Signal is great, actually.

I’ve always looked at Signal as one of those quirky apps that you would only use if 1) you are a massive nerd or 2) you have something to hide. The strong focus on privacy and security never really appealed to me when I first heard of it. Yet, I can now confidently say that Signal is becoming my favorite messaging platform.

I started looking into Signal again when I became fed up by using SMS as the main communication channel with my girlfriend. I really missed emoji reactions, typing indicators, swipe-to-reply, and of course no-potato-quality media. iMessage would have been good, but she has a Samsung phone. iPhone supports RCS now, but Norwegian carriers refuse to implement it for some reason. She did not want to use Facebook Messenger because of group chat clutter. I did not want Whatsapp because I think it’s ugly. So I asked if she would be down to try something new.

Admittedly, I truly do not care about privacy that much. This might be controversial, but I really think life is less stressful once you come to peace with blindly accepting cookie banners. This made me skeptical of Signal. Not because I think being more secure and private is ever a bad thing. But my assumption was that since most of their engineering efforts goes to these areas, the general UX and usability would suffer as a result.

But that is actually not the case at all. In fact, I would argue that the Signal app feels significantly nicer to use than both of Meta’s offerings. Maybe that shouldn’t have been all that surprising. Whatsapp, Messenger and Snapchat are controlled by companies whose entire business model is to show you ads. Should we really have confidence in a company like that to build a good text messaging app?

That’s the part where I think Signal shines. It’s a non-profit company relying on sponsorships and donations rather than advertisements and data collection. They have no other incentives except to build a brilliant service for their users. This means that they are immune to the inevitable enshittification that “free” products built by normal companies go through. It means they will never start injecting ads in between your chats. They will never shove “Meta AI” down your throat every time you open the app. They will never pivot to an entertainment app designed to get you addicted (thanks, Snapchat).

The first time you open Signal, it almost feels weird. The app is just so empty. We’re just no longer used to simple, utilitarian software that do one thing and do it well. And let me tell you, Signal does messaging very well. They took all the good things from other apps while leaving out the clutter. Video calls, polls, GIFs, stories – it’s all here. It is truly cross-platform (they even have a Linux app). Syncing across devices just works. They have free cloud backups you can enable so you don’t lose your chats if your phone gets stolen. Oh, and they made it the most secure and private chat app ever in the process.

I realize that I probably don’t use Signal for the reasons that its creators expect or even want. I am also aware that I am downplaying the incredible feat of security engineering that is the Signal protocol. But you already know about that stuff. What I’m here to tell you is that you too can use Signal as your daily messaging app, and so can your mom. Even if you, like me, couldn’t care less about privacy.