Comment by enriquto
2 years ago
There is desktop electron app that works mostly OK (as far as electon apps go). Unfortunately, you need a mobile phone with the signal app to start using it.
2 years ago
There is desktop electron app that works mostly OK (as far as electon apps go). Unfortunately, you need a mobile phone with the signal app to start using it.
Also, if you forget to open the desktop app for a few weeks, it breaks the link and you have to go get your phone anyway.
And it doesn't show any messages that came in on the phone during that time, so you're missing context and in practice you just have to use the phone for everything anyway.
I think (but don't quote me on this) that you don't need the Signal phone app to start using it. As long as you have a phone that can receive text messages, I think you can also enter the confirmation number into the desktop app.
When my phone gets turned off I get a signal can't connect error message on the current desktop app. I don't know if that's just how my account and desktop app is linked, but that's my current experience.
The Desktop app is definitely independent from your primary device, once it's been linked. The WhatsApp desktop app used to require a connection to your phone, but even they updated it recently to the same architecture as Signal, where each device connects directly to the server.
If you don't open the Desktop app for a few weeks though, there is a "syncing" step where it fetches the recent messages queue from the server (can't remember the exact number, might be the last 1000 messages or all messages from the last 30 days or something similar).
Oh huh, that is weird - I can use Signal Desktop even with my phone turned off, that I am certain of.
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You are probably right. But I'm so afraid to lose my message history that I'm not willing to do an experiment to replicate this.