• taanegl@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Pretty much. Signals servers just initiate connection between clients, who in turn negotiate parameters with each other so that messages can be encrypted and sent privately between the clients. The messages never has to touch Signals servers, unless you’ve turned on certain features. It’s what you could call a “peer-to-peer chat”.

      It’s apps for Android and iOS are available on GitHub, as well as libraries dedicated to the Signal protocol that you can use and implement in your own projects.

      So it’s transparent, private and secure. Pretty boss. Waiting for someone to correct me on this one ^^;

      • NicoCharrua@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I’m 99% sure that signal isn’t peer to peer. Afaik all messages go through signal’s servers, but they’re end to end encrypted so the server can’t see message contents, or who the messages are coming from.

        The only thing that’s peer to peer are calls, but you can turn on ‘Always relay calls’ from settings to relay them through Signal’s servers.

    • FutileRecipe@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If you wanna boil it that down that much, sure. It’s also run by a non-profit with publicly available source code. And it’s not just “encryption,” but end-to-end encryption (E2EE), meaning the server and company don’t know what you’re messaging.

      • giacomo@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Sure, but I mean it seems like they took the long route to end up with AIM with encryption.

        I’ve been using signal for years and love it.