Wire is a superior encrypted messaging app to Signal because Signal requires you use "a" phone number as your user name, and to have the app be functional, you have to give it access to your Google or iOS contacts.
Which means you have to be *using* Google and iOS Contacts. Which means Google or Apple, depending on which phone you use, has a list of everyone you are friends with.
Which means when 10% of your contact list gets arrested in the Capitol for sedition, your social credit score takes a ding because maybe you were there too, and just didn't get caught. Or you have a bad taste in friends. Either way, you're not getting this job because your social credit score is too low.
I say with Signal you must use "a" number because you're not obligated to use your actual phone number, you can use a VOIP line that is different than your cell phone SIM number, but then the contacts permissions still gets screwy.
And if you do use your SIM number, anyone can SIM swapping attack you and assume control of your Signal account. They won't be able to see old messages prior to the SIM hijacking, but they'll be able to see any future messages that arrive, until you're able to regain control of the account.
Signal, in my opinion, is a piece of shit application from a privacy perspective.
Wire lets you create a custom username. Make an account called Smith1776 and add someone from the forums as a friend, and now you don't have to give them your phone number, which is probably linked to your real name*, you don't have to add this internet stranger to your contacts list, which means apple/google don't know they are your friend.
And you can make a second account called Ronald Rowan, which is maybe your real name, and you can add both accounts to the same Wire app. So your family/coworkers are on the Ronald Rowan account and your Gyro friends are under Smith1776. All in the same app.
You can also sync Wire across multiple devices with a username and password. Signal requires a QR code scan to sync, which is a horrible security risk because you now have to have your cell phone next to your computer. Which most people do anyway, but it's a bad security risk. And you can only have Signal on one phone or tablet at a time. Wire can be installed on your cell phone, tablet, desktop, etc, and all sync.
Speaking from significant personal experience in this realm over the last decade, Wire is superior to Signal.
*Bonus content: Your phone is probably linked to your real name because even if you have a prepaid phone paid in cash, if you give your phone SIM number out to friends/family, and if even a single person has saved that number and associated it with your name in their Apple/Google contact list, then there's a high likelyhood it's now linked to you permanently. The most common method is because people install "True Caller" type apps on their phones, which is a large database of caller ID info. So they can see who the "True Caller" is to their phone when there is an unrecognized phone number calling them.
In order for the True Caller app to work, you must share your contact list with the company as a contingency of using the app. And that sharing is how they generate the caller ID data for everyone else who uses the app. Because you agree to upload the 100+ contacts in your contact list to their database, with the associated name info for each phone number, and then if anyone from your contact list calls anyone else using the True Caller app, now True Caller tells that person who the phone number belongs to, because you shared your friends data with the True Caller database.
So, if you care about privacy, don't use Signal. Use Wire, which also has free, ad-free, versions.
Obviously, I’m a layman, too. Feel free to correct me, guys, where I got it wrong. 
