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Signal is the privacy-focused smartphone messaging app that everyone seems to be using. You can also use Signal on a Windows, Mac, or Linux PC. It’s easy to install and register it to your Signal account.
Confidentiality by design
Signal is published by Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC. These two nonprofits, based in Mountain View, California, were founded by Matthew Rosenfeld (aka “Moxie Marlinspike”) and Brian Acton. Together, they continue the work started at Open Whisper Systems, one of Rosenfeld’s first start-ups.
The Signal app is free and open source. Anyone can view the source code. The source code for the Signal Messenging Protocol (SMP) was reviewed by a joint team from the German CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, the Swiss ETH University in Zurich, Cisco and the Canadian University of Waterloo. They declared the code clean, the patterns pure and the encryption rock solid. The signal is definitely secure.
But there is a difference between security and privacy.
RELATED: What is Signal and why does everyone use it?
The difference between privacy and security
Privacy is about controlling your information and data, choosing who has access to it, and deciding what they can do with it. Security is one of the techniques you can use to maintain your privacy.
The security provided by the SMP is so strong that other apps, such as WhatsApp, have adopted the Signal protocol to provide end-to-end encryption for their own products. But, although WhatsApp may be secured regarding the transmission of your messages, this does not answer any privacy concerns. Protocol security has no relation to WhatsApp’s data collection and sharing policy. It’s these activities that affect your privacy, and it’s the trap that catapulted WhatsApp into the public eye and the worst PR storm in its 11-year history.
WhatsApp collects and records your data and your use of their app. The company stores this data – including your contact list, the people you’ve contacted, details of purchases you’ve made through the app, and your location while using the app – on their servers. So while the delivery of your messages is secure, WhatsApp keeps a lot of private data about you. And WhatsApp is owned by Facebook.
On the other hand, Signal has virtually nothing on you. It stores the smartphone number you registered with, when you signed up to use Signal, and when you last used the service. That’s it. One phone number and two time stamps. So even if they get a subpoena, that’s all they can turn over to the authorities. Nothing about your posts, your location, or anything else.
Signal starts to make a lot of sense when you scratch the surface of how your data is often used as a commodity by other businesses.
Installing Signal on Linux
There’s only one way to sign up for Signal, and that’s through your smartphone. It works on Android phones and iPhones. So if you haven’t installed Signal on your smartphone, do so first. It needs to work on your smartphone before you can use it on your computer.
Signal is available in the repositories of some Linux distributions. It is also available in flatpak and snap. We will install the snap-in on Ubuntu.
sudo snap install signal-desktop
You can also use the snap on Fedora, but to cover all the bases we’ll show you how to install the flatpak.
sudo flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.signal.Signal.flatpakref
On Manjaro, you can install it directly from pacman.
sudo pacman -Sy signal-desktop
Start signal on desktop
Press the “Super” key on your keyboard. This is usually between the “Control” and “Alt” keys at the bottom left of the keyboard. Type “signal” into the search bar. You will see the Signal icon.
Click the icon to launch Signal.
Before you can use Signal on your computer, you need to link it to the Signal app on your smartphone. The desktop client displays a QR code. You need to scan this code with your smartphone from the Signal app. (The QR code in the screenshot below is not a real Signal QR code.)
Below the QR code you will find brief instructions for Android phones and iPhones.
On your smartphone, open the Signal app and press the menu button.
Tap the “Settings” entry in the menu.
Tap the “Linked devices” option.
You will see a list of devices that you have already associated with this Signal account.
Press the blue “+” button to add a new device.
The Signal QR code scanner appears.
Scan the QR code in the desktop client. After the QR code has been read and decoded, you will be asked if you are sure you want to link the device to your Signal account.
Tap the blue text “Pair device”. On the desktop client, you will be asked to provide a name for the device.
Click on the “End telephone connection” button when you have entered the name by which you want the customer to be known. This is the name that will be listed in the “Linked devices” list on your smartphone. This has no effect on your identity in Signal.
Signal will synchronize your contacts and your message groups from your smartphone. Note that it does not cycle through existing threads and messages. Only messages that arrive after the desktop client is linked to your Signal account will appear in the client.
When it is finished, it will display them in its main client window. If you prefer dark mode, click File> Preferences> Dark.
Now Signal is ready for you to send private and secure messages right from your computer.
Unlink the desktop client
If you want, you can remove the desktop client from your Signal account. You can do this from your smartphone or from the desktop.
On your smartphone, tap the menu button> Settings> Paired devices, and then tap the paired device you want to remove. Press “OK” in the small pop-up box.
If you prefer to break the desktop client link, click File> Preferences> Clear Data.
Security and privacy from the desktop
The messaging apps are great. But when you are sitting in front of a computer, it may be more convenient to have the app on your desktop so that you don’t switch between your computer and your smartphone.
Now you can enjoy Signal security and guaranteed privacy and a real keyboard.
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