Someone in that thread notes that when you install the Signal APK from here [1] it "doesn’t get updates tho", but this isn't the case. Signal will update itself; you get a notification to update. Often earlier than the Play Store, probably due to its reputation to randomly delay updates.

[1] https://signal.org/android/apk/

Well that's timely, and a bummer. I was just wondering about this yesterday, I use signal on my primary phone and Molly on a secondary phone.

Signal got an update yesterday and when I saw the notification I couldn't remember the last time Molly was updated...

TIL: The official Signal app can now use one account, shard over two devices.

This was my main reason to use Molly over Signal.

https://aboutsignal.com/news/signal-allows-iphones-to-be-lin...

The incorporated 501c3 named Signal is, in IT terms, a vendor. Is it not?

The Signal client software is open source and some of the clients have reproducible builds. The Signal server software is open source, though has a history of being over a year out of date at some points. Other deployments of this server software for production use are rare.

Suppose you configured an instance of the Signal server software and others you know ran also a somewhat modified Signal client that could access that instance of the Signal server software.

But the centralized namespace of the hosted Signal service hosted by the incorporated 501c3 named Signal would not be accessible through that server instance now would it.

And, as dictated by the incorporated vendor of the centralized namespace, and other reasons, in practice, this client would have to run as a separate piece of software. "Another app".

This is vendor lock-in.

The service hosted by the 501c3 named Signal seems widely open yet is a permissioned namespace. A physical location tracking number aka phone number or a credit/debit card is required to access the namespace. This is for slaves. The profane.

  Open Signal on your phone to keep your account active

This vendor is abusive.

And, I don't think this is what Moxie wanted.

Signal 501c3 is a centralized service. XMPP and Matrix are decentralized/federated. SimpleX is distributed.

Sometimes I get the feeling that Signal hates users who aren't total normies. Unified Push, which works flawlessly on Molly, could easily be implemented in the regular client. Just as they could easily offer a Google free version for F-Droid or simply for people who want nothing to do with Google. But they just refuse. Just like it took years for nicknames to be introduced, and registering without a phone number has only recently become possible and only through the Google Play Store.