> How else are people supposed to know that they could send a secure signal message instead of an insecure SMS.
They should know only if I ask them to. I don't want to share this sort of information to everybody in my contact list by default. If I think somebody needs to know, I would tell them. If I don't think they need to know, then they shouldn't be told.
Anyway, the consequence of Signal being this way is that I refuse to install Signal at all, and don't recommend it to any of my friends or family. Instead I tell them that everything on phones is insecure and they should never believe or behave otherwise.
Can I ask you a question? I ask this in good faith, as a matter of curiosity, and am not being critical in any way.
If you do not want someone to message you, why have you given them your number?
My assumption would be that if you trust someone enough to give them your number then it shouldn't matter if they know that there is another app that they can use to message you through. Of course this is only my assumption and I am just curious as to your reason why you would not want some particular person to know that they can message you through Signal rather than some other, less secure, app.
I give people my number so they can call or text me. I don't give people my number so they can be notified when I install any application. Some of the people in my contact list are people I haven't met in 10+ years and I don't really care to prune my contact list, but neither do I care for apps to send them notifications about anything I'm doing.
They should know only if I ask them to. I don't want to share this sort of information to everybody in my contact list by default. If I think somebody needs to know, I would tell them. If I don't think they need to know, then they shouldn't be told.
Anyway, the consequence of Signal being this way is that I refuse to install Signal at all, and don't recommend it to any of my friends or family. Instead I tell them that everything on phones is insecure and they should never believe or behave otherwise.