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by ale42 1336 days ago
Because it can suffer the same problem WhatsApp had, because it's centralized. If something on their infrastructure goes down, it might have consequences for all users. This is not the case for distributes solutions like Matrix. (I actually use Signal, though, and not Matrix, because the latter, although it has many advantages, has a relatively bad UX compared to Signal, or at least used to, and it's hard to get contacts to get to use it...)
1 comments
sneak 1336 days ago
Centralized management does not mean centralized infrastructure. Any of these systems could distribute the APIs and message delivery infra across multiple independent jurisdictions, regions, and providers, and do clientside load balancing.

The fact that these systems are centralized in management does not mean that they need to have any SPOFs.

Also, the Apple App Store and iOS activation servers are the biggest SPOFs of all. Without them, even with a brand new working device, you can't activate it or install apps to communicate.

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KoftaBob 1336 days ago
> Centralized management does not mean centralized infrastructure. Any of these systems could distribute the APIs and message delivery infra across multiple independent jurisdictions, regions, and providers, and do clientside load balancing.

While true, Signal hasn't done this as far as I know. Until they do, their infrastructure is just as centralized as WhatsApps.

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sneak 1336 days ago
WhatsApp's infrastructure is not centralized; I would bet that this outage was caused by an engineering mistake, not by the failure of some datacenter or cable.

They are owned/managed by the company that popularized "move fast and break things" (though to be clear I do not think that they intentionally take this approach with WA or IG or the FB advertising infrastructure).

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jraph 1336 days ago
> WhatsApp's infrastructure is not centralized; I would bet that this outage was caused by an engineering mistake, not by the failure of some datacenter or cable.

If one engineering mistake can take it down, it's not decentralized. Or an action, not necessarily a mistake. It's at least somewhat centralized. An individual can be asked to take it down. In a correctly decentralized service, that can't happen.

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