Signal is Moxie and I personally don't trust Moxie and have some issues with his attitude. Does this make signal unsafe, no of course not but I don't trust it even if the encryption is top notch.
Also remember you must have a phone number to use signal.
Signal hides metadata better however it's based in the US, you are required to use your phone number as an identifier and Moxie refuses to allow Signal to be decentralised. Security-wise they both use the double-ratchet algorithm to encrypt messages.
Signal as a network is controlled by a single individual, or small staff of individuals. There is a central server. Also there is no way to use signal anonymously.
It is useful for talking to people you know in real life, but that's it.
As to the user friendliness, I find more infuriating bugs (and "features") with signal these days, although that was not always the case. For example, if history is not restored on launch it is lost forever, this is a problem if you're e.g. going to a privacy hostile nation and need your history clean for the trio but want to restore it when you get back. Another particularly heinous violation is that the signal app has code in it that slows it's functionality if the version is out of date, pressuring you to update.
> Another particularly heinous violation is that the signal app has code in it that slows it's functionality if the version is out of date, pressuring you to update.
I agree Briar always has seemed even more decentralized and security conscious than Matrix. I tried to use Briar with my family for awhile and it worked well but its always on function was a bit difficult on mobile (it seems like something that would be worthwhile for some circumstances but maybe not worth the cost for just chatting about groceries).
However, in reading the article, they discussed group communication functions in Matrix, which were absent from Briar for awhile.
They also mention that Matrix is planing on introducing mesh networking, which is very similar to Briar. I found this extremely interesting. It seems like Briar and Matrix are sort of coming full circle to each other. I'd love to see either or both take off.
My issue with Matrix is the philsophy attached to it. The founders and its most vitriolic supports are activists, through and through, and view Signal as a messaging app for activists.
When the Cellebrite malware was added to Signal by the developer(s) I mentioned that Cellebrite was used by legitimate phone carriers to transfer data between an old phone and a new phone.
I asked why my elderly mother, with whom I speak to over Signal, should be liable for a potentially broken Cellebrite machine (costing thousands) if the Signal malware were to break it. There's no precedent on whether or not she'd be liable, so there's a possibility she would be.
She never consented to her phone being used as a weapon. She doesn't understand the stuff going on. She uses Signal because it's simple, easy to understand, I'm just a few button presses away (we don't live near each other) and the call quality is unmatched.
I got a few very angry responses, telling me to uninstall Signal if I wasn't willing to be an activist for their agenda. They were perfectly okay with their philosophy being projected onto their users and didn't see any issue in the fact that users did not consent to it.
Which is strange, because they're annoyed with other Big Tech firms doing... well, the same exact thing.
I really hope Matrix improves its UX since I would immediately switch my family over to it if they could just understand how it worked.
Also remember you must have a phone number to use signal.