Signal, secure messaging service from the Ubuntu desktop

about signal

In the next article we are going to take a look at Signal. East Messenger Service comes to GNU / Linux, Windows and Mac as one desktop application built with Electron. With its good things and its bad things. Signal is an encrypted chat app for Android and iOS. This is an alternative to WhatsApp. The program will allow us to send messages to other people who use the service. It will also allow us to create and participate in group chats and make voice and video calls to other users.

Signal is a messaging service focused on user privacy which in its day could boast of being endorsed by Edward Snowden. Some application developers comment that the main virtue of the service provided by their software is the fact that it uses end-to-end encryption (something that has been extended by this type of program in recent times).

To use Signal Desktop we will have to pair it with its mobile equivalent (available for Android e iOS). After doing this, the user will be able to make use of all the privacy offered by this messaging service from a real keyboard.

To synchronize the mobile application with its corresponding desktop version, we will have to open the Signal app on our phone and scan the QR code on our computer screen.

QR code link

Users of the Chrome app podran export the data to import it from Signal Desktop and thus also be able to keep the conversations. To do this, the user will have to navigate in a similar way as if we were exporting the bookmarks in HTML format to import them later from another browser.

This program is officially distributed to Windows, Mac, and Debian-based distributions since web page. It should be noted that in addition to Debian, we can also use this program on all the systems that come from there, such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint, among others.

General characteristics

screen messages signal ubuntu

It is simple to use. We will have a list of chats on the left of the screen. By clicking on a conversation, its content will be loaded on the right of the screen.

With this program we will be able send high-quality text, voice, video, document and image messages to anywhere in the world without the need for SMS or MMS fees.

Messages and calls are always end-to-end encrypted. These are carefully designed to maintain secure communication. The people who have developed this application say that they cannot read our messages or see the calls we make, and that no one else can.

With this application we can keep our chat history orderly. The messages can be configured so that they disappear after a while. Different intervals of disappearing messages can be set for each conversation.

Signal settings

This is a open source project supported by donations in which it seeks to prioritize users. There are no ads, no affiliate marketers, no tracking of any kind. The creators have sought a fast, simple and secure messaging experience for the user.

The application for Google Chrome has become obsolete by developers. I haven't tested this one, so I don't know if it works as well as the desktop application.

This app is a simple and easy to use alternative to other mobile-centric messaging services.

The code of this application has been made available to anyone who wants to take a look on their page GitHub.

Install Signal

We can install in our Ubuntu in a very simple way. We will only have to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and write the following commands in it:

curl -s https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | sudo apt-key add -

echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list

sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

uninstall

To remove this program from our computer, from the terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) we are going to write:

sudo apt remove signal-desktop

3 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Alain Cuellar Munoz said

    + + +

  2.   louis miralles said

    Yes, but humans use Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and Hangouts. There is software like https://meetfranz.com/ which allows you to have all of that on Linux, and is not limited to Debian-based distributions.

    I have been using Franz for a year and it is perfect for me.

    1.    Damian Amoedo said

      The fact that most people use one program or the other does not mean that there are no other alternatives, which I particularly like to know.

      As for the software that you say that allows you to have all these programs, I tell you that franz is good, but WebCatalog it seems more complete to me. Although, as with Franz, all the programs that they make available to users can be installed alone, something that many people may be interested in before installing a software catalog such as those mentioned. Salu2.