Why do people assume Signal messenger isn't spying on you? Yes, it has open source code, yes it uses end-to-end encryption. But we can't check which code runs in the version from Google Play or the App Store. And also their APK (IPA) build process is essentially a black box, it doesn't use GitHub Actions or some other transparent build system. I also heard from Techlore that they add a proprietary part to the apk to filter bots. The only thing I can assume is that people scanned the traffic coming from the app (Android), phone (iOS) and checked whether encryption keys were being sent to Signal or not. But it seems to me that this can be also circumvented. What do you think?
P.S. I myself use Signal to communicate with relatives and friends. Definetly not a hater.
I think the reaction to government requests makes them trustworthy. There was virtually no useful data to hand out on their users.
However, I personally don't like Signal, because to me, the UI / UX is bad. I use Telegram, which is not a messenger for privacy-minded individuals and I know that. But the UI / UX is just so much better and most of my friends and family are on there, so yeah...
Sadly I'm in the same boat. I've been trying to switch to Matrix, but telegram is so much better in terms of features. I really miss the shared media and links functionality.
The what functionality?
Each chat on telegram holds a history of shared media, which is separated into tabs for media (pictures and videos), files (any other files, including uncompressed images), links (every shared link, probably the most useful one), music and so on.
It's really handy if you remember you've sent someone a link to an article and don't want to scroll through 5 months of messages.
Ah, I would favour Signal to Telegram as it has privacy and shared media. In Signal, on a chat, clicking ... and All media, you can do that. I can imagine Matrix hasn't got that level of maturity yet but I haven't tested.