🔒 Signal Testing Usernames Signal is trying out usernames instead of phone numbers. This change is for better user privacy in their encrypted messaging app.
📱 Phone Number Issue Privacy advocates criticized Signal for needing a phone number to sign up. Usernames don't fully solve this, but they reduce sharing sensitive info.
🧪 Internal and Expanded Testing Signal's VP of Engineering, Jim O’Leary, says they've been testing usernames inside the company. Now, they're expanding tests to more users before the official release.
👨💻 Join Testing To help test, you need to join Signal's 'Staging' program and download experimental versions. These versions are not stable and need tech skills.
⚙️ Installation Instructions Android users can join through Firebase. macOS and Windows users follow specific links, while Linux users use the Desktop Alpha apt repo. iOS users need to clone the Signal-iOS code and run it in the XCode simulator.
👤 New Username Settings In the beta Signal app, the new setting is under 'Settings > Profile and Privacy > Phone Number'. Here, you can create and share a username.
📆 Future Launch There's no exact date for when usernames will be in the stable Signal version, but it might be within a few months.
🆕 New Stable Version Features For regular Signal users, new features include: deleting contacts, message requests for deleted contacts, editing messages within 24 hours, and text formatting with bold, italic, strikethrough, monospace, and spoiler feature.
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