Re:WhatsApp and most alternatives share the same problem
by t3chguy on Friday February 26, 2021 @09:18AM
(#26274961)
Open Source but not actively accepting contributions is not a great place to be. Especially when you can't federate, so you are stuck using the central server which basically doesn't accept code contributions. Take a look at https://merge-chance.info/target?repo=https://github.com/sig...
Also it is somewhat interesting that this Open Source centralised Signal server, where centralisation means you can move quicker, hasn't seen a commit in 10 months.
Compare it to Matrix Synapse https://merge-chance.info/target?repo=https://github.com/mat...
The story with the flagship clients in both spaces is very similar.
signal-cli is an example of a 3rd party client which is tolerated for now: https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli
The main problem right now is that they don't have enough developers to take care of everything, but it's not specific to centralized services (no developer == no code). If you care about it, you can develop your own client using their library (à la signal-cli).
Regarding your last paragraph: I could probably list 20 features I'd like to see in Signal. That doesn't mean I want somebody implementing them with no guarantee about how securely they are implemented. One of the main goals of Signal is to provide guarantees against dragnet surveillance, and that constraint takes precedence.