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signalapp / Signal-Desktop

A private messenger for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
https://signal.org/download
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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SMS/MMS on Signal Desktop, via piping the message over an encrypted tunnel to phone? #3225

Closed tromlet closed 3 years ago

tromlet commented 5 years ago

Bug Description

Would it be at all possible to turn Signal Desktop into the best desktop texting application of all desktop texting applications? I realize SMS/MMS sucks, but plenty of people still haven't moved to Signal because of their walled gardens, such as the Apple platform with iMessage and such. It'd be awesome if, with desktop Signal, I could just pipe my SMS/MMS messages over a secure pipe to my phone (which would send a receipt notification upon receiving the complete piece of data), which would then pipe those out to the appropriate phone number/contact using the phone's connection to the SMS/MMS network.

Most of the carrier-brand desktop texting applications are hot garbage (Verizon's Message+ app has 1.5 out of 5 stars on the Mac App Store), so you might get some adoption with the introduction of this feature, and MAN it'd be super nice.

Steps to Reproduce

There aren't any steps to reproduce. This is a feature request.

Screenshots

There are no screenshots, as this feature does not exist in Signal yet. This is a feature request.

Platform Info

Signal Version: Signal Desktop 1.22.0

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.14.3 Mojave (64-bit)

Linked Device Version: Motorola G5 Plus - Android 8.1.0

Link to Debug Log

There is no debug log, as this feature does not exist yet. This is a feature request.

charlielewisme commented 3 years ago

I just wanted to add myself to the list of people that would like to adopt Signal as my default messaging app, but simply can't because desktop SMS integration is critical for my use case.

I'll keep an eye out, but I really don't see myself using Signal at all until this becomes possible.

Exactly the same here. Considering Airdroid as a workaround but honestly this is a super important feature it has to be at the top of the roadmap surely?

robhagopian commented 3 years ago

Same here. After having issues with Google's Messages app I figured I could leverage Signal for this purpose (as the app suggests). Unfortunately without desktop SMS support this is absolutely useless to me (and to everyone else commenting here, and many more that don't know where/how to comment) and Signal will once again be relegated to second-tier messaging with me. It's really kind of sad when devs think they know better than their users. Disappoint. Very disappoint.

rebelcode-xr commented 3 years ago

This is definitely what I expected from the Desktop app, sad they don't want to implement it: any fork around?

lukehmcc commented 3 years ago

I just wanted to add myself to the list of people that would like to adopt Signal as my default messaging app, but simply can't because desktop SMS integration is critical for my use case.

I'll keep an eye out, but I really don't see myself using Signal at all until this becomes possible.

I 100% agree with this. The whole allure of using signal for me is that I can still sms/mms people that I am not super close to while being annoying and forcing people I am close to to use the signal app. That means more convenience and more security all into one. The only reason I thought signal was interesting over the plethora of other secure messengers was this feature.

But at the same time I basically don't touch my phone and make 90% of my messages from my computer, so the lack of this feature means it's a no go. I'll probably continue to use google messages and for more secure stuff I'll set up a matrix server. Really disappointed that they're so dead-set on security to the point where they alienate a good chunk of possible users by not having feature parity between the desktop and mobile apps.

lukehmcc commented 3 years ago

This situation reminds me of trying to get the GNOME devs to add a dark mode lol

TSIXGaming commented 3 years ago

This is needed

svoop commented 3 years ago

@rebelcode-xr

This is definitely what I expected from the Desktop app, sad they don't want to implement it: any fork around?

Fair point: SMS/MMS won't die anytime soon, but Signal might as soon as a fork or competitor supports both the secure IM and legacy infrastructure protocols.

stale[bot] commented 3 years ago

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

Campano commented 3 years ago

I won't let a bot close this issue.

Trapulo commented 3 years ago

I also think that this (simple?) feature is required. In fact it is the only reason I cannot switch to signal as unique messaging app.

schultzter commented 3 years ago

Actually, let the bot close this and save our energy for when Google allows third-party RCS clients. Then we make sure Signal gets on that!

humleflue commented 2 years ago

This is still relevant. It shouldn't be closed.

Campano commented 2 years ago

This issue has been closed due to the feature-request-should-happen-on-the-forum policy

This is the closest equivalent found on the forum: https://community.signalusers.org/t/sms-integration-into-signal-desktop/1486/48

hubyhuby commented 2 years ago

Please make it happen: WHY ? Because the VALUE of a network is the number of persons you can reach. With signal you can reach much less persons than Whatsapp , Facebook or Insta ! +60% of the persons I want to reach do NOT have signal.

SOLUTION : beeing able to send SMS to contacts not on signal is a must. It lets you switsh to signal but not loose connection to your contacts. Now when working on my desktop I whish I could do exactely the same : send SMS.

I understand there are technical challenges, but that would be one of the most used features for me.

