How do I install Signal in Ubuntu?

Question

Signal is a cross-platform encrypted messaging service developed by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger. It uses the Internet to send one-to-one and group messages, which can include files, voice notes, images and videos.

Solution 1

Open your terminal and copy-paste the below command one by one

sudo apt install curl
curl -s https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
sudo apt update 
sudo apt install signal-desktop

All credit goes to https://websiteforstudents.com/how-to-install-signal-desktop-on-ubuntu-16-04-17-10-18-04/

Solution 2

For all releases of Ubuntu 18.04 and newer:

sudo snap install signal-desktop

Solution 3

Apart from a deb package from the Signal PPA and snap package (sudo snap install signal-desktop), you can install it as flatpak (Follow the setup guide before installing):

sudo apt install flatpak  
flatpak install flathub org.signal.Signal  

Once installed, you can run it from the menu or use the following command in the terminal:

flatpak run org.signal.Signal

If you don't have/want to enable/d the Flathub repository:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.signal.Signal.flatpakref

Source: How to Install Signal on Ubuntu & Other Linux Distributions

Comments

[peterrus]

Please note that this snap comes from the Snapcrafters community repository. Not from the Signal developers themselves. signal.org/en/download has instructions for downloading and install the 'official' deb package.

[user535733]

@peterrus volunteer packaging is a long-standing, accepted community tradition. It's how Debian began and how most software is packaged in Debian and Ubuntu today. "Snapcrafters Community" is a well-known, trusted source. "Official" upstream deb packages sometimes have poor integration with Ubuntu, and cause their own set of headaches. Since the Signal developers have chosen neither to upload to Debian nor to create their own Snap, there is no ideal solution. Just two merely-good solutions.

[ojdo]

@mubasshir00 concerning your credits: actually, these instructions can also be found (identically) on Signal download page behind the link Signal for Linux - Debian-based distros (bottom right).

[Archisman Panigrahi]

According the source of the snap, they simply bundle the contents of the .deb into the snap.

[Kulfy]

@Dan Did you try Xenial repository on other releases? I use 20.04 and that repository seems to work fine. IIRC there was one package (Steam?), which had trusty in its repository URL even for Bionic.

[mbrig]

@user535733 it's still important to know, especially for what is theoretically a highly security conscious app.

[user535733]

@mbrig it's not clear exactly what you are saying. There's a LOT that is important to know, but the OP asked only about installing.

[mbrig]

@user535733 it is important to know when installing a security conscious application, what the source of that installation is, and if it is official or not. Regardless of long-standing tradition of volunteer packaging, I'm not going to trust it for something like Signal. I'd consider the installation being a non-official source critical enough that it should be called out in the answer itself.

[user535733]

@mbrig that seem to imply that you will be suspicious of any Debian-based OS (like Ubuntu). Debs are mostly (not all) packaged by Debian volunteers instead of upstreams...including core security elements like ssl, ssh, AppArmor, Firefox, etc. "Official" should not be considered shorthand for "Trustworthy." There are many excellent, trustworthy unofficial packagers out there. And there are lousy official and unofficial packagers, too. I might be more suspicious that you - I tend to sandbox ALL non-Ubuntu software, and quite a bit of Ubuntu software, too...

[user535733]

...and one of the nice features of Snaps is their containment-by-default. Another is their automatic updates.