Windows App with only a Windows phone

[Robin-Murison]

• [X ] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
  I have Windows10 desktop and Windows 8.1 phone. Having the same OS I find very useful for transfering data between them. That suites me very well except when people do not supply a Windows version of a Phone App, I apparently need.

However Signal is not necessarily a phone App it is an IP app so why do you need a phone at all?

I tried to set it up for my desktop and the first thing it insists on is connection to a phone I do not have, It will not go any further with out a compatible phone. Attaching to a phone should be an optional extra for people who have a phone you support and who also want to use the App on the move. The deskApp should also work as a VOIP phone or at least should allow connections to VOIP apps already on the device.

If you are ading your own VOIP phone most VOIP charge a line rental of circa £5 pcm for individuals. A new market for you perhaps. There are several freeware versions yuou can get access to.

I am unusual because I work at home I contact alll my clients by email or VOIP phone anywhere in the world from my desktop and I do not move about a lot, except on holiday Where I do not need secure connections. I only use my mobile device as a mobile device about twice a month.

Is it possible to enable Signal to work directly from my desktop without a mobile phone at all. Limiting the requirements to a Linux/Windows implementations. After all it is all IP based anyway. (There are a few more OS if you want to be all pervasive e.g. various BSD and Chrome. Why rely on the phone it is a bottle neck especially if you do not have one or you have one that is not supported. I know you already support a Windows Desktop App.

Using the wired appears to my mind to be in theory more secure, it also does not use any of my phones
data or call time. My wired connection is unlimited. So for me it is cheaper.

OK, I know Signal is supposed to be secure and we all know that home users rarely set up Windows as a secure OS, but why are you supplying a Windows app at all if you are worried by that.

It would mean that it works from any computing device anywhere regardless of popularity of phone technology. If there for example there is a new very effective destructive phone hack, or a new super improved phone OS, which could change phone technology rapidly in the future. Then you would already have a working App while you developed the technology for the new phone. It removes that potential risk to your business.

I realize that customizing the phone App for Windows 8.1 as a Phone App is comparatively costly for such a small market but updating the dekstop App to work as the phone App, increases your markets to a lot of Fringe cases not just mine.

I am guessing the OS support work you have already done for the linux and Windows platforms so that is mostly already done. I presume by putting a porting layer between the business logic and the OS specific functions. The phone code you already have. You would need to port it to some common business code.
Depending on whether that is the same language you used on your desktop Apps could be trivial or a lot of work. I know there are tools to do the bulk of the work automatically. As I said the VOIP software is already from several sources as freeware.

So "Just" match the two together. Not as trivial as this featuer request, but I am sure it expands your market to cover all the edge cases in a single step that could increase your market a lot fast than writing more versions os the phone App. It also gives you business security if the phone market ever does change radically.

With thanks in advance

Robin M

[Trolldemorted]

I tried to set it up for my desktop and the first thing it insists on is connection to a phone I do not have, It will not go any further with out a compatible phone. Attaching to a phone should be an optional extra for people who have a phone you support and who also want to use the App on the move.

Signal-Desktop does not offer the same feature-set as the mobile clients (it lacks contact/group edition and creation, changing profiles, and some other things), so it is not wise to use Signa-Desktop as your master device. However, there are threads in the community forum which should help you setup signal-desktop as a master device.

The deskApp should also work as a VOIP phone or at least should allow connections to VOIP apps already on the device. If you are ading your own VOIP phone most VOIP charge a line rental of circa £5 pcm for individuals. A new market for you perhaps. There are several freeware versions yuou can get access to.

Signal does not use SIP like normal VOIP phones, but webrtc. Everything is for free and imho it should stay that way. There is a feature request for webrtc support for signal-desktop already: #1046

Is it possible to enable Signal to work directly from my desktop without a mobile phone at all. Limiting the requirements to a Linux/Windows implementations. After all it is all IP based anyway. (There are a few more OS if you want to be all pervasive e.g. various BSD and Chrome. Why rely on the phone it is a bottle neck especially if you do not have one or you have one that is not supported. I know you already support a Windows Desktop App.

The phone is not a bottleneck. There are enough third party clients and patches to the official clients to help you get going, and you can always ask for help in the forum if you need it.

Windows 8.1

There is a third party client for W10M, if you are not stuck on W8.1.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@Robin-Murison Thanks for the feedback. In the future, please try for smaller issues. Also, it helps to have a very clear headline and value proposition, then support it later. The context you provide above is useful, but it is only secondary to your actual requests, which are a few:

1. Signal Desktop should work standalone
2. You want Signal for Windows Phone
3. You want Signal to interoperate with other VOIP phones

You might consider closing this issue in favor of smaller, more concise issues for each of these.