Imagine you do not want to have a smartphone for some reasons, but still need to have a little bit of privacy. Well, there is a way to use a desktop version of Signal on a computer (MacOs, Windows or Linux). You just need to be able to receive a One Time Password by SMS. This can be done on a regular “brick” phone, a burner or a Virtual Phone.

I followed the recipe described here.

You first need to install three things on your computer:

1. The desktop version of Signal corresponding to your OS:
2. java
3. The signal-cli command line program

For this last one you should download the signal-cli-*.tar.gz archive.

you can verify the download in the following way:

1. download the signature signal-cli-*.tar.gz.asc
2. Download the public PGP key:

   gpg --recv-key FA10826A74907F9EC6BBB7FC2BA2CD21B5B09570

3. Verify it:

   gpg --verify [filename.asc] [filename]

4. Check the “Good Signature” appearing

• Remove all VPNs if you have any active, and possibly deactivate anti tracking addons on your browser temporarily
• go to this website, and solve the captcha. If proposed to automatically open a link with signal, refuse it, then right-click and copy the link associated with the new “Open Signal” text on the page

• Open a terminal, and go to the repository where you uploaded signal cli, using the

  cd

  command, then enter the bin repository

• Enter the command

  ./signal-cli -u [PHONE NUMBER STARTING BY +] register --captcha [PASTE THE COPIED LINK HERE]