Install the Signal desktop app.
Install Java either offline or online.
Download precompiled signal-cli binaries: signal-cli-*.tar.gz
and extract its contents to a new directory, e.g. C:\usr\signal
Replace ALL-CAPITALS with your actual values.
bin\signal-cli.bat -u +COUNTRY-CODE-YOUR-PHONE-NUMBER register- Receive the verification code in SMS
bin\signal-cli.bat -u +COUNTRY-CODE-YOUR-PHONE-NUMBER verify VERIFICATION-CODE-RECEIVED-IN-SMS- Open Signal Desktop app
- Make a cropped screenshot of the QR code
- Decode the QR code with ZXing Decoder Online
bin\signal-cli.bat -u +COUNTRY-CODE-YOUR-PHONE-NUMBER addDevice --uri "tsdevice:/QR-CODE-PARSED-RESULT"bin\signal-cli.bat -u +COUNTRY-CODE-YOUR-PHONE-NUMBER listDevices
Documentation: https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/master/man/signal-cli.1.adoc
Start using Signal without a smartphone :)
Find user data to backup in %USERPROFILE%\.local\share\signal-cli\
Supported locales are stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\signal-desktop\locales
Change locale on the command line: Signal.exe --lang=en-US
OK after a few hours of cycling between "invalid captcha", endless 502 and 429 messages, I bought a sim card and registered to the new mobile number without any problem; it seems the landline option does not work anymore for me. Of course it means my old account is now floating and cannot be removed, which is not great. I tried with
bin/signal-cli-u +322xxxxxxxx unregister --delete-account... but signal-cli responds that the user is not registered.
Any idea how to remove/unregister without access to the device which which I registered (the laptop was stolen)?