought 30-40 people here from FB-WhatsApp.
Just bring back the bandwidth please! I will change my review, promise.

by Cris Kringle

I was really happy to begin to use this app because I was reading reviews that said that the telegram app is owned now by Google which is a spy/database of everything you ever use the Internet for. I read that there is a button you need to push in Telegram settings to make your communications private. Probably most people never find out about that. I felt it was a betrayal of trust. I thought that this app was more trustworthy. However, I did see there was also a similar setting in this app that may be exactly like telegram. I guess true privacy is impossible? One other puzzling thing is that after entering my new this app password I discovered that when I tried to use it for the first time (and ever since then), the locked screen password entry page for my iPhone pops up instead. Does it give Apple text-message-censorship capabilities in this app’s app? My entire intent is to have greater privacy, not to have my personal (I thought) text messages leaked to ... anyone.

by Randy MM

I know you guys are busy of late with user migrating over. I have had Signal since it’s release. One thing I was wondering is if Send with Siri functionality will be added in any upcoming future release. Where this really comes in handy is 2 fold for me; 1. In the car with CarPlay, so I can just speak the message without needing to see the screen. 2. Anywhere else I might be in iOS, like a WEB Page & want to share that with a friend. While the this app app, shows in the list of app, that takes multiple taps to invoke the send option, but for apps that support it, users & the respective app, will show as a “recent” item, which allows you to save multiple steps in selecting both Signal & the person to deliver it to in a single touch. Even the most recent update this week, added an extra step to have to tap (tho I know it allows for sending to multiple people). So, I would love to see sending with Siri & iOS share sheet “Recent” support. RMM

by Dasprague

Love Signal , and until this last version I would say that all it really needed was a way to assign any custom iPhone alert to an incoming message. The current version gives options, but doesn’t allow you to use any alerts on the phone. That, however, is a customization, so no big deal, but this last version broke the attachments. Now when I attach anything from the this app side or to this app through the phone side, it doesn’t immediately show up. Sometimes you can exit the chat itself and go back in, and sometimes if you shut down Signal and reopen they will show, but most of the time I have to wait for a reply for it to show, so I never know if it was sent. I’ve also noticed that it sometimes puts my messages in the wrong order. For instance, I will see the reply above the original message. That, too, eventually fixes itself but it’s very annoying and has only started happening since the newest version was installed.

by 20932120123

In today's world do we really know if this works or not? There is no way to tell. If it works as described, and so far has been easy to use, that's great. The key here is to stop putting your life online for the entire world to see. It would be great if somehow you could tell if the thing works as described. In any event it seems better than other apps out there.
I used this to talk to my daughter when she was in St. Thomas because our data plan doesn't cover that area. We were both on wifi and it worked flawlessly. We incurred no extra charges. I'll keep this one around because of this and it's secure rating so I am increasing my rating to 5 stars.
Finally, this message app is bullet fast, like almost instant. Great app. 👍🏻 I like it 100% better then iMessages.

by No_names_not_taken

I love this app, and I try to get everyone I know to use it. There’s a lot of friction for that, unfortunately, but such is life. Thanks to the developers for making a secure mode of communication.

I’m giving this four stars for two reasons:
1) this app calls are much less reliable than regular Wi-Fi calls from other apps. I’m not really sure why this is, but it seems like when I call others sometimes the phone just doesn’t ring. I’ve called my wife’s phone while it was in the same room to test this, but I’ve seen it happen with others numbers too (I.e. it’s not just her phone from what I can tell). Dead reliable calling would really help me recruit more friends to Signal.

2) please please please make it so Signal can go into wide mode when the phone is turned on its side. For those of us with large hands and normal size iPhones typing on the portrait width keyboard is somewhere between annoying and painful. One must crook one’s thumb at pretty sharp angles to hit all the keys especially those on the palm adjacent side of the keyboard. I have no idea why Signal doesn’t have this feature when most apps seem to. Honestly if Signal Store didn’t allow typing in this fashion I may not have written this review!

