I have never used signal but am considering trying it due to the group messaging issues currently on the Kompakt. I also like that it is more secure/private than mms/sms.
If you have sideloaded it, does it work well with the e-ink? Do group messages work if not all parties are on signal?
I have no idea if anyone I know is on signal so I’m not sure if it would even be worth it to try it.
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I use Signal, and there are no problems with the app’s functionality, such as group messaging, one-on-one messaging, and all the other features the app has. Video calls work as well, but there is no front camera on Kompakt, so the video calls can be a little weird.
It works okay with the e-ink; just change the appearance theme to ‘light.’ The dark theme does not look nice on the device.
Another good thing about Signal is that if you have a linked device, like your home computer, you can use the ‘note to self’ messaging feature like a synced notes app.
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I echo @denguefeber’s words. Signal on MK is brilliant. Definitely play around with themes and colours to get the best contrast. The ability to link a device i.e. a tablet or computer is excellent if you want to have video calls with contacts.
The only issue is not a Signal problem, but a Mudita limitation and that’s the lack of visual notifications. Sound notifications come through fine when messages arrive, but there’s no visual notification support for 3rd party/sideloaded apps. It’s not clear if Mudita plan to support this or not. I should hope that with the number of apps people are sideloading that they do implement this functionality.
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I sideloaded Session, and it works well.
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Building on top of what @petemeister said, the lack of notifications also affects how Signal pushes a message to the user that an update is available. When installed directly from their site instead of Google Play, they push updates very frequently. Normally this is just a matter of tapping on the notification and it updates in the background, quick and quiet. On the MK your phone might chime or vibrate that there’s a notification but when you check your messages there’s nothing there and you have to sideload the latest apk to actually update the app (make sure to use the flag to prevent it from overwriting current app settings and data! adb install -r <app>.apk).
Overall it works great but the unfortunate issue of not having a ‘normal’ drop down notification tray is when Signal pushes updates you’ll never get alerted, so the update process is currently very manual.
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I can chime in. I have Signal- I downloaded it from the Signal Website. No issues. Works perfectly well.
Call me crazy, but Signal ran way better after I installed the APK directly rather than installing Aurora + Signal. Felt really nice to get rid of both.
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I have yet to setup signal(molly) on my kompakt. I want to link it, rather than make it my primary device. When I try to do this however, the kompakt (or molly) fails to display to qr code needed for linking.
I tried to make it primary, but it got to 99.9%, and before the app crashed while my previous device said the transfer was complete. that really caused me to worry about losing all my messages, and I haven’t tried to set it up since
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Just curious, what’s your aversion to using the official Signal app? It runs great and I was able to transfer all my messages over.
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Well, I use signal because of its encryption and security. Molly is a hardened fork of signal that doesn’t have proprietary code and has notifications without needing GMS. It’s possible that when I try to transfer again it will work fine, I just don’t want all of my messages to be stored on a device that makes it quite hard to view them. I would prefer to link it rather than transfer.
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I still wonder should I get Signal on my phone. My friends who use it know that right now I can only get there from my PC, and if there’s any urgent issue (e.g. having to get to Signal) they can give me a call or text with a phrase.
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I also battled with wondering if I really needed Signal on my phone, but I think it has become a necessary evil these days. Thats how i justify it anyway… can’t go anywhere or do anything without being tracked and turned into data. At least I feel a little better using Signal. I honestly cringe when i send SMS now because I know how naked and vulnerable it is.
Do I want to just not give a shit and accept that tracking and surveillance is inevitable? Or do i want to be stubborn and resist? … I want to be stubborn and resist.
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To be fair, Signal should not be tracking you in any way. Insisting on using Signal instead of SMS is the being stubborn and resisting move lol.
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I agree.
Also agree 
BTW, if this were Reddit or some other social media, I probably would be trying desperately to disagree with you. People these days feel like they need to be contrarian in order to get attention and upvotes. Sad. Anyways…
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I’m using Molly on the Kompakt without any issues so far. It’s worth mentioning that Molly does support UnifiedPush which should be more battery efficient than webhook. You need to install NTFY via F-Droid.
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@The I only installed it from the Signal website- so I have no comparison. What was your experience when you installed it from the Aurora Store?
It just seemed to run slower and take longer for each press. I have a feeling it might’ve been Aurora store being stuck doing stuff in the background or something.
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@The when you uninstalled the Aurora store version and installed the Molly-fork version, did you have to re-register with Signal? Was that simple?
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I didn’t use the Molly fork. I downloaded the official Signal APK from their website. I did not have to re-register or anything
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Simply create a local backup in Signal, write down the 30-digit key phrase, then restore it in Molly. There is no need to register again.
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