[jacobgold]

Signal users who want to use it with their agents are running an unofficial extracted-and-patched `signal-cli` off GitHub. It's based on an archived official Signal repo and then patched for years by some random accounts. It looks incredibly untrustworthy.

Meanwhile Telegram has bot support and added features specifically for interacting w/agents. It's incredibly easy to write clients and work with it. No one should use it, and I never would, but you can see why it's winning.

Signal's lack of features (like an official Signal CLI) and bots (even attached to existing phone numbers and limited to the owner) is making people less secure than they could be. And unfortunately there are no great alternatives.

[stavros]

Wait, the open source cli of an E2E encrypted messenger seems untrustworthy, but the official API of a completely unencrypted messenger seems trustworthy?

I guess "we can definitely spy on your messages" is a lot more honest than "we are very unlikely to spy on your messages", if it turns out spying takes place.

[jacobgold]

You're getting the issues confused.

Signal does not have an official Signal CLI (or method of creating integrations) so users are compromising their use of Signal by using heavily patched and out-of-date code written by unknown third parties.

Telegram has support for integrations and clients but isn't a service anyone should trust.

[maqp]

Telegram offering bells and whistles that leaks everything to the service provider is not an argument for Telegram the same way "it launches the video game" isn't an argument for video game cracks that carry ransomware.

Both are called Trojan Horses and are considered malware.

[stavros]

Isn't that exactly what I said?