[viraptor]

You don't need to release a non-verifying client. Just one that generates a key which is known to the other side. What about existing clients? "Your identity in the database became corrupted and can't be recovered. Would you like to generate a new key and continue using the service?" or just release a version which is both verifying and lying to you about which key has been verified... or a low effort "hey, new phone, key changed".

[danielheath]

Sure. My point was more that - at least on android - you can compare decompiled binaries with the open source implementation, presumably making it reasonably likely that it’d be noticed and reported on.

[wizzwizz4]

Unless they decline to publish their source code for over a year, again. https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/11101