this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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I remember a time when visiting a website that opens a javacript dialog box asking for your name so the message "hi " could be displayed was baulked at.

Why does signal want a phone number to register? Is there a better alternative?

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[–] solrize@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Are you saying I have to literally rebuild and distribute my own client APK if I want to use my own server? There's no "settings" in the existing client where you say what server you want to use, like every email client has? That sounds obnoxious.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you don't trust Signal to run an unmodified server without malicious modifications, then why would you trust their build of the APK?

To truly be safe from Signal's influence you would need to audit the source code and build it yourself.

Personally I have no problem using Signal's servers

[–] solrize@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago (3 children)

To truly be safe from Signal’s influence you would need to audit the source code and build it yourself.

Usually I only install APK's from F-Droid, which always builds its apps from source, rather than using the developer's APK. I'm uncomfortable that Signal doesn't seem to be on F-droid, and I'm in fact hesitant to install it from anywhere else. I'm not currently set up to build Android apps myself. I'm a fairly unsophisticated Android user.

[–] Star@sopuli.xyz 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Signal on Android has had reproducible builds for years now.

Sources: Github Readme, Official blog post

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

Thanks. I'm not a sophisticated Android user and so far have just stayed with installing stuff from F-droid. If the official build matches the F-droid build, that's great. At some point I want to spend some time bringing up Android build tools, but I have too much other stuff going on right now.

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I just checked and I installed Signal from F-Droid.

It says Repository: Guardian Project on the app page.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Interesting, I wonder why it's not in the main F-droid repo. Thanks.

[–] bent@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

You can use Obtainium and get it straight from Github.