PSA: For those who want signal on secondary phone, use molly.
Recently discovered this. Molly supports link with existing device just like on signal desktop. It even has benefit of getting entire chat history unlike signal desktop. Just restore the signal backup file during setup and then click link with existing device. Then scan with you primary phone. Beauty of open source. Molly: https://molly.im/
I've used signal to buy molly
Added benefit of not needing to purchase a secondary device... just imagine one!
100% Molly is amazing
Also you can run the normal signal client, and Molly on the same phone. To have two different signal accounts. If you use work profiles this could be four accounts etc
100% Molly is amazing
Heh
50:50 with Pedro ain't nothin' to laugh at.
Molly should integrate Monero, the way signal has integrated their shitty Monero fork. Then I can finally buy molly on molly on Molly.
that's great to hear, thank you for sharing. seems like it is at least in semi-active development
Is there any real security-minimizing reason why it's not wanted by the official app to have multiple mobile devices linked to one Signal account? (I'm not even talking about a second phone with another SIM card, I just wanna use it on my tablet).
I would appreciate a simple/ELI5 style explanation if there is one, I don't work in IT.
No, there's no security benefit to this.
One goal of the signal foundation, has been making end-to-end encryption accessible for normal people. Keeping things simple one phone number per account is one method they used to do this. It does diminish an anonymity, it's using phone numbers as a form of global ID. Which isn't great.
So people could argue, that well having multiple signal accounts on the same device aren't against the philosophy, they're not going to spend any engineering effort making it happen.
Element as a client with a Matrix server bridged to Signal works great, too. Centralizes your history on your own secure server, too.
More complex, though.
Also worth noting that communication between signal and matrix through most bridges requires the message to be decrypted and reencrypted, thereby breaking E2EE which kinda defeats the point.
Unless you’re running a bridge on a locked down home server on your own network, not sure it’s the most secure.
This is the solution I'm considering. Does it make sense if you have no actual contacts on Matrix? Do you think it would work on localhost instead of remote server? My use case is to get a single conversation view that includes Signal and Telegram contacts, but I don't need it on multiples devices, one desktop box is fine.
Instructions unclear, am now rolling face and signal needs a phone number.
Why is it not actually in F-droid? They want me to install a private repo? Has it been audited or is this a shill?
F-Droid doesn't want to host Molly because Signal doesn't want any forks on F-Droid. Seriously, that's the whole reason. Molly devs would be fine with it.
Molly is actually reproducible and has a fully FOSS version, so it is trustworthy.
That's a good question, It really should be in the main repository.
Molly now merged the long-awaited UnifiedPush feature that Signal refuses. This means the notifications go thru my server instead of Google’s.
That said, I hate the entire concept of only allowing one Android device but also requiring an Android device with a SIM or you get no service. iOS is also supported but feeds into that duopoly, requirements to have a phone, & the freedom use whatever devices you want how you want.
I would prefer XMPP, but I have too many folks that refuse to move from Signal despite the conspiracies.
My too many folks are on Facebook messenger, Whatsapp, and telegram. 'and' not 'or'...
I got a chunk of friends & family to Signal a couple years back. Now I have some regrets due to the architectural decisions of the Signal ecosystem (and that battery drain + Electron app being huge). I wish I had had resources for an XMPP server as even a lazy person could run Snikket, but now they don’t want to remigrate after on a few years.
I'm in the same boat. To be frank, if I didn't have to use WhatsApp to talk to those in my family that remain in my motherland, I would be more than happy to get a simple dunbphone.
Yea, the mobile device requirement is so pointless and annoying! I have to use Signal with only a couple of people and had to use signal-cli, which is pretty annoying because it doesn't display history. Now I have it on Waydroid, but you should NOT have to do that.
Secondary phone, or any other additional android device (let's say a tablet).
I'm using molly for several months now it is really nice but recently I dive myself in XMPP and it is superior to molly/signal just because XMPP servers are auditable amd you can actually see if the server is using encryption or not while signal servers are closed source unfortunately, it's their only flaw
The signal source code is open source, it is hard to prove that the servers are running the source code that's published, and we know they have admitted to having source code they don't publish for anti-spam purposes.
But you could take the signal server source code and stand up your own signal servers today.
it is hard to prove that the servers are running the source code that's published
impossible*
The Signal protocol is built in a way where you don't have to trust the server. The servers could be run by the NSA, it wouldn't matter. Especially now that the Signal protocol uses post-quantum cryptography.
The Signal servers don't do the encryption, it's done on your phone. That's how end-to-end encryption works. Also, Signal's Server code is FOSS: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server
Instructions unclear, now comfortable with pissing myself.
Does Molly require a phone number?
Molly is a different client for signal so yes it will require it because signal does
Yep
Every time I want to try molly the version is too far behind to restore backup of signal. Currently my signal is at 6.37.2 and latest Molly is at 6.35.3
I’ve been doing this and like it but, it’s been crashing a lot in the background and draining battery
Well I guess I don't have any more excuses not to use Signel.
Only if simplex-chat had better UI...