WHY SIGNAL ‘TURNED OUR ARCHITECTURE INSIDE OUT’ FOR ITS LATEST PRIVACY FEATURE

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

The decision to add usernames to the upcoming version of Signal was nowhere near as simple as it sounds. Many countries around the world are making it increasingly difficult to obtain phone numbers. Using phone numbers as an identifier is also a security risk for some users. Signal had to implement usernames without having to deal with large-scale moderation obligations. Its system is far more limited than on other platforms that have usernames as canonical identifiers for users. Beta users can claim their usernames now.