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Signal Desktop without a smartphone, standalone version in development (aboutsignal.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/privacy@programming.dev
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[–] 28 points 6 months ago (18 children)

Same here. I desperately want to exit the Android ecosystem and I have a cellphone all setup with UBPorts to do so, but the lack of native Signal client is a showstopper for me.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (17 children)

    You can use something like signal-cli and the desktop app for basically the same thing.

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  • [–] 15 points 6 months ago* (16 children)

    The usability is nowhere near acceptable with a cellphone for daily usage with either or those options, or with the native client in Waydroid because it's not persistent if Waydroid is closed.

    Signal with anything other than the official client sucks ass. I know, I tried.

    And that's without mentioning that you still need to have the "master" Signal client running on an Android cellphone, which defeats the purpose if you want to ditch Android.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Yes, Signal is completely unusable unless you're using a phone with a closed source operating system with Signal linked to the phone number.

    Even if they are creating a Linux version, I don't trust them at this point and think they are likely creating this as a hacking vector. It took them too damn long to do this, and they have never let people with higher threat models register without a number. The whole thing is sus.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    Yeah I don't trust the Signal people much either. But I don't really care: I use it mainly to share grocery lists, photos of work sites with builders, talk to friends or share non-important photos and videos easily and instantly without paying. And I can tell those who want to contact me to install it, it takes them 10 seconds and it's done. It's not about privacy for me, it's about convenience and not paying the phone company.

    That's why I'm not desperate to make it work with silly workarounds like Mautrix/Signal or put up with Waydroid on UBPorts: if it's not convenient, it's not worth it for me.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (8 children)

    Of the desktop app? The .deb?

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (7 children)

    The desktop app on a cellphone is unusable, like all desktop apps.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 months ago* (6 children)

    Use a local Matrix bridge.

    This new update will not change how the desktop app looks. They're just copying over the code for the signup flow.

    Edit: oh my brain put your and the top level comment together. Sorry.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago (5 children)

    Use a local Matrix bridge.

    Not an option. You lose the ability to share photos and videos, which I do constantly with friends and family.

    And it's hellishly Rube Goldberg.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    I share photos and videos through my Matrix/Signal bridge all the time just fine.

    Calls don't work but that's about it.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Photos have been working for a year now in the Mautrix bridge.

    Waydroid seriously doesn't have persistence? Are you sure there isn't a setting?

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  • [–] 0 points 6 months ago (4 children)

    Just run Signal in Waydroid?

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Signal won't run in the background in Waydroid in UBPorts: as soon as you close Waydroid, whatever runs inside dies.

    Also, if you want to run something else in Waydroid, it can't run in parallel for some reason. So I'd have to kill Signal to run my banking app for example, then restart Signal - and be careful never to close the window as I use the cellphone throughout the day.

    Not super usable...

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (2 children)

    thats kinda cursed

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