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signalapp
Signal-Android
Kotlin2011–2026
signalapp / Signal-Android

Signal-Android

A private messenger for Android.

Security & PrivacyMobile & DesktopCommunication & Social
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
280Distinct people
372Mentions
5Explicit recommenders
29.6KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

A private messenger for Android.

GitHub

Where it is used

  • Molly — Molly uses the signalapp/signal-android codebase as an independent fork to deliver a variant of the Signal Android app with added features. It ships as its own app built from the Signal Android project. Source

What people are saying

I never hated on Signal, on the contrary I recommend it too many people but I can say that the energy consumption on Android is in many cases abysmal for multiple years now and…

johschmitz used a recommendation phrase. 5 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these 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, 12:45:45 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 year372 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2011-12-21 12:48:31 UTC to 2026-10-12 11:10:46 UTC.

0204060802011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments20112012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 1 submissions, 3 comments2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 12 mentions; 0 submissions, 12 comments2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 23 mentions; 0 submissions, 23 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 26 mentions; 1 submissions, 25 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 46 mentions; 1 submissions, 45 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 22 mentions; 2 submissions, 20 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 24 mentions; 4 submissions, 20 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 10 mentions; 1 submissions, 9 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 25 mentions; 1 submissions, 24 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 87 mentions; 12 submissions, 75 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 30 mentions; 2 submissions, 28 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 13 mentions; 0 submissions, 13 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 16 mentions; 2 submissions, 14 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 23 mentions; 1 submissions, 22 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 10 mentions; 0 submissions, 10 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* 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
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20112011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC110
20122012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC413
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC12012
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC23023
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC26125
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC46145
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC22220
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC24420
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC1019
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC25124
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC871275
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC30228
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC13013
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC16214
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC23122
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC10010

What Hacker News says

22 sources
kuschku·Nov 1, 2017
How the fuck is this misinformation? Moxie has publicly stated that he is against anyone publishing a third-party build of Signal. He has openly and loudly ranted against F-Droid. Of course he's not against users building it for themselves, but he's publicly stated he won't allow F-Droid, or distributions, or anyone else, to build and publish the client, under the name Signal, so that it can connect to his servers. Read the Signal-Android issues https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/53 https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/127 https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/281 and https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/6292, where moxie publicly states that he will not accept or allow any public distribution of third-party builds of Signal to connect to his servers. He actually
Read the rest
directly reached out to F-Droid, and demanded they take it down: https://web.archive.org/web/20160410152543/https://f-droid.o... So, how the fuck is what I'm saying misleading? EDIT: Oh, right, some of the linked issues were purged by him later on. Here's an archive.org link: https://web.archive.org/web/20160410153027/https://github.co... EDIT2: The real question is why you continue to lie to defend Signal.
In Standalone Signal Desktop
veeti·Aug 2, 2017
> That package was just something you googled that hasn't been updated in two years because maven has required signed packages forever. That something hasn't been updated in two years because it's feature complete and does what it's supposed to: verifies the integrity of dependencies for Signal [1]. > If someone gains access to my account and tries to modify my package without my private key it will not be accepted into the repo. This isn't true. Sonatype/Maven Central requires PGP signatures on all new artifacts, but there is no requirement to use the same key. It will happily accept a signature from _any_ key for new releases. [1] https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/blob/ae9303...
In Malicious crossenv package on npm
aftbit·Feb 11, 2017
Well, it's already been around since May 2015, and it's been posted on HN a few times before. Hopefully moxie will come speak for himself (he's pretty good about that, in my experience), but I think he's mostly interested in preventing naive users from accidentally stumbling onto a client that is insecure because it doesn't auto-update. Here's his logic for why Signal shouldn't be in F-Droid: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/281 I disagree with him about a few things in this space, but if you know anything about him, it's clear that he's more interested in security and privacy for the masses than selling data to make a quick buck.
In Signal-cli: command-line and dbus interface to Signal

Showing the 15 most recent of 22 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.

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