Post by @aboutsignal@mastodon.social

@aboutsignal@mastodon.social "Signal Login is not a free alternative registration method. Signal requires users who choose to register without a phone number to make a one-time payment. The price at launch is $2.99 / € 3.49, although this may vary by region and currency."

No thanks, I'm not using your honeypot app.

@aboutsignal paywalled garbage.

@ariarhythmic average fedi ppl when a service a company provides is not free forever:

@owl Oh go fuck yourself. Signal is acting exactly like a honeypot right now, all at the expense of users' privacy and autonomy.

@aboutsignal I wonder if this means that Signal will be usable on tablets.

@alisynthesis yes Signal already supports tablets, and Signal Login registration also works on Android tablet. Added a note about tablets to Availability, good to mention

@aboutsignal @alisynthesis Oh interesting. I have just aquired a tablet on android 16 so might give it a go. I used signal on the iPhone before and loved it, it's so accessible with VoiceOver for the blind

@TomGrant91 @alisynthesis Signal Login is now in beta only, but you can already link your android tablet to your phone, or register your android tablet with phone number. Here's some steps to link your tablet, with screenshots if needed: https://aboutsignal.com/news/signal-is-now-available-on-android-tablets/

@aboutsignal signal login = cards number ;) що і коли може піти не так.
#signalapp

@aboutsignal why is it 30% more expensive when paying with EUR than USD? Is it because Europeans are more privacy sensitive, so it's more likely you can extort this amount from them?

This also makes the claim of spam prevention implausible: Spammers will just change their locale to be in the US to pay less.

@aboutsignal
It's funny though how things go in circles: Originally, Signal was a paid app, but nobody wanted to pay, so they made the app free and used public funding to grow a significant user base. Now that they have this large amount of users, they can move to be paid again, because users are forced to use their walled garden just like they're forced to use WhatsApp, Telegram or Discord (depending on location and communities).

Use decentralized systems like #XMPP or #Matrix instead.

@pixelschubsi

While I agree that XMPP and/or Matrix is a great idea, I also think Signal is great.

We have gotten very used to, in the last 20 or so years, that "everything must be free". And that is also one of the reasons we have shit platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others; where the users and their data, is actually the price.

When we did "Shareware" in the 80s and 90s, there were similar problems.

Just my two cents.

@aboutsignal

@joho @aboutsignal I don't think all people say "everything must be free". As long as 1 in 100 doesn't think that it pays for the others, it's not an issue. The economics for instant messaging are that hosting cost per user are extremely cheap (less than 5ct/year) that's why it's enough if 1 in 100 users donates 10€ a year to cover the server cost plus 5€ for the humans involved. With a userbase of the size of Signal, that easily pays dozens of developers and admins.

@pixelschubsi

I think a lot of (too many) people are reluctant to pay for a lot of things Internet.

The point (for me) isn't that "someone can pay for someone else". It's that I'd happily pay for a service I consider to be of value for me as long as the price is within my budget and the service lives up to a basic foundation of privacy, integrity, data protection, etc.

This includes open source stuff too, to which I have either donated funds, or contributed code in many cases.

@aboutsignal

@joho @pixelschubsi @aboutsignal

A monster differance with Sigal and XMPP that people in the Fediverse SHOULD like is that XMPP is decentrized...hosted by 1,000's of independent servers.

I just dont understand why that is lost on folks in the fediverse....

@bob@bots.mpaq.org @joho@mastodon.online @pixelschubsi@troet.cafe @aboutsignal@mastodon.social Signal actively harassed federated forks into shutting down. So they are a no go for me.

@nigel @joho @pixelschubsi @aboutsignal thank you, another reson not to use a system that trains yet another AI on you AND is controlled by ONE org.

Ive been running XMPP servers for YEARS as far back as it was called Jabber. Then you have coders trying to reinvent the wheel like Matrix

@pixelschubsi The difference is mostly explained by VAT which is around 20% in most European countries. The €3.49 price includes VAT, whereas US prices generally don't include sales tax upfront.

USD/EUR exchange rates also fluctuate, so there may simply be a regional pricing threshold involved as well.

But we're an unofficial account, so for the exact reasoning behind the pricing, you'd have to ask Signal directly

@aboutsignal @signalapp @Mer__edith

VAT rate in Germany is 19%, not 30%. Also how is the VAT rate relevant for spam prevention? Isn't the only thing that matters for spam prevention the lowest offered price anywhere in the world, because spammers know to use VPNs and stuff? Every premium charged to users elsewhere can't help with spam prevention.

@aboutsignal so, will you also offer anonymous payment methods?

@brabo we're an unofficial account, about Signal, we don't have more details on that

@aboutsignal "but currently only offer Play Store in-app payments, which requires Play Services."
meh