Thanks again devs for a safe channel of communication.

by TrainMan5000

Guess who just joined this app! Any one of anyone on your phone contact list who just joined this app, or, better yet maybe even you! I really love the security feature of blasting to everyone in your contact list that has this app that you just joined this app! It's perfect for maintaining secrecy and discretion, letting everyone in my whole contacts with this app know I just joined this app helps me this app to them that security is one of my primary concerns. This way, anyone else trying to be discreet and secure is fully aware that I'm also available for secret, private p2p direct IM. It's kinda like, okay, if you're on this app and part of the elite secrecy, end-to-end encryption specialists, the very first thing I'd like to so is broadcast to everyone I know with Signal that I'm finally part of the club! Really pretty genius feature!!

by CodeGaucho

I started using this app about two years ago, after being disillusioned with Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts and WhatsApp. I tried Telegram and then this app. this app had some polish missing, but it was by far the best in terms of security and also in terms of my ability to communicate. I can easily keep conversations going on my phone and multiple desktops independently, something I believe no other secure chat application has, and I don't have to worry about big tech spying or censorship.

this app today is in my opinion a much better experience than Facebook or Google delivers, or even what you get from Telegram. The UI design is better than WhatsApp at this point. In fact, I noticed recently that Facebook Messenger copied the this app UI for giving arbitrary emoji responses to messages.

Download Signal . You won't regret it.

by TerraTrader

With everything going on in the world today, it's nice to know there are alternatives to having your private conversations listened to, or your texts read by anyone else except for the people you sent them to.

While I think most people are not involved in anything that would warrant any government agency from looking into the private conversations between people, I can understand the need for any government to have the right to acquire the permissions necessary for the purposes of national security.

In the United States, that bar and burden of proof to seek these exceptions is extremely high, as it should be. And, (at least at this point), they are extremely rare.

I am happy to have found a way to feel confident that my messages are not being scrutinized by any other eyes than those I intended to see the message.

Signal is easy to navigate and use, and the response is lightning fast. I have had very good experiences with texting and with voice calls as well, with the tools to know that the message was both sent and received. Sending a voice text is also easy and incredibly fast compared to other texting platforms.

The sending and receiving of large files is also very easy and fast.

I would highly recommend Signal if you're looking for a secure channel of communication with both text and voice.

by Snap_Chats989

This is simply the best privacy app with everything neatly bundled into it. It has a nice authentication feature, sms & mms messaging & disappearing messages with people [to keep them clean if you’d like], calls, and keeps it all private, app switch privacy [keeping the screen blank for privacy while switching apps so wandering eyes cannot see the screen], and many more features packed into this powerhouse. To anyone experiencing any issues with calls, make sure your notifications are on and properly set with Signal , and look into the settings in Signal itself and it easily shows how to have your calls show up with the name [if you would like to] or just a call without a name. The settings are a breeze and make it very easy to understand.

Very rarely you’ll have to re-register for push notifications, but that’s also very easily accomplished.

If I could rate higher than 5 stars I would. 10 stars out of 5 stars is more like it...

by Skye829

The perfect app. I love this for my long distance relationship. We don’t have to spend tons of money for international calls, we just use this app. Plus we each have tons of sticker packs and have so much fun sending the stickers and leaving each other voice messages. Love the sense of privacy as well. It’s great that this app also saves all your photos. I can easily go back and find his selfies or video attachments. Even a search feature for the chat so I can find a specific conversation if needed. Couldn’t hardly ask for a better app.

The only suggestions I would have is to have an edit option (like discord has) so I can fix typos easily. And I would like to be able to have that “delete for everyone” option be always available. Especially since all the media we send stays under the media tab, it would be nice to clear out photos or videos we don’t need anymore.

