How the Signal Desktop App Can Help Protect Your Privacy

Text messages have replaced conversations as the primary use of the phone. For those who would like to keep track of what we are talking about, this has made their life easier. Storing plain text and working with it is much easier than with sound. So it might be a good idea to use a secure texting app

That’s where Signal comes in. Signal is a secure messaging app for Android, iPhone and desktops. Like most other messaging apps, Signal can be used for text, voice, and video calls.

Regardless of how you use it, it is encrypted from the moment it leaves your phone until it is decrypted on the recipient’s phone in their Signal app. You can still send messages to people without the Signal app, but it won’t be encrypted. Learn to encrypt all your data This is a great idea.

Text messages from the desktop

If you spend a lot of time at your computer, whether it’s work or play, it’s a good idea to be able to send text messages from your desktop. Stopping every few minutes to pick up the phone and write someone back is annoying. The Signal folks know this, so they turned their app into a desktop app. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The Signal desktop app is free to download.

What can I do with Signal Desktop?

The Signal desktop app is a little more limited than the phone app. For text messages only. You can send images, voice messages up to 5 minutes, videos and other types of files. However, you cannot use it to broadcast live video or voice messages.

Signal supports almost every emoji you can think of; people, animals, food, activities, travel, items, symbols and flags.

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Comes with two sets of stickers; French Bulldog Zozo and Cat Bandit. You can also create and upload your own sticker packs in Signal. It’s not a boring text-based app that gets in the way of security. It is a fully featured messaging app with strong security.

How does Signal Desktop protect your security?

The cornerstone of Signal security is end-to-end encryption. What you see in your message turns into something unreadable when it leaves your phone.

High quality encryption

It can only be turned back into a human readable message when it reaches the intended recipient’s Signal app. Everything that passes through the Signal desktop app is encrypted. Messages, files, images, videos, stickers everything is encrypted.

How is it encrypted? Signal uses a proprietary encryption protocol that uses several different encryption methods that would be very secure on their own. AES-256 encryption is just one of them.

Confirmed connection with your phone

The phone app is registered to your phone number, so it’s hard for someone to pretend to be you if they don’t have your phone. The Signal desktop app is tied directly to your phone. When you install the app, it will open with a large screen with a QR code so you can link it to your phone.

Since the app is tied to your phone and your phone number is registered with Signal through the phone app, it’s easier for people to check if a message really came from you.

Only for contacts in your Signal Phone app

When you link the Signal desktop app to your phone, it will import the contacts from the app on your phone. This is the only way to add contacts to the PC app. This feature prevents you from accidentally sending top secret messages to the wrong person due to a typo.

Self-destructing messages

Speaking of top secret messages, you can also set a self-destruct timer for any messages sent from the Signal desktop app. Click the three-dot menu and then click Disappearing Messages. Now you can choose how long the message will last.

The countdown will start as soon as you send the message, not as soon as your friend receives it. Thus, if someone picks up the phone later, this message will disappear.

Conversations can be confirmed by both people

Ideally, you also confirmed that you are sending messages to a friend’s app, and vice versa. This can be done by going to the three-point menu.

Click View Security Number and make sure the application shows the same number below you. Each Signal dialog has a unique security number.

If they match, you can mark your security code as verified. You will see a confirmation checkmark next to their name in the chat. Now you know for sure that you are sending messages to a friend, and not receiving phishing. It also helps protect against attacker-in-the-middle attacks.

Customizable desktop notifications

It is also possible to set the type of notification received on the desktop or disable it. This is useful when you minimize the application to the desktop, perhaps because you are showing something to someone on your screen.

Click “Notifications” can be set to; Both the sender’s name and the message, only the sender’s name, neither the name, nor the message, or disable notifications. You can also set an audible notification, which is handy if you’ve turned off visual notification.

Use a signal, be safe

If information security is a concern, the Signal desktop app is for you. Quite frankly, all messaging applications must have this level of security. For added security, you can click “File” and then “Clear Data”.

You will receive a warning that all contacts and all messages will be deleted and cannot be recovered. Before clicking the Delete All Data button, make sure that this is exactly what you want.

Now you know how the Signal desktop app can help protect your privacy as well as the Signal phone app. Using both also provides maximum convenience.

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