False. https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007060492-Vo...
> and requires a phone number
Like every other service, but they have plans for alternative methods.
> and still wants me to unfirewall Google Services on Android
False? E.g. not Wire or Matrix.
> False
After people kept bugging them (Moxie initially told me to get lost when I first opened a ticket about it), they implemented some form of fallback for GCM, and I happily tried it but it doesn't work for me. My guess is that it uses Google services when they're installed, and I didn't uninstall them because that would break a lot of other apps, but I did firewall it off. So this means that it doesn't work without Google Services on my phone and that it leaks some metadata to Google for almost everyone. I wouldn't say it's false to say that it still wants me to unfirewall GOOGLE. The apk I can get through Aurora store, that's not necessarily the issue (though the alternative distribution method of the official website is definitely a plus!).
Sorry about not knowing that they have video calls now, that's nice to hear. Does it also do group calls like Wire? The article doesn't say and while I'd love to try...
(Matrix and Telegram don't have encryption on by default nor do video calling, WhatsApp isn't open in any way whatsoever, Signal doesn't do video calls afaik and requires a phone number and still wants me to unfirewall Google Services on Android... those are the main contenders I know of and Wire has advantages over them all, sometimes few and sometimes many, at least in terms of security. My main issue is just that Wire is sluggish to the point where I don't expect many people will want to use it.)