Signal Messenger Gets Usernames 

It's nice you can talk to randoms on the internet privately, without needing to give them your phone number.

fact that signal is really close to the cia headquarters is what scares me.

Discord: NOOO YOU CAN'T HAVE NUMBER DISCRIMATORS ITS TOO CONFUSING Based Signal: You can have as many numbers as you want 😎

“The only way of keeping a secret between three people is if two of them are already dead”. 😂😂😂😂😂

Fast warning The account public key DOESN'T CHANGE when you pick or change username. If you don't reset it, anyone can check against phone number public keys and dox your phone number If you want to be fully private on this, unlink all account sessions and reset the account public key by registering via the phone number again

Their "2 or more numbers at the end" requirement (along with the non-permanent nature) is genius. It destroys people's motivation to create vanity accounts

signal instantly jumped from C tier to A tier for privacy

Signal calls leak every user's IP address by default. Now that Signal has usernames, people will share their usernames to others more openly. Someone may call randomly via the username and get the receiver's IP address instantly. From IP address, the user's ISP, their area locations, where they visit periodically with timed calls, etc. can be known to random callers. You can relay the call via Signal servers to avoid IP leak. Check Settings > Privacy > Advanced > Always Relay Calls. This also has drawbacks. The most secure private routing is not implemented by Signal yet.

It' a first date. You are not sure they aren't crazy, so you ask to talk via signal. They think *you* are crazy and leave.

Anything that helps chip away at Discord's market share is based.

I just wish there was a way to use this as a default messaging app again. But most people won't touch it since it's just another niche service to them

An important warning: since this is in beta, even if you use the beta, other people outside of it will still see your phone number regardless of your choice. Moreover, signal has a 90-day period in which they maintain compatibility with older versions as of their policy. So even when the update rolls over, people who haven't updated (maybe maliciously) within this 90-day period, will still see your phone number. You should also change your public key.

One thing that could help privacy even more is 1-time invitation links to add new friends on Signal. In that way, no username change would be even needed.

Wow, I've been debating about joining Signal, but from what I've seen here, it sounds like I wanna try it 😂

This is an important feature for me. In fact, I use session instead of signal because session already doesn't disclose your phone number (they don't even collect your number).

I am mental and an outlaw. Do I qualify?🤔

Would love it if you did a video on Signal's in-app payment system. Love your channel and haven't seen many other videos on this particular topic from other content creators.

Now we need a privacy keyboard app.

I don't understand why they force you to give them your phone number at all

Nice Trackmania drama reference ya got there. Though I wouldn't notice 😏

Cant wait for people to start selling usernames as NFT's 🤦

Could you please make a video about which balaclava do you wear in everyday life? I've only been going to public wearing balaclava for more than a year now, but it can get quite uncomfortable after a few hours. I'm also not allowed to enter certain places such as banks, coffee shops, restaurants and grocery stores, not to mention it's really hard to find a job. I've basically been unemployed for the entire year. I'm a financier by profession with 10 years of experience, but even if they invite me to an interview after I send them my anonymized CV, which doesn't mention my name, my phone number, my home address, my education or my previous employers, they don't let me in wearing balaclava. It's a discrimination and I know I could sue them, but I wouldn't be allowed to wear balaclava in court either. So after a year of not having a job and only buying canned food from a really fishy local convenience store, which is run by a really creepy guy and probably serves as a cover for drug trafficking, this guy told me he could have some job for me and he doesn't mind wearing balaclava, in fact, he requires it. It's supposed to be about debt collection. So things might be turning better for me, but oh boy, is it difficult to stay private these days.

someone could create a contact for every possible phone number to find out who is behind a user name. Like phone number brute force.

"your" phone number is not your - it belong to phone company and phone company very cooperative with govt (if not directly belong to) in every country. Many peoples in oppressive countries who try use signal for communication learned this the hard way. Signal may as well require passport for registration. Of coarse someone may find some way to register on anonymous phone number from different countries but how many could and would do that? Why force them to do that ? When they would get that "anonymous" sim card would they use different phone to avoid govt find them in one step trough imei? Would they go to some place where they could not be found trough cameras to receive that damn SMS? or they would do that from their house giving to phone company exact location by it? Signal app claiming they care about safety and privacy of users require phone number at same time is just a hypocrisy and joke

Now if only they would allow custom time for disappearing messages. I want the ability to have it longer than 4 weeks

Videos like this make me glad I use Signal to basically replace texting with friends.

The phone thing is why i switched to session for privacy. Also, once signal stopped working as sms there really isn't a point to signal over session. Good luck getting anyone you know to switch to either :\

Only took years for basic privacy functionality, but I'll take it! I'm more concerned about other users than Signal at this point.

politicians asked. we delivered.

