Signal :: From 23 to over 90

by Volker Weber

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This is going better than I thought. I went from 23 to more than 90 contacts on Signal within two days. Most of my interactions yesterday were on Signal. Just keep going. Install it, add my vcard, send me yours.

The last part is important. I want your number. Most likely I only have your email address. What is a vcard? A simple text file, extension .vcf. It's human readable. Sample for my card:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Weber;Volker;;;
FN:Volker Weber
EMAIL:vowe@vowe.net
TEL:+49-176-24799915
END:VCARD

My real vcard has more entries, but that is all you need. Use it as a template for making your own.

Comments

Just noticed something annoying: Thought I'll add Signal as a way to contact me to some of my profiles out there (FB, G+, LinkedIn, etc), using the IM section. All of them use a drop down to select the service. And not a single one offers Signal (yet).

Armin Grewe, 2016-11-22

I got my wife listed... while that is only the third of three contacts, it covers a significant percentage of my messages and that counts more than the number of contacts... :-)

Ragnar Schierholz , 2016-11-22

Thanks for the prod to install Signal. I had read about it before but never followed through. Thanks for responding to my test message as none of my contacts are on Signal yet.

Bill Brown, 2016-11-22

A friend of mine just downloaded it, but is reluctant to grant access to his contacts, because in the past apps like LinkedIn sent annoying notifications to all of his contacts after he granted access.
Have you received any notifications?

Sabine Weber, 2016-11-23

No.

Volker Weber, 2016-11-23

Sabine, it does notify the other way around though, you will receive a notification if someone from your address book is joining Signal.

Armin Grewe, 2016-11-23

It doesn't here. Maybe an Android client feature.

Volker Weber, 2016-11-23

And don't forget to donate a dollar or two to them. It's easy and the app is worth getting paid.

Hanno Zulla, 2016-11-23

I followed the good mother and was surprised: even some family members where already there...

What I'm missing so far is the profile of a user. People who got my number in their contacts can write me but I if I don't have their number, I don't know who they are. And I got really used to writing messages over my Mac.

Thomas Lang, 2016-11-23

Yes, your contacts have to be up to date. And there is a Signal client for the Chrome browser.

Volker Weber, 2016-11-23

Volker, could be, either it's an Android only feature or there's yet another option: you have the "New contacts notifications" switched off, as it can be switched off in the settings (at least on Android)

Armin Grewe, 2016-11-23

I don't see that option on iPhone.

Volker Weber, 2016-11-23

Well - I have looked and started to use it.... - there seems to be no landscape mode on iOS.. - which is uncomfortable...; - I can't save any picture being sent on the chat (this might be a case of PEBKAC... :-) )

Still - for me the biggest thing messenger developers should have a look at - these days we may carry more than one device, so how to solve using "one" messenger instance on different devices all "registered" to a single phone number... - am I asking for to much?

Markus Heyl, 2016-11-28

Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

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