Feature Request: Registering From Desktop App

[xashyar]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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I know many people who either don't have a smartphone or use Blackberries and Windows Phones, who are willing to use Signal on their PCs but are simply unable to do so.
I recall when back in 2014-2015 a messenger attracted millions of people just by allowing them to Register from Desktop.
I've read the related Signal Community and #2063 Threads but I'm not sure i understood what might be the real issue against implementing the feature, I'm guessing it might be Privacy related.
either way any further elaborations would be much appreciated.

Expected result:
Ability to Register from Desktop Using a Feature Phone.

Platform info

Signal version:
v1.11.0-beta.3

[Trolldemorted]

Windows phones users and desktop only users can use Signal by using third party clients. In the community forum there are many suggestions how to use Signal without a smartphone.

[KarolTrzeszczkowski]

Soon there will be a phone with Linux, Librem 5, and it won't be able to run signal Android but why not Signal Desktop? It would be great if the desktop version was capable of registering a new phone number if this "desktop" is a phone. It would be good if one could make phone calls with.

[Zanonia]

Purism Librem 5 dev call for volunteer to code a native Signal client in Gtk. With the adaptative interface, the same app could be used both on smartphone and desktop.

I'm actively recruiting volunteer devs for a native Signal / Signal-like client in Gtk, in the hopes that we can bring it to the @purism Librem 5 phone. Please contact sean.obrien@puri.sm if interested.

PGP/GPG: FA9D 40F1 5FE1 D8AB 8312 4AAA 77E3 1447 CD1F C3F6

https://mastodon.social/@diggity/101046739048944068

[xashyar]

Purism Librem 5 dev call for volunteer to code a native Signal client in Gtk. With the adaptative interface, the same app could be used both on smartphone and desktop.

I'm actively recruiting volunteer devs for a native Signal / Signal-like client in Gtk, in the hopes that we can bring it to the @purism Librem 5 phone. Please contact sean.obrien@puri.sm if interested.
PGP/GPG: FA9D 40F1 5FE1 D8AB 8312 4AAA 77E3 1447 CD1F C3F6

https://mastodon.social/@diggity/101046739048944068

@JohnD28 @seandiggity
plz take a look at:
https://github.com/MartinDelille/signal-qt

[petterreinholdtsen]

There are even people without mobile phones that would like to use Signal desktop. It would be great if it was possible to register without having to receive an SMS.

[Flohack74]

Please also see https://github.com/nanu-c/textsecure-qml which is the current state of a Signal app for the Ubuntu Touch OS. There is definitely the need for clients outside Android and iOS ecosystem.

[torpak]

Soon there will be a phone with Linux, Librem 5, and it won't be able to run signal Android but why not Signal Desktop? It would be great if the desktop version was capable of registering a new phone number if this "desktop" is a phone. It would be good if one could make phone calls with.

The Problem with Signal Desktop is that is a horribly slow and memory hungry monstrosity based on node-js.
So while i agree that the desktop version should allow one to register (for example using a dumb phone), it is no where near efficient enough to be useable on a phone.

[Flohack74]

This issue is open for more than a year now, and still the pressing question is, why it is so hard for Openwhisper to see the need for alternative clients? I get a ton of questions why there is no well supported Signal app for Ubuntu Touch. Hopefully this pressure will increase when the new Linux-based phone hardware will be on the market.

As with Telegram and Matrix, open-source the APIs for fast, efficient communication with your servers, and allow the possibility for push service gateways. People do want to use Signal on all those new platforms, but they can´t. Eventually they will move on to Threema or Matrix. I do not feel that new developments are welcomed by Openwhisper at all. Lock in the people to their own product, but that idea is form the 90ies.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Please move discussion to the forums: https://community.signalusers.org/

[Be-ing]

Considering the Librem 5 and Pinephone are now shipping, I have two proposals for how to approach this, both using the existing phone number based addressing system Signal currently depends on.

1. Allow the user to manually enter a phone number to register. The server then sends an SMS to that number with the verification code. The Electron app then prompts the user to manually enter the code received in the SMS. The disadvantage of this is that it could allow the user to send Signal verification codes to arbitrary devices, which might not even happen maliciously but could happen with a simple typo. However, it would allow anyone who can receive an SMS on whatever cheap phone they can get to use Signal if they have a device that can run Electron.
2. Get the phone number from the system. I'm not sure what software does this, is it ModemManager? Then the server sends the verification SMS and the user manually enters the verification code into the Electron application. Maybe it would even be possible to read the incoming verification SMS automatically like the Android application, but that wouldn't be strictly necessary.

@scottnonnenberg-signal would either of these work? Would you accept a pull request implementing one of these? If so, which one? There are lots of people interested in getting Signal somehow working on these new Linux phones. I hope we can find a way to make this happen that aligns with the upstream development roadmap. Running the Android application in Anbox is another plausible direction, but adding this feature to Signal-Desktop may be easier.