Thanks a bunch !

by Galib (The Player)

When I first installed this app after quitting Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp🤬, I loved Signal because of its concern for user privacy. Specially for End-to-End Encryption.😍 But the. After using some days I found that, i cant save photos and videos directly to my gallery. I was very disappointed because downloading every picture one by one bye opening them was very amnoying. But eventually you fixed this😍😍 Thank you so much for this thing. This was the only feature for what i used telegram. But this app still need one more thing to do. Work on your stickers. this app stickers are not that much unique and impression making just like Telegram. Telegram has the best emoji amd sticker with animations and everyone loves this. Please work on your stickers. & yes. Never betray your audience. Never share users data to any data brokers. Its a request. 😇 wish you all the best 🥰

by Tuums

C’mon people… Are you comfortable with any random person reading the messages you write to your friends or family? How easily can your OWN words be taken out of context and used against you? Think about it… How would you like a random person interpreting YOUR words with THEIR limited knowledge of who YOU are or who YOU are communicating with…Think about it.. Anyone who has the POWER to access your communications, and has the time and resources to do it OBVIOUSLY wants to compromise YOUR position.. Why make it easier for them??? PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES BY OFFERING THEM PRIVACY from people who would only harm NOT PROTECT you. use this app if you care about your thoughts, ideas, feelings, plans, locations, anything that could give an adversary an advantage over you… Play life smart. Survive.. Here is a simple tool built by people who value one of the few tenets that make our existence free… PRIVACY

by Dr. Bombed-HEY!

Our family chat groups moved from WhatsApp to this app after all the hullabaloo about Facebook abuse of privacy. I might guess that our group wasn’t the only ones looking for an alternative to FB-owned group chat. We’re still using this app, but we’re surprised at some basic flaws. You can only share one pic at a time, videos and pics won’t turn to landscape when you rotate your device. And now with a recent update they’ve added extra steps to see who has viewed your posts/responses. I’d think that this app would do everything they could to match and exceed the features and ease-of-use of WhatsApp, but if they are, they’re being extremely slow to do it. As I said, our family groups are still using it, but not enjoying it as much and as a result our rate of interaction has dropped by a fair amount.

by C Knopp

I was very happy to find an app with encryptions and not owned by Facebook. Unfortunately it does not reliably send/receive messages. Daily, I will get a message saying it was just delivered but when I open Signal , it was sent 20mins, 1hr, 2hrs before. Often I won’t get messages from hours ago until I send one out.
I’d also like to see the contact name on the screen after I’ve selected them to send an image to. Nobody wants a screenshot or photo accidentally going to the wrong person.
They also need to improve the desktop app. It loads every message that hasn’t been cleared and takes a VERY long time. They also need a Chrome desktop app available.
I do love that it doesn’t show online statuses...I look forward to going back to Signal in the future when it’s solved a few issues.

by Paanvaannd

A simple, open-source, cross-platform, feature-replete messaging app with good security practices... I used to think this was an impossibility. I’m glad it’s not.

I’ve convinced a few friends and family members to try it and they like it as well since it’s stable and works well without requiring complex setup and maintenance like handling (and learning how to properly use and secure) PGP keys.

Furthermore, the audio/video call quality is fantastic! I couldn’t believe how crisp and clear the audio was when communicating with loved ones overseas using poor to standard Internet connections. Truly phenomenal.

My 2 complaints (hence 4 instead of 5 stars) at the moment are:

1) No native iPad support. It’s the one mainstream device I and others own that I’m aware of without native support for this app.

2) No native sticker support. Yes, this is a superfluous feature for a privacy/security-oriented messaging application, but I think it should be a priority for implementation. More fun features—like rich links and GIFs which are already supported in this app—would help entice adopters. iMessage is fun to use because of support for extras like stickers, effects, and other rich media that add extra dimensions to conversations.

by NopheeJones

this app is great. You configure the settings to your liking & it’s very private. You can enable face-ID, Thumbprint, & a pin. It allows disappearing messages, & calls, even video calls. The video calls rival FaceTime, which is surprising because I’ve tried many different video call apps, all seem to be sub-par to FaceTime. However, this app is right there. I wish more were using it so the government can’t pry at our messages & companies like Facebook & Google can stay out of our conversations. Keeps us away from ad trackers with the combination of the VPN. None of your phone listening to you talking or typing.

