Comment by Frondo

Signal isn't particularly inconvenient, but it is ugly compared to every other mainstream app -- and looks matter.

The reason I stopped recommending Signal to anyone is that its message delivery is abysmal compared to everything else. When I was using it regularly, maybe 5% of messages wouldn't be delivered right away; they'd get there a few days later, or up to a week later. I don't understand that failure mode, but after having a panic over a pet sitter not getting some instructions (the pets were fine) I tried out Telegram; never had one delivery failure in about 8 months of heavy use.

It's a shame, because I liked Signal.

The other showstopper Signal has is also a UI thing; you cannot set a contact to "never use Signal". Which means, if you get one of your family to start using it, and they don't like it and uninstall it, you're forever forcing Signal to "send via SMS" to that contact. They can "unregister" but you can't do that for them.

I had two or three people who I'd send a message to, not hear a response, 30 minutes later realize that it went to their nonexistent signal account, reset as SMS and got an instant reply. Very irritating for a messaging app and so easily solved.