The fact that this is a major feature announcement for Signal underscores an important difference between Signal and competing "secure" messengers. Virtually every Signal competitor has nicer "profile" support. But there's a reason for that: Signal goes through contortions to make sure they're not storing a database of sensitive metadata.
An even better example of this is Signal's Giphy support. Most of us on HN could add Giphy support to a chat application in a day or two, and plenty of chat apps have done exactly that. But that's not what Signal did: Signal runs what is an effect a VPN for its users to access Giphy through, so that Signal can't see what you're searching for and Giphy can't see who you are.
This is one of the things that makes HN discussions about how much nicer other messengers are so aggravating. A lot of those messengers --- really, most of them? --- don't really care about your privacy. They would much rather get to market quickly with new features, even when those features mean their servers are loaded up with gigabytes of sensitive metadata.
An even better example of this is Signal's Giphy support. Most of us on HN could add Giphy support to a chat application in a day or two, and plenty of chat apps have done exactly that. But that's not what Signal did: Signal runs what is an effect a VPN for its users to access Giphy through, so that Signal can't see what you're searching for and Giphy can't see who you are.
This is one of the things that makes HN discussions about how much nicer other messengers are so aggravating. A lot of those messengers --- really, most of them? --- don't really care about your privacy. They would much rather get to market quickly with new features, even when those features mean their servers are loaded up with gigabytes of sensitive metadata.