# Signal 486 Hacker News commenters recommended Signal and 330 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 13 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 9 years (5 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended as the most widely adopted end-to-end encrypted messenger, with open-source reproducible builds and phone-number privacy controls; critics distrust its centralized server and metadata exposure. ## Why people recommend it - Strong end-to-end encryption (6 comments): "Signal has better security and privacy guarantees than Telegram and is probably what ordinary people should be using instead of Telegram." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49017418)) "Signal is so valuable because it has good e2e, it's popular, and whoever you want to talk to is likely to have at least heard of signal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46062913)) "Signal is way better because it opts out iCloud backups (and Android backups) in favor of truly end-to-end encrypted backups." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49595906)) - Popular enough that contacts use it (4 comments): "Better to help millions resist the dragnet of surveillance by ISPs, governments, and large organizations then to have perfect security for a few." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46054413)) "Signal is so valuable because it has good e2e, it's popular, and whoever you want to talk to is likely to have at least heard of signal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46062913)) "Signal is taking advantage of the inherent camouflage of crowds, once you insist on standing out that's gone and you can't get it back." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50315957)) - Open source, reproducible builds (4 comments): "you don't even have to do https://signal.org/android/apk/ b) can pull from your phone to compare the apk hash against reproducibly built client" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50039576)) "if you build from source (or use a reproducible build) you can check to be pretty sure you have the same software as everyone else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48834591)) "With reproducible builds like Signal does you can be sure the app you've downloaded matches the source code that's been audited" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48072817)) - Controls over phone number visibility (4 comments): "Signal accounts do not require a SIM. There is no requirement that the phone you use for running the app Signal has the phone number you use for Signal login." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46280395)) "Signal cannot use phone numbers to identify usernames BUT Signal can use usernames to identify phone numbers IF AND ONLY IF that username is in active use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46283344)) "You can set your phone number discovery to None and even your contacts cannot find you unless you explicitly message them or share your username" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46022615)) ## What people warn about - Centralized server and metadata exposure (5 comments): "OMEMO (the encryption scheme used by 'modern' XMPP systems) uses the same double-ratchet encryption as Signal without the dependency on a central Signal server." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48838890)) "Signal has all the same means of (meta)data harvesting and analyzing as Meta. It can't be made different: this is built into their very centralised service." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46024507)) "If I know that two users that are identified by their phone numbers are talking to each other every day, this is a clear connection you can exploit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46957022)) - Distrust over privacy policy (5 comments): "Personally, I think their refusal to update their privacy policy is a big fat dead canary warning users that the service has been compromised and shouldn't be trusted." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49706468)) "Any service that markets itself to whistleblowers and activists then also outright lies to them about the risks they take when using it can't be trusted for anything." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47256146)) "It's a bad look for a service that advertises itself to whistleblowers, activists, and others whose lives and/or freedom depend on that information being safe." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49251645)) - Depends on Google services (3 comments): "He actively blocked attempts by the community to put Signal in f-droid, so in cases where it is the system package manager, automated signed reproducible builds can be updated painlesssly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248939)) "Thing about the signal APK and the Guardian one is that, it still have the so called "crap" in the final APK, it just runs a background service" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46086676)) "As soon as Signal gets a whiff of even a stub of Google services is refuses to work without a fully fledged Google services implementation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47186419)) - Dropped SMS support (2 comments): "The two clients coexisted awkwardly for years, with Signal iOS as a pure modern messenger and Signal Android as a hybrid SMS client." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46284615)) "One of the most frustrating decisions from them was to stop allowing signal to be a catch-all messenger for encrypted and non-encrypted messages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50316860)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Bitchat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitchat.md): 56 recommend - [Element](https://hackerapproved.com/p/element.md): 50 recommend - [Briar](https://hackerapproved.com/p/briar.md): 50 recommend - [Delta Chat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/delta-chat.md): 48 recommend - [SimpleX Chat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/simplex.md): 45 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Signal", https://hackerapproved.com/p/signal/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).