New to GrapheneOS, just a couple days so far.

Kept owner account minimal, set up second profile for google sandboxed apps, general stuff. Set up a third profile for other things. Molly-Signal was set up already on the second profile, installed it on profile 3 thinking it would be like Tutanota app, accessible for login from other profiles. Well, I found out that isn't the case.

Switching to another account for access during operations requiring coordination with functions in another profile is an issue. I'm guessing this is a limitation of Molly-Signal, out of scope for GrapheneOS, but I'm a noob, and would appreciate some insight from wiser, more experienced users.

Tia.

  • zzz replied to this.

    Signal doesn't support simultaneous logins on multiple devices, which is what logging in yo the same account on on multiple profiles amounts to.

      • Zzzz

        • Post #3
        • Edited

        Granite

        You can try making multiple Signal/Molly accounts with different phone numbers.

        SMSPool.net is a great service for this. Cost is like $0.25 per number.

        Just make sure to enable Registration Lock on each account.
        By default, the phone # is the way that Signal/Molly authorizes moving your account to a new device.
        Registration Lock hardens your Signal/Molly account by requiring a PIN to transfer the account to a new device, in addition to phone #. That way your accounts can't be compromised if the SMSPool phone #s get reused by somebody malicious.
        Save the Signal/Molly PIN #s like you would any password.

        Some related discussion in this thread:
        https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/5903-temporary-phone-numbers-for-a-multi-profile-signal-molly-molly-foss-setup

        You could also try using a messaging service like Session between profiles - many of the same features as Signal, no phone # required. Have not tested personally, but you might even be able to use the same Session account on all GOS profiles, according to this chart:
        https://www.messenger-matrix.de/messenger-matrix-en.html

        Session seemingly has other advantages over Signal, like that it uses decentralized servers. There are disadvantages too - be sure to study the chart.

        Best of luck!

            zzz you may use Session of course, it's a matter of personal preference, but why would they deliberately weaken the encryption they inherited in libsignal is beyond me - read this: https://soatok.blog/2025/01/14/dont-use-session-signal-fork/

            For inter-profile file sharing personally I usually use SimpleX or InterProfileSharing of VentralDigital (available on Accrescent, GitHub or F-Droid). This is not a recommendation of course, merely a data point.

                JollyRancher
                Thank you. I knew about the one device, one account structure. I simply failed to think properly about it in relation to profiles. My small hope was that the owner account, which holds profile switch control, might hold a way for a secure messaging account to exist in more than one profile, as long as an unlock passphrase was used.

                Yeah, pipe dream, huh?

                  zzz
                  Thank you.
                  I did understand the option of a second phone number, but that isn't something I wanted to implement to access signal. That phone number service seems unrealistically inexpensive, never heard of it before. Interesting.

                  Session is something I've looked at long ago, and decided wasn't for me. I do appreciate your willingness to offer ideas, though.

                  Thank you again.

                    chinook
                    Thank you, Chinook.
                    Yes, Session always seemed suspect to me. Something just doesn't add up about it.

                    SimpleX does look interesting, very well thought-out. It's something I've considered previously. Thank you for the link, as a data point, of course.

                    Best regards.

                      I have got Signal in my main user and then I set up Molly on the same device in my "car" user. The trick is to define the new Molly installation as a secondary device you want to link to your main device (in this case the main profile) with the same number. Molly allows for that.
                      Works like a charm.

                        Themble
                        Appreciate the idea, was really excited, but unfortunately, it's not working out on my device.

                        Installed Molly in the target profile, gave it a different name than the install in the other profile, copied the key hash, switched back to the profile with the original install, unlocked Molly, select link another device, pasted the key, got the brief pop up dialogue, linking device - but nothing. Switch back to the linked profile instance, spinning wheel at the Molly screen, that had previously showed the key to be copied. Stuck like that forever.

                        I don't know if it's because the original Molly instance was key locked, or if it's because it's not in the owner account.

                        Frankly, it seems stupid to me that, the resident messaging app has unrestricted access to any and all additional profiles, but the same access by a secure messaging app is out of bounds.

                        GrapheneOS really needs to do better on this point.

                            BTW, Textra sometimes, after the phone isn't used overnight, allows a single successful text transmit to go out from the user profile, then fails all successive attempts to transmit a text.

                            I now find there's been text issues going back over a year. When is GrapheneOS going to fix this?

                            • zzz replied to this.

                              Granite GrapheneOS really needs to do better on this point.

                              The app has to make is possible. SMS being cross profile is because of how user profiles were programmed in Android in the first place.

                              Signal doesn't support (and actively works against) logging in on multiple phones. User Profiles are essentially separate phones, with both the pros and cons of that.

                                • Zzzz

                                  • Post #12

                                  Granite
                                  Here it sounds like you have Molly on 1st profile, and Molly on 2nd profile:

                                  Installed Molly in the target profile, gave it a different name than the install in the other profile, copied the key hash, switched back to the profile with the original install, unlocked Molly, select link another device, pasted the key, got the brief pop up dialogue, linking device - but nothing.

                                  But they describe something different - Signal on 1st profile, Molly on 2nd profile:

                                  Themble I have got Signal in my main user and then I set up Molly on the same device in my "car" user.

                                  In Molly's documentation, it looks like the primary installation does need to be Signal, while the secondary "linked devices" need to be Molly.
                                  https://github.com/mollyim/mollyim-android/releases/tag/v6.31.2-1

                                        • Zzzz

                                          • Post #13
                                          • Edited

                                          Granite GrapheneOS really needs to do better on this point.

                                          Its ok to feel frustrated. Just keep in mind that GOS is offered for free, and owes nothing to the likes of you or I. Something to ponder.
                                          https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/18927-on-open-source-and-complaining-to-the-manager

                                          As someone else already pointed out, the source of complexity here lies in Signal / Molly's development priorities, not GOS'.

                                          Take things one step at a time, some patience is required. Your desired setup is possible to achieve.

                                          Granite Textra [...]

                                          Probably better to make a separate thread for that.

                                                zzz
                                                Fwiw,
                                                I never use software without paying. I firmly believe in paying for useful tools.

                                                GrapheneOS will be no different.

                                                  zzz
                                                  Yes, I saw that Molly note from 2023. Doesn't say Molly needs to link to Signal.

                                                  Our friend has the first instance in the owner account. Neither of my instances are. I don't know if that's my issue, or if it's that Molly is locking down when it should be doing a handshake with the new instance, or if it just takes more than 20 minutes.

                                                  • zzz replied to this.

                                                      • Zzzz

                                                        • Post #16
                                                        • Edited

                                                        Granite

                                                        You're right, I misread the Molly changelog.

                                                        Not sure if you have already - maybe try to toggling on the "allow running in background" setting for both profiles?

                                                            Inter profile sharing works, and works whether or not it's got encryption enabled. In fact, it works too well - it retains previously copied text, and there's no way to change that behavior.

                                                            I don't understand how it works, but if it's an on-device tunnel, wouldn't such mechanism be able to be leveraged in service of linked Molly instances?