[hlru]

I used to be a "fan" of TextSecure, but have become disillusioned lately. The development have always been slow. Very few people use it, even among my geek friends. Convincing people to use it is hard as well. Confusion over what it does, having to give out their phone number and no desktop client doesn't help. When I'm actually in need of encryption it doesn't even work, since Google Play services are blocked in China. I personally agree with the team behind hemlis, it's to late to become mainstream. Not that I expect most people to care. TextSecure fulfills it role as a political and technical wank.

[rhblake]

I've used TextSecure since sometime last year and my impression is that development has been speeding up in the past few months. [0] Seems like there's a new version every week. Most recent update brought a nicer UI, week before that "quick reply" from notifications, .. it really is very slick these days, and it works so well as a drop-in replacement that I've had no problem making my whole family (and various friends) use it. Not much explaining needed: you send texts just like before, but if the other person also uses TextSecure it's - well - secure (and free) and you don't have to think about it.

[0] https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure/commits/master

[NotSammyHagar]

There are too many different encrypted texting apps and no market winner. How does text secure compare to Bleep by the bitorrent people, for example?

For there to be enough users, we need public proclamations of support from Bruce Schneier or and maybe Moxie, celebs like that. Maybe interoperability.

[wtbob]

This. I used to recommend TextSecure to all my friends, but it didn't interact well with other services, and then IIRC it stopped working with SMSes entirely.

[snikeris]

TextSecure handles SMSes well. It doesn't support encrypted SMS anymore, but that's not a big deal.

I've been using TextSecure for awhile now even though I only communicate w/ one other person that uses it.

[wtbob]

> It doesn't support encrypted SMS anymore, but that's not a big deal.

Well, it's kinda a big deal if that was the entire reason one was using it…