General WARNINGS
- The packages included in Tails are carefully tested for security. Installing additional packages might break the security built in Tails, so be careful with what you install.
- Configuring additional APT repositories might break the security built in Tails and might install software that has not even been approved by Debian. Be even more careful with what you install.
- USB drives break easily, get lost etc. Make use of Persistent storage backup feature immediately after registering new messenger accounts to be able to restore access to accounts and keep backing up regularly (=at least once a week) to minimize data loss. No backup, no mercy. Do not forget to manually upgrade Tails on your backups as well
You have been warned!
Signal
Signal Desktop is a slave client for using Signal with an already registered account. Accounts can be registered only with a master client, either an Android or iOS device or using signal-cli as master. Signal Desktop will keep linked forever even when not using/uninstalling the master Signal (e.g smartphone) if Signal Desktop is used at least once a month, otherwise you'll loose the coupling to your Signal account. Also re-registering the number decouples your Signal Desktop.
Full Signal registration and usage only on Tails&Tor
Signal can not only be registered using mobile phone numbers, but using any number (including landline, virtual numbers etc.) which is able to either receive text messages or voice calls. If you want to do everything via Tails&Tor not requiring any other phone device, use a virtual Voice-over-IP number on the internet with an optional mailbox (answering machine) accessible via web or mail. Set the mailbox greeting message as short as possible. During the registration procedure, Signal will call your virtual number leaving a message with the verification code.
Two scenarios using the Signal on Tails
This HowTo covers two common scenarios:
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You want to register a new Signal account and you don't have/want to use another device as master such as a smartphone (Android/iOS) or signal-cli running on another machine. (In the later case you can simply copy your signal storage rom the other devices signal-cli]): Register new Signal account from within Tails OS using signal-cli and link to Signal Desktop if you want to register a new Signal account
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You already have an registered signal account, with master on Android, iOS or signal-cli and want to run Signal Desktop on Tails OS and want to provision it (link it with your master device):Installing and running Signal Desktop on Tails OS if you already got an registered Signal account
Matrix
For an detailed overview of Matrix clients, check out the Matrix Clients Matrix. Following guides for a selection of gui clients which at least support e2e encryption and work on Tails OS with Tor.
- Installing and running Element Desktop on Tails OS
- Installing and running SchildiChatDesktop on Tails OS
- Installing and running Moment on Tails OS for using multiple matrix accounts with one matrix client. Moment is a fork of Mirage. Moment is currently in alpha and seems to be unstable.
Telegram
Telegram is not recommended, its not e2e-encrypted by default, messages and contacts are saved unencrypted on centralized closed source server, contains ads. It seems not possible to setup an already existing account with the Desktop client. This is often the case with preregistered SIM cards. Either using a VM running Android x86 or the use of a physical Android or iOS mobile clients is required, recommended to use an Android Device with Graphene OS or Divest OS and install Telegram FOSS from Obtainium. Make sure to use Telegrams Proxy settings if using Orbot for Tor to connect to the local SOCKS5 proxy.