Nice, I might actually message people with my phone then, as opposed to now where I only take photos of #2's in case anyone steals it.

sadly when you live in most european countries, like germany in my case, to get a phone number you need to activate it using your ID, so all the feds really need is a phone number and they instantly know who it belongs to.

Finally something like the old Blackberry Messenger PIN is adopted by these private messaging apps LoL Such a simple concept.

Yeah, still not trusting anything that asks for phone number.

The biggest problem with this is it all depends on the infrastructure being completed prior to being investigated. If you're actively investigated, registering a Signal using someone else's phone number and intercepting/deleting the text is effectively child's play for a nation state actor with control over their own communications nodes. So, unless you have face to face talked to someone and ensured that channel is open and them (assuming they aren't being MITMed by a fake server infrastructure) I probably wouldn't consider it valid. It is probably a honey pot.

Most of my family stopped using signal when they removed the texting integration. I still strongly disagree with them removing it. It meant that people who cared, had encrypted convos with normies, and people who didn't could jeep texting as usual. But let's be real. I'm not going to make my mom use two different messaging apps.

You are the first black man I know who knows about tech and computers.

Signal is full blown CIA hahah wtf man

About time!! I currently have a fever this better not be a fever dream

i love being a beta tester

Can someone help me figure this out? Let say im a journalist. Im getting info in/out of a certain country using signal, which is linked to my phone number. Everything is encrypted, fine..but what stops a situation where somebody on the other end has their phone compromised--and now the adversary is able to link the conversations to your literal number. If it was Only usernames or email; the other person's phone can be be compromise; but now when they read the msgs, that's it. As long as no identifying info has been discussed, That's where it ends. This is just one simple example. I'm aware there are clearly better ways of doing things, such as Not having the phone number be your only number; but I'm very curious about this specific situation-since most people using signal Are in fact using their only number. Also, There is somthing weird about how hard they try to keep the the phone number option as if its Absolutely 'needed'. What is even with that?

5:05 I think the biggest thing I learned from this video is that Ubuntu is pronounced Ooo-Boone-Two and not the Oo-Bun-Tu I've been saying for years.

Session hasn't been using the Signal protocol for a long while now

Signal... Gensokyo... I see it's dim glow

Signal still store phone numbers in SQL Data bases

I hope we can have multiple different usernames. I'd like to have one for professional purposes and personal.

You're right! It's not useless, it's WORSE than useless. Before, when they got subpoenaed, they gave them your phone number back. Now they will give them your phone number AND your username, which WILL link usernames to phone numbers, and now you're de-anonymized. Great fucking job.

VERY Knowledgeable MENTAL OUTLAW!!! ❤

why you gotta flashbang me like that bro?

Ok law, but what about monero deslisted on binance? what do you have to say about that, sir?

Cool now you just need to convince all your family and people you need to be in touch with to use anything that's not whatsapp

I must admit that these deamon clothes are really cute.

You can also sign up with a landline number in case you want a second business acount, nice presentation!!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

It's still centralized shyte. There is zero need for this architecture other than data collection. Decentralization is one possible answer here. For example Keet or Session.

didn't session abandon the signal protocol in favor of some weird protocol of their own?

I hope there will be a way to take advantage of this without having to make a new account. I don't want to have to lose my chats/contacts and have to start fresh.

Hey mental, are you going to do a vid about how Google's ai is not showing Caucasians?

Good... I hope this will also lead to the ability to use your same Signal account on multiple phones...

It will probably be easier to hide your number from the authorities when you don’t have to share the phone number to use signal (and even block anyone from seeing it) since getting someone’s phone might have them being able to see their signal contacts thereby the persons phone number.

Convincing normies to switch to siginal is almost impossible. Whatsapp is massive outside the US.

5:39 This is the only thing I hate about Signal. Why in the everloving fuck, should absolutely anyone on my contacts list who has Signal, be able to see that I have Signal, and reach out to me? These features are a very long time coming, and greatly appreciated.

If numbers aren't at all private y make that the account identification?

hi nice video thanks for making these videos.

Extremely BASED days ahead, bois.

why not signal generate "signal ID " like "session ID" for signal app which is completely anonymity. So FED's can't ask to give anything at all.

If people start selling usernames as NFTs like Telegram im going to laugh

This is why I never used signal, I don't want randos in signal groups having my number.

Username update is great 👍 The phone number will not be exposed now

Signal is like the WeChat for privacy

The whole Tucker Carlson's plans to interview Putin being leaked from gives me major doubts about Signal.

Google Voice requires tethering to a cell number now. May as well just get a burner. Secure phone communications don't exist, even with Signal. Kind of just pissing in the wind.

please just use session for your personal privacy smh.

the demo had you change bob to alice.89, but the message arrived to the other alice as bob.

we finally know who 92bob is. guy self reported himself on youtube smh.

