Adding usernames to a messaging app may seem like a standard feature, but for Signal, such identifiers were anathema to its mission of total privacy and security — until now.
The new feature sounds simple: you register a username and that appears instead of your phone number.
But why do this at all when everyone already has contact names, and Signal is totally private anyway?
That is not just happening in India, we’re seeing a number of jurisdictions where to obtain a phone number, you are required to provide more and more personal information.
But it replaces the phone number when you go to initiate contact.” (Signal does append numbers to chosen usernames to ensure they are unique.)
Google releases new open LLMs, Rivian lays off staff and Signal rolls out usernamesWelcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering noteworthy happenings in the tech industry.
This week, Google launched two new open large language models, Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B, in its continued bid for generative AI dominance.
The company, which describes the LLMs as “inspired by Gemini,” its flagship family of GenAI models, made each available for commercial and research usage.
Change Healthcare hit: Change Healthcare, one of the largest healthcare tech companies in the U.S., confirmed that a cyberattack on its systems occurred recently.
YouTube triumphant: YouTube dominates TV streaming in the U.S., per Nielsen’s latest report.
Up until now, you have had to give someone your phone number to chat with them on Signal.
Signal still requires a phone number when registering for the app.
Instead, they’re just a quick way to connect with someone on the app without sharing your phone number.
However, if you still want people to see your phone number when you message them, you can change the default setting in your “Phone Number” settings.
Signal is also introducing a new privacy setting that will let you control who can find you on the app with your phone number.
You’ve probably heard of augmented reality, but what is it? Augmented reality is a technology that creates a digital overlay on top of the real world. Devices that support augmented…
