Video calls for Signal now in public beta
I really don't get the direction of the Signal project. iMessage got a huge following because it allows you to trabnsparently send both SMS and encrypted messages (significantly lowering barrier to entry) and brings that functionality even to the desktop. Hence using it means that average user doesn't have to explicitly think about which channel to use and with spread of use more and more communications are secure.<p>On the other hand, Signal SMS support is broken (datastore and MMS issues), they don't want to bring SMS support to their "desktop" app (which STILL needs you to install Chrome to work) and they still don't support the use of multiple devices. Instead they're wasting resources implementing video chat which noone really asked for and won't help the adoption nearly as much as having a secure drop-in replacement for SMS client. Even worse, enabling SMS support will prevent any other SMS apps that let you have conversations via the computer from working.<p>It seems like they're actively trying to shoot their own foot.<p>The best Signal can do is to make a proper desktop application (even Electron would do now, even though Telegram's approach is significantly better UX wise) and make SMS seamlessly integrated into it both on the phone and on the desktop. Video chatting is nice, but it's not where the most important requirement for cross-platform private communication is.