Pure Signal (had to put it like this)

Mudita Products
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Hi there. I was wondering if enabling Signal is feasible on Pure, seeing that a similar device, the Punkt MP02 now supports encrypted voice calls and texts messages using the Sihgnal protocol.

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I’m going to take a guess and say no. The Punkt phone is an Android device so it was easy to make a 3rd party client. Moxie is known to shut down most 3rd party clients and not allow them on the main Signal instance. While the Signal on the MP02 is called Pigeon, it is just a skin on the Signal app. In order for Mudita to have a Signal client Moxie would need to be in the loop somewhere. He does justify this on his blog https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/

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@adrianj Without a data connection, Signal will not work. Also, I read somewhere that Signal wasn’t to keen on having third-party clients interact with their hosted server, so it might not even be an option for Mudita.

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I think this is what you’re thinking of: https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issuecomment-217211165 which can be summarised by saying that if when there is a third party client it cannot contain the name “Signal” or use the Open Whisper servers. No federation is possible, so Mudita wouldn’t be able to run their own servers unless the goal is to only be able to speak with other Pure owners, similar to how BBM worked on BlackBerry. The caveat is if the fork is well-written the “no” becomes a “maybe”.

I have a Punkt. MP02 and the Signal client (Pigeon) is not very usable. There are scrolling problems, delayed reception of messages, other bugs. It works but many Punkt owners have uninstalled it until the next update, for which there is no roadmap as far asked I know (I asked, they told me, “We will have in the next months a new SW release, just for your information.”). Including a Signal client also means including emoji, user avatars, and so on.

As someone who has tested several feature phones, and will likely preorder a Pure, I think efforts are better spent on providing a solid user experience from day one. The MP02 did not do that. The only unfortunate thing I see about the Pure is related to my service provider: they offer no plans without data except one that only proposes 2 hours talk time per month. If I do get the Pure I might change ISPs.

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Thank you both for getting back to me.
I did imagine it to be somewhat difficult, but it does sound rather improbable now.

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@Bobby_Hiltz,

Thank you for your comment about carriers with no-data plans. I had not considered getting a no-data plan!

I now am on a plan with unlimited talk+text and 4GB/month of data (the minimum available from my MVNO), for which I pay US$15/month.

I used only 370 MB of data last month on my simplified Android phone, with these four programs causing 344 MB – 93%! – of that usage:

  • 207 MB - Google Play Store
  • 86 MB - Google Services
  • 39 MB - Android OS
  • 12 MB - Malwarebytes

I initiated none of that data traffic, and that traffic will not exist on a Mudita Pure. So, I may shop for a cheaper, no-data plan when I get my Pure.

Or, I may decide that having 4 GB of data available with unlimited talk+text for $15/month will be handy for those occasions when I want to connect my laptop to the Internet, don’t have Wi-Fi access, but can data-tether my laptop to my Mudita Pure.

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Just stumbled upon this answer on a different thread: ‘Signal and Telegram were looked into with Signal in particular being on the cards at one point. We decided against it when we didn’t reach one of our Kickstarter stretch goals.’

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