Messaging app Signal has now decided to end SMS services for Android users, stating ‘SMS support no longer makes sense’. In a lengthy blog post, the platform made the announcement while detailing the reasons behind such a move.
The users will get several months to transition away from SMS in signal, to export their text messages to another app and let the people know they might want to switch to Signal or other channel if not. The makers said the change will affect users only if they used Signal as their default SMS app on Android.
In case the customers don't use Signal as their default SMS app on Android, they will need to select a new default SMs app on their phones. In case they want to keep it, the users need to export their SMS messages from Signal to that new app.
The users need to go to the Settings in their Signal accounts, select Chats and then SMS/MMS. Once enabled, they will need to export messages and pick a different default SMS app.
Signal said one of the big reasons behind removing SMS support for Android app is due to security reasons. The app said plaintext SMS messages are inherently ‘insecure’ and leak sensitive metadata, placing users' data in the hands of telecom companies.
{{/usCountry}}Signal said one of the big reasons behind removing SMS support for Android app is due to security reasons. The app said plaintext SMS messages are inherently ‘insecure’ and leak sensitive metadata, placing users' data in the hands of telecom companies.
{{/usCountry}}The platform said when it started supporting plaintext messages, the times were different as data plans were expensive and inaccessible in many parts of the world. Secondly, Signal said the users had been hit with high messaging fees after assuming that the SMS messages they sent were Signal messages only to find out that it was SMS and were charged by the telecom service providers.
The messaging app cited serious UX and design implications to inviting SMS texts on live besides Signal messages in the interface.
“It’s important that people don’t mistake SMS messages sent or received via the Signal interface as secure and private when in fact they are not. And while we flag the difference between them in the app, we can only do so much on the design side to prevent such misunderstandings", it added.
Like WhatsApp, Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging service. It is a free to use app with a tagline ‘hello to privacy’. Created by former WhatsApp co-founder Brien Acton, it does not allow back up chats to Google Drive or iCloud.