Signal Messenger Unable to Update

[Caroline1]

Hello, i’m hoping someone can help me with my Signal Messenger issue. Last week it expired but no update has been made available through the App Lounge. It’s really disappointing as this is the one and only app i needed and is advertised by e-foundation as being available (in fact on their website it is the example they use in their promo photos!).
I’m hoping someone can explain in very simple terms how i can update Signal to actually work. I’m not a tech person and had been under the impression that getting the Fairphone 3 through e-foundation would be user friendly and straightforward, but this has not been so. Going to Signal website to download takes you directly to Google Play Store which obviously negates the whole purpose of using a degoogled phone in the first place! It is also concerning and very disappointing to read in other posts about the analytical data getting sent to facebook and google etc (despite the privacy settings) but that is covered elsewhere in the community so i won’t dwell on that here.
Thanks to all that are working on this to resolve these issues, i realise it is all volunteers contributing their knowledge here in this community, i just feel that support is lacking from e-foundation directly.

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services

[ralxx]

Hello @Caroline1, welcome to the /e/ community forum. Do you know by any chance what Android version your phone is currently based on and what version of /e/?

• The Android version you get displayed when you go to the phone’s “Settings > About” section
• The /e/ version you find under: “Settings > System Updates”

[Caroline1]

Hi Ralxx, thanks for getting back to me
It is Android Version 10 and /e/version 0.15-20210327106351.
I see i’m behind on updates as there are various ones available to download, the most recent of which being 1.4-20220920220045. Would you recommend i proceed with downloading the most recent update?
Thanks

[Baggypants]

As I understand it the newer version has a different app lounge, which is probably why you’re not getting updates.

[ralxx]

That’s what I was guessing. /e/OS has developed further since this summer v.1.0 was published /e/ comes with a brand new app store (not called APPS anymore but App Lounge) with many improvements (one of them is that Signal is being updated automatically and does not cause this problem (Signal wants to be updated at least every 2 months for security reasons, if this does not happen, it simply stops working). So, my recommendation: Yes, go for the update - and install updated not too long time after /e/OS is proposing it to you.
If after the update Signal does not start working again, please drop another message her.
Good luck

[Nicolas_Sas]

Somme interesting points in this topic

Signal-app only availabel in google play store

You can install Aurora Store and then download signal v5.51.7 same version on Google Play Store. First install F Droid: [Capture] Then search for Aurora Store: And then search in aurora store the Signal app. With this you will have the latest Signal version PS: If you don’t want to use FDroid you can install Aurora Store from AppLounge

[MRTN]

App Lounge is using the GPlay API library from Aurora Store, so you don’t need to install this anymore to update your apps. Just make sure you use /e/OS 1.0 or above…

App Lounge - know all about it

[App Lounge] App Lounge is the second iteration of the application store embedded within /e/OS. It allows everyone to access millions of applications directly from their phone home screen. It combines common Android apps, open source apps and even progressive web apps in one single repository. It is the only app store that does this today. Like with its predecessor, Apps, you don’t need to sign in to an account to download apps. What are we talking about? When we speak about applications, w…

[petefoth]

Or continue to use Aurora Store as it seems to be a lot less buggy than App Lounge. Not surprising since it has been around a lot longer than App Lounge, and has a lot more users.

[Caroline1]

Hi Ralxx, thanks very much for your help, that did indeed work (silly me not to have kept updates updated).

[Caroline1]

Thanks for posting this blog here MRTN, very helpful. I must say i still found it unsettling when updating Signal from the App Lounge and being presented with a screen inviting me to sign in with Google! Tbh, i’d sooner not even see mention of Google on a de-googled phone, but hopefully the No-Google option for the App Lounge mentioned in the blog will become available.