zlacker

I was amazed to learn, a few days ago, that you can send/receive SMS via Signal. It's like being able to send faxes from google hangouts; unencrypted paid messages just seems completely opposite to what the project stands for.

Which is not to say that I can't see the rationale, but I didn't know and it surprised me.

The next thing I wondered is how much work it is to maintain two entirely separate messaging systems in one app. How much did this drag them down over the years? I agree with you and hope that it can finally get Signal moving forward, there are so many missing features compared to Wire and, especially, Telegram that it is currently a pretty tough sell to move anyone away from Telegram.

>>lucb1e+(OP)
Apple seems to maintain iMessage and SMS in one app just fine. Granted, they're a bigger company, but it's hard to say just how large the Messages development team is. It could conceivably be even smaller than Signal's workforce!

Apple's iMessage/SMS handling is a perfect model for how Signal should have approached SMS support: a firm hand of features and UI reinforcing the fact that SMS sucks, but reasonable enough support that you can send and receive SMS/MMS just fine.