Please re-open this issue

andykais commented 2 years ago

cant an issue be moved to a discussion through some admin rules on the repo? Theres a lot of discussion on this issue, it would be a shame to simply start fresh over in the discussions

Eagle3386 commented 2 years ago

It could, but

  1. Devs in here don't care for closed issues, if they care for one's like this at all (IMHO, they don't).
  2. Devs chose a path absolutely uncommon here on GitHub - you're asked (forced, actually) to post a feature request on a community forum (which sucks pretty much - from a software engineering point of view, at least).
  3. It wouldn't change anything, because they explicitly chose to not implement a feature only available on Android but not on iOS - from my point of view, even if somebody would provide a PR that adds the necessary implementation, they'd not merge, but still refuse & drop it.

You can discuss this as much as you want, but Signal's authors chose another path down the road of mobile messengers & bring up weird argument one by one, just to continue to avoid adding requested features while adding stuff way fewer people asked for (if any).

For example, any 2FA that sends SMS, e. g. PayPal, requires me to manually delete those SMS - simply because the devs chose to prevent such conversations to use the built-in (!) auto-deleted feature, too. To me, that pretty much shows what devs are building Signal as it clearly shows what their priorities are.

So, I for one made my peace with it by just stopping to convince people to switch from WhatsApp or even Threema to Signal - let alone donating to Signal for constantly adding useless features all the time. I just continue to use WhatsApp most of the time due to it offering statuses & any one still sending SMS to me, I either convince them to buy a smartphone or simply gift one of my older ones to them - for them to join WhatsApp, of course. 😈

hubyhuby commented 2 years ago

@Eagle3386 , I agree in part. Some persons in the community doesn t seem to think "service design", and only think "privacy". I think both shall be of concern. When you ask the genral public , everyone agree "privacy" is a concern...now if you want to make it mainstream you have to make it usable. Otherwise people will just give up signal. As I already commented the mai n interest of a networking app like signal is the number of persons you may reach. SMS is the only way you can reach the 90% of your contact that don t have signal ! The real life net effect of signal at first is to make the world LESS SECURE, because half of your contact are on whatsapp and you will have to sen them good old SMS. Apparentely the google android SMS app offer s it : (removed picture because some find it too big :) ) Anyhow the sms google app has it;)

Why not signal ?

Eagle3386 commented 2 years ago

I neither speak French, nor can I read it, nor do I find it appropriate to post such gigantic screenshot within a GitHub issue.

Campano commented 2 years ago

Well that settles it: https://signal.org/blog/sms-removal-android

Trapulo commented 2 years ago

from bad to worse.

And, of course, we are going from a tlc world where interoperability was the rule, to a wall-garden-based one (not a signal specific problem). Simply an hell.

Campano commented 2 years ago

The answer might reside in running a Matrix server : https://matrix.org/bridges/

Ptmc518 commented 2 years ago

I had a hard enough time getting a few contacts to join Signal. They'll quit since they still use sms for others, and I'm done with Signal as well since I can't get everyone to switch and would prefer a single app.

schultzter commented 2 years ago

The answer might reside in running a Matrix server : https://matrix.org/bridges/

How do those bridges work? Is there a hosted Matrix server somewhere I can easily join that has all (or most) of those bridges available or do I have to set my own to be able to use them?

lasse-instructr commented 2 years ago

Well that settles it: https://signal.org/blog/sms-removal-android

This was really sad to read. I know that most of the people I've persuaded into joining Signal did so because they did not need to install another app, but could replace their sms app with Signal.

This change means that these people will leave Signal, so I probably will do the same soon, as nobody is going to be using the platform.

Sad to see that Signal are taking these steps, which will ultimately result in, that it is only going to be the most paranoid people who are using the app, and not the wider population of the world.

hubyhuby commented 2 years ago

Ho my god this is the worst move from Signal and any community out there for a long time. They are really killing themselfs! Please signal community react ! Where can we protest ???

As explained up, the value of a network is the number of persons you may reach. This move will force many users to move away from signal ! Again the net effect of signal is to be LESS secure, besause people will use more SMS than previousely whatsapp in the end.

The pedagogic there were doing inciting people to move to signal (vias SMS sending) was very clever. Putting the user at the heart of theire product. Now signal is moving to a sort of ideal thinking actually like the one they are fighting "Zukerberg and the like". Its all black or white...no people are just in the grey.

I just cannot believe this....very sad

hubyhuby commented 2 years ago

Please give your support here ASAP while it s open : https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/12522

jamiebuilds-signal commented 2 years ago

I'm going to limit this conversation to just collaborators since this isn't the right avenue for this discussion. This issue was already closed as we ask for all feature requests to go to the community forum. For this topic specifically, I'll direct you to this post in the forum

Please know that we take community feedback very seriously, and you are welcome to talk about this more on the forum, but as contributors we need this space dedicated specifically to tracking bugs.

Thank you