• An older fork of Signal-Android that works with my fork of Signal-Server
  • Running the newest version of signalapp's Android app with my fork of Signal-Server should be fine, but this repository is here as a redundancy

• Signal-Server installation instructions
• sample-build.gradle (with notes)

• Android Studio

  • If you are on Linux and Android Studio is buggy, try the flatpak

Clone this repo with:

git clone https://github.com/JJTofflemire/Signal-Android

Open Android Studio and hit Open in the new project prompt or in the top left go to File > Open Folder > select Signal-Android

Let Gradle sync

Set up an Android emulator

• Either under Tools > Device Manager or the small phone icon near the top right of the screen. Hit Create Device

• Select any new-ish phone (Pixel 4XL for example)

• Select a new-ish system image - one might get automatically highlighted, if so install that one - just avoid the latest one (currently API 34)

This guide by Madeindra is still almost entierly up-to-date and I will be adapting basically word-for-word from here

• On line 181, update the url with your url (make sure to keep the trailing slash):

buildConfigField "String", "SIGNAL_URL", "\"https://chat.your.domain\""

• This is the only url related to messaging - if you want to set up another section, good luck!

• On line 211, update with your Public key generated by certificate -ca from Signal-Server:

buildConfigField "String", "UNIDENTIFIED_SENDER_TRUST_ROOT", "\"your-public-key\""

• On lines 218-219, you need to enter your own hcaptcha webpage (signal's won't work) - the nginx-certbot docker image should bundle it at chat.your.domain/signalcatpchas, or else you can check out the source at JJTofflemire/signalcaptchas

buildConfigField "String", "SIGNAL_CAPTCHA_URL", "\"https://signalcaptchas.org/registration/generate.html\""
buildConfigField "String", "RECAPTCHA_PROOF_URL", "\"https://signalcaptchas.org/challenge/generate.html\""

• Update the trusted server certificate in app/src/main/res/raw/whisper.store

• docker exec into your nginx-certbot docker container, and copy fullchain.pem and privkey.pem out of the instance:

docker exec -it nginx-container bash
cd /etc/letsencrypt/live/test-name/
cat fullchain.pem
cat privkey.pem

And paste the outputs into local fullchain.pem and privkey.pem, and generate a keystore.pcks12:

openssl pkcs12 -export -out keystore.pkcs12 -in fullchain.pem -inkey privkey.pem

• openssl will ask for you to set a password - I did whisper for consistency

Open the app/src/main/res/raw/whisper.store in KeyStore Explorer - the password is whisper

• Hit the Import Key Pair button (along the row of png buttons - it looks like two gold keys side-by-side)

• Select PKCS#12 > OK > enter the password you set, and select your keystore.pcks12 (you might need to look for all file types if it doesn't show up in the file explorer)

• Import > Exit, which will prompt you to save

Download the google-services.json and from Firebase > your project > the settings cog wheel in the top left > Project settings > Your apps section > google-services.json and place it inside Signal-Android/app

Try to update app/src/main/res/values/firebase_messaging.xml with the new values from your google-services.json, but you won't be able to fill out all sections

You need to replace every instance of org.thoughtcrime.securesms with the package name your created for your Firebase app

Start off by finding and replacing the following:

• org.thoughtcrime.securesms with your.app.name

• org.thoughtcrime with your.app

• org_thoughtcrime_securesms with your_app_name

• org/thoughtcrime/securesms with your/app/name

• I used VSCode and maxed out the find and replace at 20000 hits - after it finished I had to run it again to catch another ~1000

Next, rename these files the same way:

• app/jni/utils/org_thoughtcrime_securesms_util_FileUtils.cpp

• app/jni/utils/org_thoughtcrime_securesms_util_FileUtils.h

Finally, find and rename all folders named org, thoughtcrime, and securesms with your app name

• I couldn't find an easy way to do this manually, so I ended up using locate org/thoughtcrime/securesms and locate org/thoughtcrime etc

  • If you need to install it, the package name will most likely be mlocate, and don't forget to run sudo updatedb regardless before searching for folders to rename

Now run ndk-build to rebuild some machine-generated config files

• To install ndk, go to Android Studio > File > Settings > Languages & Frameworks > Android SDK > SDK Tools tab > hit the checkmarks on NDK (Side by Side), Android SDK Command-line Tools, and CMake > Apply

• ndk-build probably hasn't been added to your path, so you will need to call it with an absolute path like this: ~/Android/Sdk/ndk/<version>/build/ndk-build

• You will also need to set a variable pointing ndk-build to the project directory

export NDK_PROJECT_PATH=/path/to/Signal-Android/app

• Then run ~/Android/Sdk/ndk/<version>/build/ndk-build

Lastly, update the package name in app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml to anything else

<string name="app_name" translatable="false">your name</string>

Then sync and build in Android Studio

Start Signal-Server and registration-service in EC2

Select Signal-Android and an emulator (or deploy onto your phone) from the dropdown near the top right and hit the green run button

Go to Build > Build Bundle(s) / APK(s) > Build APK(s)

• This will recompile and build everything (usually anything unchanged is cached), and outputs the apk into Signal-Android/app/build/outputs/apk/playProd/debug/

• Find out if this step from Madeindra's guide is required:

  9. Update ATTACHMENT_DOWNLOAD_PATH and ATTACHMENT_UPLOAD_PATH in libsignal/service/src/main/java/org/whispersystems/signalservice/internal/push/PushServiceSocket.java by deleting attachments/ so attachment will be uploaded in root ( / ). If you don't want the attachments to be uploaded to root bucket, check the FAQ part of this guide.