I am not sure what’s the current state of self-hosting Signal (they never had functional documentation and even held back the server code for ages to implement their shitcoin) but a good client that’s also compatible with the main server would certainly be a good base for third party servers too, possibly even without phone numbers! Is that by any chance a planned feature?
Data encryption at rest - Protect the database with passphrase encryption
Secure RAM wiper - Securely shred sensitive data from device memory
Automatic lock - Lock the app automatically under certain conditions
Multi-device support – Link multiple devices, including Android tablets, to a single account
Block unknown contacts - Block messages and calls from unknown senders for security and anti-spam
Contact deletion - Allows you to delete contacts and stop sharing your profile
Disappearing call history - Clear call notifications together with expiring messages
Debug logs are optional - Android logging can be disabled
Custom backup scheduling - Choose between a daily or weekly interval and the number of backups to retain
SOCKS proxy and Tor support - Tunnel app network traffic via proxy and Orbot
Besides that, you will find all the features of Signal plus some minor tweaks and improvements. As with Signal, SMS is not supported.
Molly is open-source just like Signal. But Signal uses Google’s proprietary software to provide some key features.
To support a 100% free and auditable app, Molly comes in two flavors: one with proprietary blobs like Signal and one without. They are called Molly and Molly-FOSS, respectively.
Often apps in the background will be killed aggressively, so check this website out to see how to turn off battery optimization on the apps you need always running dontkillmyapp.com
Soon you’ll be able to turn it on again and use a UnifiedPush app instead
It is pretty common when starting to use apps that don’t depend on Google services to not get notifications. Many struggle with inconsistent and sub-optimal notification strategies such as background sync via polling or a custom notifications service and need battery optimizations turned off. UnifiedPush allows for push notifications from a server or your choosing so those other methods don’t need to be used.
The app was generally able to send notifications just fine, through whatever way they used back when I tried it. Probably a websocket, since UnifiedPush is only now being introduced.
Just when I used the database encryption specifically, the app was fully locked down, and wouldn’t send notifications out, then.
I’m just wondering if that is by design, or if I maybe just missed a crucial setting.
It depends on non-free Google Play Services for push notifications, which puts you into a requirement to use an unmodified Google Android, which is potentially dangerous for a privacy app like this.
Anyways, when it comes to E2EE IMs, Matrix ecosystem is much better.
an interesting oddity: on my non-rooted xperia, signal thinks that i don’t have play services and so it falls back to… polling. every five minutes. killing my battery and my logs.
i had to put signal into the restricted battery group, which means no notifications. i anxiously await the new molly, as i already have a unified push environment. it looks like the migration will be a bit delicate.
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