Signal Encrypted Messaging

I switched to Signal for most of my messaging about 6 months ago. The reason wasn't privacy paranoia but the fact that group chats on iMessage kept breaking whenever someone in the thread had an Android. Signal works the same regardless of what phone you use, which should be a basic feature of any messaging app in 2024 but somehow isn't. The interface is minimal. Just conversations and a compose button, with none of the stories or shopping tabs that clutter every other messaging platform. Disappearing messages is the feature I use most, set to 1 week for casual conversations and 24 hours for anything I don't want living on a server indefinitely. My family group chat moved to Signal after I explained that end-to-end encryption means the company running the service can't read our messages even if they wanted to. My mom, who forwards chain emails to 40 people, understood the value immediately. The app is run by a nonprofit foundation, which means no ads and no incentive to harvest user data for targeting. Conversations on Signal feel slightly different from other platforms, maybe because the absence of read receipts by default removes the pressure to respond immediately. Signal solved a real problem without adding unnecessary features to justify its existence.