Signal kills support for SMS texting due to lack of privacy

Signal says it also wants to avoid users being confronted with unexpected costs by accidentally sending paid SMS messages, and that removing SMS feature will deliver a 'clear and intelligible user experience.' — dpa

BERLIN: Signal no longer wants you to use its messenger app to send SMS messages, and the privacy-oriented company has announced that SMS and MMS support will be phased out of the Android app in the coming months.

Signal says it's killing its SMS support due to the limited security and privacy of SMS, which unlike Signal messages are not encrypted.

"The most important reason for us to remove SMS support from Android is that plaintext SMS messages are inherently insecure," the company said. "They leak sensitive metadata and place your data in the hands of telecommunications companies."

Signal says it also wants to avoid users being confronted with unexpected costs by accidentally sending paid SMS messages, and that removing SMS feature will deliver a "clear and intelligible user experience."

Anyone who has integrated the SMS function into the chat app still has enough time to switch to another app, such as the pre-installed standard SMS app of their smartphone or Google Messages, and to export their text messages to there.

Anyone who is not sure what they are using to send their SMS can check this in the Signal settings under "Conversations/SMS and MMS/Use as default SMS app".

Affected users are also to be informed regularly through in-app notifications and reminded to export their SMS messages and select a new default app for short messages. – dpa