Hacker News Reader

Maybe. And maybe he’s there because he is a smart lad who knows which products to monitor closely.

After all he bought Instagram and WhatsApp for peanuts, and copied the best features of SnapChat.

He wouldn't need to use his real number/name just to do product research though. It would just needlessly confuse any contacts who have his actual number and use signal.

Signal also has nothing he can emulate. Its most meaningful selling point is that it doesn't have an association or integration with a scummy social media company, and people using it for that reason are already lost to Facebook. This is a feature he cannot ever hope to copy.

> Signal also has nothing he can emulate. Its most meaningful selling point is that it doesn't have an association or integration with a scummy social media company, and people using it for that reason are already lost to Facebook. This is a feature he cannot ever hope to copy.

Even if there is nothing to emulate, downloading the app at least gives him a feel for how close it is to WhatsApp's capabilities and would help him understand if it is a major competitive threat or not.

>Signal also has nothing he can emulate.

Both of them now have some variation on encrypted chats.

To me, this is the obvious answer.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com