Hi everyone, Nelson here.
Today I want to show you how to use the Signal messaging app.
Signal is a fully functional messaging app that can do everything you would expect it
to do.
It can send rich text messages, make calls and video calls, host group chats, and even
send adorable looking stickers.
Aww.
So, this sounds just like any other messaging app.
Why would you want to use Signal?
Well, Signal is free and open source, has no ads or tracking, and has end-to-end encryption,
meaning that no one else can read your messages.
Let's get started with how you can get Signal.
To install Signal, please visit the following website.
You can either click on the card in the upper right-hand corner or the link in the description.
Once you reach this home page, just click the Get Signal button to download Signal.
You can install Signal on your mobile device or your desktop on pretty much any platform.
Just know that if you want to install the Signal desktop app, you have to install it
on your phone first.
So, when you first log in here, you'll see the Getting Started section with some handy
tips for things you can do.
I'm going to get started by adding a photo so that my contacts can see my image, and
I'm going to click on the camera to add a photo.
So, now I've added my photo.
I'm going to click on Set, save my profile, and I'm done here.
So, now I want to start messaging.
To send a message, just click on the pencil icon.
Below, you will see all of your contacts who already have Signal.
If anyone doesn't already have Signal, you can invite them here.
But I want to talk to Kevin, who already has Signal, so I'm going to search for his name.
There he is.
This drops me into a new message with Kevin.
I can type text to him here.
Look at that, Kevin already responded.
Now, besides text, you can send all sorts of other things if you click this plus icon.
Right at the top are recent photos.
You can send pictures to your camera, files, one of my favorites is you can share your
location.
But I want to send this secret recipe, and I'm going to send it right along.
I knew you would like it.
I'm going to send a sticker in response to be cool.
So, I click this dog with a crown, and if I want to, I could also respond with a picture
or a voice recording.
And if texting is taking too long, you can just click the phone or the camera to make
a voice or video call.
I'm going to call Kevin to speed things up.
Hey Nelson.
Hey, Kevin.
So, yeah, on the bottom, you've got the buttons to turn the camera around, turn the camera
off, mute your microphone, or to hang up.
Hey, Nelson.
I was going to say we should make sure to delete that secret recipe because I surely
wouldn't want that to fall into the wrong hands.
That's right, Kevin.
Don't worry.
I'll keep it safe.
I'll delete it for you.
Talk to you later.
I'm going to delete the secret recipe to keep it safe.
I press and hold on the secret recipe.
I have the opportunity to emoji react.
I can reply or forward, but I'm just going to delete the message to keep it secret.
If I delete it for me, then Kevin will still have the secret recipe on his phone.
Delete for everyone means that no one will have it.
And that's the most secure option here.
This message will be deleted for everyone, but there'll still be a message left behind
in the chat showing it has been deleted.
And that's that.
So, you see you deleted this message.
So, people know that something's missing, but was it?
Who knows?
So far, I've just been talking with Kevin, but sometimes you want to talk with multiple
people at the same time.
To do that, I will create a group chat by clicking on the pencil icon, and then instead
of adding one person, I click new group and then I can select multiple people to add to
a group.
Once I have all the people selected, do I want to add to the group, I click next.
Here I'll give the group a name.
So, I gave my group a name and then I want to turn on disappearing messages so that if
our cookie researcher is caught in the competing cookie factory, there will be no incriminating
evidence on their phone.
So, I'm going to set the disappearing message timer for five minutes and then create the
group.
Here we are in the group chat.
As you can see, we set the disappearing message time to five minutes, which means that after
five minutes, each message will disappear.
Otherwise, this is more or less like the one-to-one chat, but there are some things worth mentioning
like the group call, which supports up to 40 people in a voice or video call.
Now let's change some of the settings, which you can access for the group chat by clicking
on the name of the group chat.
Here we are in the settings for the group chat.
There are plenty of options here, but ones that I want to mention are you can add or
remove members.
If you click on someone's name, you can make them an admin.
Or if you scroll all the way to the bottom, you can leave the group.
So far, we've been focused on the chat functionality, but Signal also has stories, which are ephemeral
content available for only 24 hours.
It's much like stories on Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat.
You just tap to add to your story.
I'm going to add some photos of delicious cookies.
One, two, and I've chosen them.
I can mark them up or crop them, but I think these cookies look good the way they are.
I'm just going to choose who these cookies will go to.
I can send them to a custom viewer or to all of my Signal collections.
Let's do that, and then I'm going to upload.
Now I've sent my stories out.
This is the view where I can see my own stories or any of my contact stories.
If stories aren't your thing, you can disable those.
It has one of many options available to you in the settings menu.
If you click on your profile picture and then select settings, that takes you to the settings
menu where you can disable stories.
You can change the appearance of Signal, disable dark mode, or turn it back on.
You can adjust notifications so that your phone bothers you less and many other options.
The world is your oyster.
If you have any questions about Signal, please let me know in the comments, and if you know
the answer, feel free to respond.
If you want to see more videos like this, please consider subscribing, and I'll see
you in the next video.