The problem (my opinion, not necessarily the op's) is using the cell phone number as the public id. An alternative id would promote better privacy. If Signal scales to even a fraction of the user base of a Facebook or WhatsApp, it needs to reconsider using the cell phone number as a public id. I can see where a group invites you to join and there's a bad egg in the group. That bad egg (randomly or intentionally) uses your cell phone number for all sorts of nefarious intents. I like to keep my cell phone private and not have it out in the wild.

Isn't the desktop app a recent development? Or maybe I only recently discovered it.

It's been around since 2015, so pretty much from the start: https://signal.org/blog/signal-desktop/

Any idea about how the security posture changes? I would expect some significant tradeoffs are required to make all your messages appear in your browser

The Chrome app has been deprecated for some time - the current desktop version is independent of browser and available for Windows/macOS/Linux/iOS: https://signal.org/blog/standalone-signal-desktop/

I haven't used it in a while but I think it's probably similar to WhatsApp where it basically just tunnels it through your phone without actually running a Signal client on your machine.

It's not, once linked the desktop client can be used independently of your phone.

i'm not 100% sure how it works, but it seems to sync some messages. Not working perfectly as my desktop client does not have the full history from a chat, even though my phone does. It only has some of the messages from where the desktop client was first started.

It's quite odd to brand a web app as a "desktop" app, but it does fit with Moxie's unfortunate decision of trusting Google et al.

The Chrome app has been deprecated in favour of a true desktop app for several years: https://signal.org/blog/standalone-signal-desktop/

A true desktop app in so much as it bundles a standalone browser and uses that to render the web app part...

Can I use Signal from desktop only? Can I create an account from desktop? Is my account independent of any specific device? Can I use Signal on multiple computers at the same time with correct credentials?

> Can I use Signal from desktop only?

Yes, the desktop client functions independently from the phone client once linked (so not like whatsapp that proxies everything through your phone).

> Can I create an account from desktop?

Technically yes, but you either need to compile the desktop client yourself[0] and miss some features or use something like signal-cli[1] to act as the main client. So it's not supported (yet?).

> Is my account independent of any specific device?

The first client that registers acts as the main client, so no. But it might get easier to restore access on a different device without using backups with the secure value recovery[2] stuff they are working on.

> Can I use Signal on multiple computers at the same time with correct credentials?

It's possible to link and use several desktop clients at the same time.

[0] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/blob/development...

[1] https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli

[2] https://signal.org/blog/secure-value-recovery/

You need a phone to create an account and register the desktop app but then you can then use it completely separately from the phone, even when the phone is not online. You can link multiple desktop apps to one account/phone (afaik).

You can definitely use multiple desktop clients with one account, I have it installed on my home laptop and desktop