My friends on Signal do, but I have no idea how widespread it is across their whole userbase. It's not as in-your-face as Instagram, which is actually kind of nice, but like it's being said - signal is social media. you can choose to not use that feature but that's on you. To look at you and your friend group and extrapolate from there is not science, or data driven. the plural of anecdote is not data.
It's like saying no one uses Facebook or Google anymore. That's true for certain bubbles, and it's hard to know when you're in one, but, say least for those two,
it's not too hard to look outside your bubble.
Now the cryptocurrency integration, that one I do wonder about. (Since my friend group doesn't use it and I'm extrapolating :) ).
I disabled that feature as soon as it appeared (the less I use a messaging app, the best it is) and forgot about it.
Your comment makes me curious: I do really wonder how this feature is used. Signal announced it was really something users were looking for. I wonder if it was a weak attempt at convincing the Instagram crowd or if it is really popular with some population.
In the end, I’m still angry that they removed SMS support. That was really useful to have only one messaging app on my phone.
My friend group uses Signal for cross-platform group texting and the stories feature is super popular. Great for putting up non-intrusive pet pics or memes. IDK the rationale for introducing it, but I do think it's a fun feature that makes it feel more like a WhatsApp/social messaging replacement, rather than just something people download to coordinate protests or sell drugs.
Thanks for this comment. It makes me understand better how it could be used (never saw the need myself, even when I was on Whatsapp. I probably too old)
> Your comment makes me curious: I do really wonder how this feature is used.
This is why I don't begrudge sending telemetry for how I'm using software. As a developer myself, I really want to know if the code I'm writing is at all appreciated or if I'm just coding into the void, so I'm happy to send stats on how some one else's software is getting used.
I'm not sure where you're reading anger. the question was written in such a way that indicates that your cohort doesn't use the feature. I was merely indicating that it is foolish to look at your cohort and extrapolate to the rest of the population unless you've got outside data.
