To allow its users to gain privacy, especially when they want to contact strangers, Signal now allows them to display a username instead of their phone number. The latter is nevertheless still necessary to register.
The Signal messaging service is making progress in the field of confidentiality. After starting to test the use of simple usernames at the end of last year, the platform is now deploying this new feature on a larger scale. This change will allow Signal users to display a sort of “nickname” instead of their phone number, especially when they want to contact strangers. Until now, their number was displayed in plain text, which could present risks.
For the moment, however, this new feature is only accessible in beta, but when it is deployed to all users, the phone number will become invisible by default. Whether on the profile or in conversations. Only users who have already registered your contact in the past on Signal will continue to have access to it.
Your phone number will soon be better protected by Signal
In detail, creating a username on Signal is done from the application settings, under the “Profile” tab. The chosen username must have two digits at the end, so as to make them “ egalitarian and to minimize usurpation ”, we read. Once the username has been created, it will be possible to share it through a link or a QR Code. Usernames with whom you are already in contact will finally be able to be searched directly from the conversations search bar.
Source: Signal
Source: Signal
Despite this change, Android Police points out that it will still be necessary to link this username to a real phone number. To register for Signal in particular. The usernames on Signal are also not classic nicknames, such as you have on social networks. According to Signal, it is not an identifier that defines you directly in the application, but rather a practical way to connect you to other people… while keeping your phone number confidential .
We also learned that it will be possible to change your username on Signal, at any time and without particular restrictions. The abandoned username can, however, be recovered by another person. We will therefore have to keep this in mind.
The large-scale deployment of usernames on Signal (outside of the current beta) should materialize in the coming weeks.