this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Privacy

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Recently discovered this. Molly supports link with existing device just like on signal desktop. It even has benefit of getting entire chat history unlike signal desktop. Just restore the signal backup file during setup and then click link with existing device. Then scan with you primary phone. Beauty of open source. Molly: https://molly.im/

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've used signal to buy molly

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Added benefit of not needing to purchase a secondary device... just imagine one!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

100% Molly is amazing

Also you can run the normal signal client, and Molly on the same phone. To have two different signal accounts. If you use work profiles this could be four accounts etc

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

50:50 with Pedro ain't nothin' to laugh at.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Glad it wasn't just me...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Getcher tin ass over here, now. Please.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Compared to the other molly...

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Molly should integrate Monero, the way signal has integrated their shitty Monero fork. Then I can finally buy molly on molly on Molly.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

that's great to hear, thank you for sharing. seems like it is at least in semi-active development

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Is there any real security-minimizing reason why it's not wanted by the official app to have multiple mobile devices linked to one Signal account? (I'm not even talking about a second phone with another SIM card, I just wanna use it on my tablet).
I would appreciate a simple/ELI5 style explanation if there is one, I don't work in IT.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

No, there's no security benefit to this.

One goal of the signal foundation, has been making end-to-end encryption accessible for normal people. Keeping things simple one phone number per account is one method they used to do this. It does diminish an anonymity, it's using phone numbers as a form of global ID. Which isn't great.

So people could argue, that well having multiple signal accounts on the same device aren't against the philosophy, they're not going to spend any engineering effort making it happen.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Element as a client with a Matrix server bridged to Signal works great, too. Centralizes your history on your own secure server, too.

More complex, though.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Also worth noting that communication between signal and matrix through most bridges requires the message to be decrypted and reencrypted, thereby breaking E2EE which kinda defeats the point.

Unless you’re running a bridge on a locked down home server on your own network, not sure it’s the most secure.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Very good point. For me its a private server and I run both the bridge and the matrix server inside the same docker network.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh nice! I just like to warn people because I saw bridges get popular with Beeper and people don’t always catch that security-for-ease compromise

I’m not trying rip on Beeper, by the way. I don’t use them and never have. They could be totally legitimate and good-faith actors, but the reencryption issue with bridges sets my tinfoil hat off!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is the solution I'm considering. Does it make sense if you have no actual contacts on Matrix? Do you think it would work on localhost instead of remote server? My use case is to get a single conversation view that includes Signal and Telegram contacts, but I don't need it on multiples devices, one desktop box is fine.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I use it unfederated. Its on my local network server, running in docker with bridges to Signal, IRC, and Discord, no Matrix contacts. Works great for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Useful, thanks. To be clear, you are using the official Matrix server Synapse as a Docker image, plus the Mautrix (sic) bridges also as Docker images?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Correct. It was not trivial to set up, since there is a lot of configuration to read through, but it wasn't hard, either.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago

Instructions unclear, am now rolling face and signal needs a phone number.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why is it not actually in F-droid? They want me to install a private repo? Has it been audited or is this a shill?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

F-Droid doesn't want to host Molly because Signal doesn't want any forks on F-Droid. Seriously, that's the whole reason. Molly devs would be fine with it.

Molly is actually reproducible and has a fully FOSS version, so it is trustworthy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Is that because Signal has trackers in it and F-Droid would remove them?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That's a good question, It really should be in the main repository.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Molly now merged the long-awaited UnifiedPush feature that Signal refuses. This means the notifications go thru my server instead of Google’s.

That said, I hate the entire concept of only allowing one Android device but also requiring an Android device with a SIM or you get no service. iOS is also supported but feeds into that duopoly, requirements to have a phone, & the freedom use whatever devices you want how you want.

I would prefer XMPP, but I have too many folks that refuse to move from Signal despite the conspiracies.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

My too many folks are on Facebook messenger, Whatsapp, and telegram. 'and' not 'or'...

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Yea, the mobile device requirement is so pointless and annoying! I have to use Signal with only a couple of people and had to use signal-cli, which is pretty annoying because it doesn't display history. Now I have it on Waydroid, but you should NOT have to do that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Secondary phone, or any other additional android device (let's say a tablet).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I'm using molly for several months now it is really nice but recently I dive myself in XMPP and it is superior to molly/signal just because XMPP servers are auditable amd you can actually see if the server is using encryption or not while signal servers are closed source unfortunately, it's their only flaw

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (9 children)

The signal source code is open source, it is hard to prove that the servers are running the source code that's published, and we know they have admitted to having source code they don't publish for anti-spam purposes.

But you could take the signal server source code and stand up your own signal servers today.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

it is hard to prove that the servers are running the source code that's published

impossible*

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Your client encrypts and decrypts everything, so it is actually not a privacy concern regarding message content when we don't know what the server does.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Instructions unclear, now comfortable with pissing myself.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Does Molly require a phone number?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Molly is a different client for signal so yes it will require it because signal does

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Every time I want to try molly the version is too far behind to restore backup of signal. Currently my signal is at 6.37.2 and latest Molly is at 6.35.3

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I’ve been doing this and like it but, it’s been crashing a lot in the background and draining battery

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Well I guess I don't have any more excuses not to use Signel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Only if simplex-chat had better UI...

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