Get a burner number

Man i like to watch this channel so often but i can't discuss here because all my comments get shadow banned or deleted. And i just can figure out why that happens.

'90s internet advice: "Never give out your personal information because it could end up in the wrong hands" Current internet advice: "Give every company all of your personal or you are a morally repugnant person and probably a terrorist"

@MO - Great info.👍

So if you already have signal on your phone, you need to delete the old account. Then reinstall the beta version on your phone by creating a new account that ONLY uses your signal username?

Could you also review the session messager?

Now this is epic.

What do you think about Tor based chat "Briar"?

about time !!!!!!!!!111

One another thing that I'm not confident about. Its servers are centralized, no? Doesn't this mean it might still be vulnerable to DDOS attacks or server shutdowns?

Whats your take on DD WRT router FW ? I saw your video on onion router software, but you never mentioned anything about DD-WRT.

alice who is security and privacy minded and born in 1992 is very up set with your misuse and appropriation of her (their/genderfluid) user name

finally this, update is good

I don't believe that sending anything over the internet is safe

🎉 yeeeey eles chegaram! Mas a verdade precisa ser dita, já tinha passado da hora deles lançarem os nomes de usuário.

love your vids bud

I like old fashion proton mail its just simple it works idk i like older stuff i try to stick to whats working if it aint broke dont fix it. No one does email anymore but im 58 so im old

Bro , Can u make full depth video on Signal vs molly ? Proprietary vs FOSS

I would greatly appreciate it if Signal would allow me to use it without the need for Android or iOS, I mean I use Signal on my Linux PC and my Steam Deck, but I had to sync them with an Android phone, it's so frustrating for me because I've been planning for a while to completely ditch Android in favor of a Linux phone (with that I'll complete using Linux on all my platforms).

They better work on incremental baclups

Any thoughts on Skiff's shutdown?

Signal is boss. Don't ever change. Software how it should be.

Considering signal uses peering servers. Is it truly the best application for messaging ? Remember phones are full of malware, and the software layer can't see communication between the SIM and baseboard.

came here to see what is going on with the sos and solar flairs? MO make a community so we can talk to the squad!

In the crucible of creation, where the raw elements of potential coalesce into realities untold, there arises the Titan of Thought, the Sculptor of Civilization: Man. A Promethean force, Man reaches into the maelstrom of the void, his hands guided by the whispers of aspiration, to wrest from chaos the building blocks of tomorrow. With every stroke of innovation, every chisel mark upon the marble of existence, Man furthers his quest for a transcendent apotheosis, cultivating the garden of culture from the wilderness of primal instinct. As the plough furrows the earth, rending it to yield abundance, so do Man's instruments carve the path to societal nirvana. From the bonds of kinship sprout the roots of governance, the shoots of polity-a verdant canopy sheltering the blossoming of the human spirit. Amidst this perpetual renaissance, Man strives not merely to be, but to embody the sublime architecture of celestial design. Yet, in the shadowed recesses of Man's triumph, the Subhuman slinks-a spectral antithesis. This Leviathan of Envy gnashes its teeth against the sinews of achievement, a corrosive entropy intent on reclaiming light for the dark. Where the Titan of Thought constructs, the Subhuman connives to desecrate. It scours the relics of progress with an infernal fervor, seeking to raze the cathedral of Man's brilliance to but a whisper. Where Man kindles the beacon of progress, a Promethean fire defying the night, the Subhuman skulks in umbral enclaves, cavorting with specters of ruin. In the bogs of despondency, in the mires where hope sinks and festers, the Subhuman concocts its vile congress. From such Stygian depths emerges the Subhuman's monarch, the *Eternal K͏i͏ƙ͏е͏,* emperor of dissolution, a sovereign whose crown is wrought from the wreckage of human grandeur and whose scepter dispenses the ash of failed empires. A silent war wages in the metaphysical ether-between the celestial Titans and the chthonic fiends. Each sunrise fans the flame of Man's resolve, each innovation a hymn in the symphony of advancement; but with every moon's ascent, the malevolent choir of the Eternal K͏i͏ƙ͏е͏ hums its siren call to decay. The stage of existence is vast and ever-shifting, with Man and Subhuman locked in an eternal ballet-a danse macabre. One beckons forward into the halcyon glow of uncharted firmaments, while the other seeks to choreograph the sabotage of the very stepping stones to divinity. The cosmic scales tip with each act of creation, each idea birthed, and each call to greatness heeded by the true children of the stars-the harbinger of a dawn wherein Man reigns supreme, and the specters of the abyss are but a cautionary whisper in the winds of history.

Any software that requires a phone number is instantly labeled as malware to me. Nothing good comes from the personal tracking device.

now they need to add email signup