4/5 stars simply because 5/5 makes no sense. People wouldn’t read the review & I want the company to make it better over time, not get complacent & do no future updates. It can improve in certain areas.

by Minerallad

Absolutely love Signal. Acclimating to it from iMessage user’s is very simple. As it’s interface is very straight-to. Love the encryption and decryption offered, not that I necessarily need it (being a normal, boring guy), but it is very secure to anyone that may. Like iMessage, you can sync your phone on your computer with the (free) application offered for Mac/PC to send messages at your workspace, without having your phone on you (and once again, the program is very user-friendly). I would recommend this app to anyone looking for a secure, efficient way to send encrypted texts ~ It’s replaced the iMessage slot on my phone ~ go ahead and give it a try, you’ll never want to switch back 😉

by Chihuacerdo

At first it was a little bit hard using the application. Not because it was bad but because I was so use to all the features other messaging applications had. I stick with this app for the privacy it provided but since the first time I downloaded they constantly update the application and add really useful features and make Signal more clean and easy to use. Right now I have almost every friend and family using it because privacy it’s important and the change and features you are going to left behind over time are less and less.

I really recommend the application! Plus, they actually care about your privacy.

by Meatguy813

Everything about Signal is pretty much spot on it is the best way to chat with your friends and not feel nervous of people watching. The timer feature is extremely useful in allows both parties to set a Time limit on the message very helpful. I have been using Signal for almost 2 years now and have sent all my friends over only way to communicate. Reason for writing this review is I would like to change one option if that is something you guys would consider and that is changing the calling feature so it gives you another menu so you don’t just click it and it calls right away and tells the user that you try to call them. Just make some other second screen that allows you to confirm the call but other than that Signal is perfect.

by Nahps

I love everything about this app EXCEPT the fact you can't remove people from a group chat. My business colleagues and I use this app mainly for business so when someone is no longer a part of a specific project we're unable to simply remove them from the group chat. You have to create an entirely new chat and add everyone back which is a very annoying process.

Another thing is when someone calls me from this app, it doesn't show me whose calling unless I specifically have the this app app open and am on this app at the moment. I'm not sure if that varies depending on what type of phone someone is using or not but I have an iPhone 6. It would be nice to address that as well if possible.

by AnalogInterface

My friends and I switched to this app about a year and a half ago. The main reason: pictures and video. Text messages would heavily compress all of the images we would try to send, and any GIFs or Videos we would send to each other would suffer a similar fate. So eventually, we decided to try this messaging app. And after this long, I can firmly state that it’s one of the best messaging apps that I’ve ever used.

WhatsApp was out of the running when we wanted to switch away from texting, as was Discord. Neither has the strong security with encryption that this app demonstrated.

this app proved to be the perfect messaging app for us. And since we send so many message and images (and we don’t want to keep them all) this app provides the great feature to keep storage space free, and keep our group chat uncluttered.

Just a few quality-of-life improvements would make this a superb messaging app, such as multi-image or video sending. The current process is arduous with a “one image at a time” approach. Other than that, there really isn’t much to complain about.

It works, and it works well.

by Nevs1!

Nickfrikiname is very wrong! This is a great app and I've always promoted Signal to my friends. He's upset because of his particular situation. What he failed to understand is, this app really does protect your privacy, from anyone and everyone. Unfortunately in this world we live in privacy seems to be very scarce and this app helps bring that back! I do wish the phone call feature was a tad bit better as far as the recipient being able to hear what I'm saying, but I totally understand that being encrypted can't be a easy task and probably very complex but at least they are trying. Recovering old messages shouldn't be an option and should stay that way no matter what. This is what Signal is built around and how they promote it!

by Talldarkshark

this app is just AMAZING! Privacy eccentric, dark mode, no lame video statuses, just what it's supposed to do Messaging. It has useful features like dark mode, disabling the typing indicator, disabling notifications doesn't prompt you to enable them back again. For privacy focused people like myself I do not require chat backups so that I can dwell on the conversations I've shared with people and keep them forever happily ever after, I'd happily pass that opportunity. In a future update I'd like to request for a smaller Unanswered Outgoing call 'bubble' in my chat history, as it takes tooo much space. A HUGE shoutout to Open Whisper Systems for creating an application like this. Thank you very much!