Over the past few years, Signal has been known for its significant secure and private atmosphere and the wealth of features provided to its users.
This is because Signal chats are end-to-end encrypted; neither Signal, your telephone company, nor the government can read the messages you send and receive from other users.
How does the “end-to-end encryption” process work?
The process works by encrypting a sender’s message so that only the intended recipient’s device can unlock it.
Encryption itself is not a unique feature. Messaging apps like iMessage, Telegram, and Whatsapp all do this. But unlike other apps, Signal’s source code is publicly available, so experts have been able to push and push its defenses for years, strengthening it in the process.
On Signal, group chats are also encrypted, which means the Signal service has no record of your group memberships, group titles, group avatars, or group attributes.
The beta version of Signal has a host of additional features
Signal has updated its features in a beta to create “new groups”. You can easily set up regular group chats or “legacy group” chats.
Group features in Signal include:
- The ability to invite members via a group link or QR code;
- @mentions in chat;
- Admin commands to edit group information, add and remove members, and adjust the timeout for messages;
- The size limit for Signal groups is 1,000 members;
Key Features of Other Signals
- Similar to other messaging apps, Signal is free on iPhone, Android, Mac, and PC. Users can also have one-to-one conversations to send images, videos, web links, voice messages, etc. They can even send and react to messages with emojis, much like on Slack and Discord.
- Signal users can lock the app with the same passcode or fingerprint scan they normally use to lock their phone if they’re concerned about someone accessing the Signal app from their phone.
- Signal requires a phone number to join the app. You can sign up with a Google Voice number to keep yours private. Apple users should visit their Privacy settings in the app and disable “Show calls in recent calls” to prevent their history from syncing to the cloud.
- Users can also set their messages to disappear in time or photos after a single viewing.
In conclusion, Signal is the safest messenger where you can simultaneously enjoy your private conversations; you have a wide range of tools to manage this privacy.
