Signal is working on a standalone version of its desktop app that does not require a smartphone. Signal Desktop will also gain additional options when used as a linked device.
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.
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.
Yep. Signal on mobile Linux - or the lack thereof - is entirely what’s still keeping me on Android. Other than that, UBPorts is perfectly usable for me. It’s just that one thing…
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.
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.
You can use something like signal-cli and the desktop app for basically the same thing.
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.
Just run Signal in Waydroid?
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…
thats kinda cursed
Yep. Signal on mobile Linux - or the lack thereof - is entirely what’s still keeping me on Android. Other than that, UBPorts is perfectly usable for me. It’s just that one thing…
maybe waydroid in docker could work?
cursed container inception
idk
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.
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.
Of the desktop app? The .deb?
The desktop app on a cellphone is unusable, like all desktop apps.
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.
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.
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?
If you close Waydroid in UBPorts, it takes down whatever was running inside it.
It’s a UBPorts thing though: I have am ARM64 laptop running Debian, and Waydroid keeps running in the background in Debian.
Ohhh running in the background. Not data persistence.