JRjraph·Aug 15, 2020
Maybe with signal-cli? (Java)
https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli
In Help us test one-to-one voice and video conversations on Signal DesktopAsamK
signal-cli
Java2015–2026
AsamK / signal-cli
signal-cli
signal-cli provides an unofficial commandline, JSON-RPC and dbus interface for the Signal messenger.
28Distinct people
39Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
5KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
signal-cli provides an unofficial commandline, JSON-RPC and dbus interface for the Signal messenger.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- signalapp/libsignal-service-java · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 6:36:16 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year39 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2015-12-03 10:24:19 UTC to 2026-08-10 19:55:12 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 15 | 1 | 14 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
5 sources> Keeping all those different bridges running over time is difficult.
The issue is that most of the services Matrix tries to bridge to are basically hostile entities (except IRC and Slack). I'm honestly shocked how well Matrix bridging works when you take that into consideration -- and unsurprisingly the Slack and IRC bridges are the nicest ones to use. But I will admit that I think Matrix's marketing around bridging as being core to their chat model is a bit of a stretch -- while all of the bridges do work, most are a bit dodgy (and some require you to self-host).
For instance, the Signal bridge is actually a hacked-up version of the Signal Chrome App with a bunch of hooks added so that they can simulate you doing things through the web app. There is a project that uses libsignal-service-java directly to create a more usable CLI and DBus
Read the rest
interface[1], but unfortunately they haven't switched to using that (and if it became widely used, Moxie would probably decide to block it). Whatsapp is probably similarly hacked-together.
> It doesn't really do 1:1 chats so every time someone chats with you you get a 'room invite' from the bridge, which you have to accept, and all those old rooms stay forever cluttering up the system.
Maybe this is bridge-specific, but I have several long-lived IRC 1:1 chats that are all in one room. There's nothing stopping a bridge from doing this correctly (as far as I know). As for old rooms cluttering up the system, I believe that (non-joinable) rooms with no members get garbage collected but I might be mistaken.
[1]: https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli
This uses signal-cli[0] (communication happens over D-Bus) and signal-cli in turn uses a patched version of libsignal-service-java[1]. The latter might be used in some of the clients provided by Signal (not sure) but the signal-cli + libsignal-service-java combo talks to Signal servers instead of any apps running locally.
Nothing is stopping you from building a web client for yourself.
[0]: https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli
[1]: https://github.com/signalapp/libsignal-service-java
In Siggo: A terminal GUI for signal-CLI, written in Go> Can I use Signal from desktop only?
Yes, the desktop client functions independently from the phone client once linked (so not like whatsapp that proxies everything through your phone).
> Can I create an account from desktop?
Technically yes, but you either need to compile the desktop client yourself[0] and miss some features or use something like signal-cli[1] to act as the main client. So it's not supported (yet?).
> Is my account independent of any specific device?
The first client that registers acts as the main client, so no. But it might get easier to restore access on a different device without using backups with the secure value recovery[2] stuff they are working on.
> Can I use Signal on multiple computers at the same time with correct credentials?
It's possible to link and use several desktop clients at the same time.
[0] https
Read the rest
>I need a chat application where I can have a client that I can use in my terminal, and Signal doesn't do that
Have you looked at signald or Signal-CLI?
https://gitlab.com/thefinn93/signald
https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli
In On Privacy versus Freedom