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0 pointsXorNot8mo ago0 comments

Having run some family through the Signal onboarding process lately I'm actually kind of disappointed though: the CAPTCHA requirements are a big turn off, and it was relatively difficult to get them to see "look I'm on Signal!" In their existing contacts.

To wit: phone numbers have to stay. That's how I even get people to use it with me, and that's enormously valuable.

But also: there really needs to be a way I can use my own account to vouch for a new user and skip that CAPTCHA (maybe there is? What happens if I do an in app invite?)

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3 comments · 2 top-level

godelski8mo ago· 1 in thread

Yeah the onboarding process isn't the best but... is CAPTCHA requirements really that big of a deal? Where on the internet can you go where you don't face these? Maybe my grandma can't handle that, but my already retired parents can (and that's a pretty low bar if you know them). For my grandma, yeah, I'll set it up. For my parents and anyone under 70 I think CAPATCHA is not too high of a bar.

I think your threshold is too high. How high off the floor is a CAPATCHA? Because it looks like a bar rolling on the ground to me. You can trip over it but it is almost trivial to get over.

XorNotOP8mo ago

If I invite someone to use Signal and I'm not physically in the room with them, then what should happen is I get the CAPTCHA challenge and they get the magic link which avoids it.

hahn-kev8mo ago

Except Captcha is to make it harder for spammers, if they just have to do Captcha once and then invite more accounts it kinda defeats the purpose.

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