libsignal-service-java

A Java/Android library for communicating with the Signal messaging service.

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7Distinct people

8Mentions

0Explicit recommenders

601GitHub stars

REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

A Java/Android library for communicating with the Signal messaging service.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

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Also in these discussions

asamk/signal-cli · linked in 2 of the same discussions
signalapp/libsignal-protocol-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 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 7:56:55 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 year8 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2016-07-08 18:46:11 UTC to 2021-04-26 14:35:48 UTC.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges

UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
Period	Start (UTC)	End (exclusive, UTC)	Mentions	Submissions	Comments
2016	2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	3	0	3
2017	2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2018	2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2	2	0
2019	2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	0	1
2020	2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	0	1
2021	2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	0	1

What Hacker News says

3 sources

ifelsehow·Dec 22, 2016

> The most important concern is that Signal is a silo [...] you have to connect to OpenWhisperSystems servers to communicate with other users. You can run your own private Signal service with OpenWhisperSystems' tools [1]. It's also worth noting that Signal - as a protocol - could easily be federated. (As others have mentioned, Moxie has chimed in on why the app is centralized [2]). If confederated messaging is important, why not use the existing Signal protocol implementations, (including the X3DH key exchange, ratcheting protocol, etc), which is all F/LOSS, and has already been widely reviewed (as the article mentions)? [1] https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libsignal-service-java [2] https://whispersystems.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/

In Encrypted messengers: Riot, not Signal, is the future

moxie·Nov 28, 2016

> But "their own needs" are completely out of bounds for you, and it seems pretty clear that this isn't something that's going to be fixed in patches and code, so expecting them to come and fix it because you have an open code base is rather disingenuous. Many of the things listed in these articles, such as making GCM optional, or supporting distribution outside of Play, are not "completely out of bounds." We've expressly indicated support for them and enumerated the work required, but nobody has committed to doing the work. I don't expect anyone to do the work, but I do think it's strange when someone from the FOSS community complains that we haven't done it for them. > If you started by promoting Signal as a generic protocol or backend to other projects, it would get much more traction in the FOSS community, as they are attracted to co

Read the rest

mponents on which other things can be built. Signal is broken into three layers, two of which are designed to provide exactly that: A crypto protocol that can be incorporated into other projects: https://github.com/whispersystems/libsignal-protocol-java A service protocol that can be pointed at any back end: https://github.com/whispersystems/libsignal-service-java The service protocol even includes support for federation. I don't think it's a good idea for the reasons I've enumerated, but anyone can use this code to start their own federated network and prove me wrong. > For human and community reasons, the upside to federation is probably a lot higher than you appreciate. I hope you consider it. You have built a nice platform, but for your work to make a lasting impact you need to share it with others. We've done more than consider it, we've done it. We started Signal as a federated service, and it was kind of a disaster. I'd definitely reconsider if people have a plan for avoiding the problems that we encountered the first time, beyond "federation is good." In the mean time I'm happy to help anyone deploying Signal in their own federated environment.

In Wrong signal

niftich·Jul 8, 2016

> I'm assuming for people who don't have strong security backgrounds That's already a bad start. You mean inventing Signal from scratch (which is rough) or incorporating the libsignal protocol into a new messaging app? All of the libsignal repos have a good readme that explains init [1][2] , so you can start there. Browsing Signal source is helpful not so much to understand the protocol, but to see if any special precautions were taken against side-channel and other implementation pitfalls. I mean, you could contract moxie (hey moxie, what's your price?) EDIT: there's also this [3] independent implementation of libsignal in golang that tries to make some targeted modifications to fit their need. Can't vouch for its quality, but it's an interesting effort nonetheless. [1] https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libsignal-protocol-java [2] https:

Read the rest

//github.com/WhisperSystems/libsignal-service-java [3] https://github.com/OpenBazaar/libsignal

In Facebook Messenger begins testing end-to-end encryption using Signal Protocol