If Signal were a truly open distributed system, instead of relying on a centralized almost closed source server, it would not be possible for any government to block it.

And the only thing worse than being blocked, is their "leaving" the country, basically denying the encrypted messaging to the people who need it the most.

I wish that matrix got the attention it deserves, but right now, we are still stuck with this "better than nothing" solution called Signal.

While I agree that an open and distributed messaging system (such as Waku[1]) can improve things, it’s not enough. Apple Store and Google Play Store are the true gatekeepers. And governments can request Apple or Google to remove an app from the Store at their will (this has happened before).

An app out of these stores has zero possibilities of survival. Average users don’t use (nor want to use) VPNs or hacks to use their phones.

[1] https://waku.org/

Two late thoughts; apple just enabled notifications for web apps in safari. So in theory you could have a messaging app not in the store. Maybe. Not sure what the state of this is in android.

Hopefully soon we will have sideloading on ios too.