This was before Signal switched to a username system.

Others mention you must still register with a phone, although you can remove it from your account after you go through the username stuff? Usually HN is pretty good about identifying that the default path is the path and that opt-out like behavior of this means very little for mass usage.

	▲	OneDeuxTriSeiGo 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's not that you can remove it from your account entirely. Your account is still linked to that number. It's that you can remove the number from contact discovery. And re: defaults the default behavior on signal is that your phone number is hidden from other users but it can be used to do contact discovery. Notably though you can turn contact discovery off (albeit few people do).