Signal Takes One OTP and a PIN to Start

You've seen the problem with how much a chat app can know about you.

Here's the fix, and it's easier than you'd think.

How long does this actually take?

About five minutes, and most of that is waiting for one OTP to arrive.

Download Signal, which is free.

Verify your number with one OTP.

Set a PIN.

Signal then shows you who's already on Signal, drawn from the contacts you already have.

Invite the people you talk to most.

That's the whole thing.

It belongs to your Signal account rather than to your phone.

Your phone already has its own lock, and this is a separate thing sitting behind it.

Pick something you'll genuinely remember without writing it on a slip in your wallet.

A number that means something only to you works well.

The one you use for every debit card does not.

Set it during the five minutes you are already spending, while you are paying attention.

Doing it later, in a hurry, is how people end up with a PIN they cannot recall.

No, and you shouldn't today.

Your society group, your school parents group and every delivery update still live there.

Just install Signal and start moving the chats that matter, meaning family, close friends, and anything you would rather nobody else read.

Two apps on one phone costs you nothing but a little space.

The rest follows when your circle does.

Signal checks your contacts and shows you who is already using the app.

You may well find more familiar names on that list than you expected.

Start there, since those chats need no convincing whatsoever.

Send your first message to the person you message the most.

A new app with nothing happening in it is easy to abandon, so give yourself three or four live conversations on day one.