Recently, yes, unless something major changed in the last week and a half. I take many precautions to ensure I only download official apps, but the issue still occurs, regardless of whether I use a raw connection, a VPN, Orbot... I've also tested it on PC, does the exact same there, so it's not just a phone issue. I definitely agre with and acknowledge the issues with Session and its DoS attacks. Even with that issue, I still manage to get messages quicker there than on SimpleX. I am going to very, very firmly disagree with your sentiment on Signal. It's baseless, has no grounding in fact. You might be skeptical of it, and that's fine, but it's outright FUD to say it's a CIA op. Also, if you research the government 'leaks', it's never due to the app itself. With cases such as Tucker Carlson, he didn't have great opsec. In the more recent government 'leaks', that was two-fold: usage of an unofficial, third-party app and someone invited someone else to a group chat they shouldn't have been in. As I said, in both cases, the 'leaks' were due to personal error, not the software itself. Moreover, the phone number requirement isn't actually as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I understand the arguments for why people don't like it, but Sealed Sender makes it a nonissue in terms of metadata. Unless both parties in a conversation are being very closely scrutinized by the feds, it's virtually impossible to track the metadata of a conversation or to know who is messaging whom. Even with close scrutiny, they'd have to essentially do what they do with Tor: look at both ends of the connection and correlate the traffic flow. That'd be possible for any messaging app, by the way. I'm not dissing BitChat, just not something I'm interested in and it also doesn't have the privacy protections that Signal, Session and SimpleX have. Decentralization is great (I'm very much in favor of it) but that doesn't automatically make it better for your privacy. Matrix is a prime example of this: decentralized, solid technology, but almost zero metadata protection for private messages and the way that homeservers communicate and archive data is concerning. Don't worry about me taking your word for it, I'm in cybersecurity as a career (though, admittedly, I'm entry-level at the moment) and have been researching this stuff even before I started moving into that career field. I respect your perspective and the time you put into this, but like I said: there are some areas that I fundamentally disagree with what you said.

In regards to signal you are right I never said it was the apps fault it was human error. But someone in that high of a position & knowing well aware the penalities of mishandling that kind of information on non-government controlled applications would have serious consequences. Nobody is going to have proof it's a cia op but we can observe & deduct from common sense the obvious. What I said isn't baseless

Fox News

Biden-era guidance encouraged use of Signal app by highly-targeted govt officials: 'Best practice'

A Biden-era Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) best guidance document shows highly-targeted government employees were encourag...

Just The News

Biden-era memo advises ‘highly targeted’ officials to use Signal for communications

The guidance “strongly urges” senior national security officials to use the app for communication, but does not specify rules for classified in...

BleepingComputer

CISA urges switch to Signal-like encrypted messaging apps after telecom hacks

Today, CISA urged senior government and political officials to switch to end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal following a wave of teleco...

FedScoop

USAID updated policy to allow use of Signal, Telegram in some circumstances

The 2023 policy change modified 2022 agency guidance on third-party messaging platforms.

MSN

NBC News

U.S. officials urge Americans to use encrypted apps amid cyberattack that exposed live phone calls

FBI and CISA officials said it was impossible to predict when the telecommunications companies would be fully safe from interlopers.

Help Net Security

CISA: Use Signal or other secure communications app - Help Net Security

CISA is advising "highly targeted individuals" to lock down their smartphones and to use "Signal or a similar app" for secure communications.

Gizmodo

FBI Warns Americans to Start Using Encrypted Messaging Apps

It's all about protecting against China, but there's the added benefit of protecting against Trump.

All the articles of encouragement should be a clear clue theres a reason to be skeptic private e2ee has existed in many applications & i'm sure their aware of Simplex as well but they encourage this specific one why? You don't find it odd that FBI would encourage the public to trust signal & use it I would. Also a phone number tied to an account is dangerous you should look up the telecommunication act. They don't need to bypass encryption they just need to associate your number to the account in question just like a license id. As for the connection issues maybe it's your isp & where you are because I don't have these connection issues you are describing everything connects instantly & I get my messages instantly on simplex. I can only say make sure your on the latest.

GitHub

Release v6.4.4 · simplex-chat/simplex-chat

New in v6.4.4: reduced battery usage. fixes. The GitHub release build is independently reproduced by: Verifier Signature PGP key to verify ...

I hope you end up having a better experience & those issues do go away for you.