Axolotl is a crossplattform Signal client

For the Ubuntu Phone and more

Axolotl is a complete Signal client, it allows you to create a Signal account and have discussions with your contacts. Unlike the desktop Signal client, Axolotl is completely autonomous and doesn't require you to have created an account with the official Signal application.

It is built upon the Go textsecure package and a vuejs app that runs in a electron/qml WebEngineView container.

To use it from your Ubuntu Touch device, simply install it from the open store:

Axolotl is also available as a snap package, to install it on Ubuntu desktop:

What works

Phone registration
Contact discovery
Direct messages
Group messages mostly
Photo, video, audio and contact attachments in both direct and group mode
Preview for photo and audio attachments
Storing conversations
Encrypted message store
Desktop client provisioning/syncing partially

What is missing

Push notifications
Most settings that are available in the Android app
Encrypted phone calls

There are still bugs and UI/UX quirks.

Installation of development environment

Install Golang
Install node js (see the .nvmrc) file for the supported version
Add gopath to ~/.bashrc https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SettingGOPATH
install dependencies sudo apt install mercurial gettext
Check out this git go get -d github.com/nanu-c/axolotl
cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/github.com/nanu-c/axolotl
get go dependencies go mod download
install axolotl-web dependencies: cd axolotl-web&&npm install

When setting up for the first time and maybe occasionally later you need to update the browser list with your installed browsers. Change into the axolotl-web subfolder and run the following command:

npx browserslist@latest --update-db

Run development

cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/github.com/nanu-c/axolotl
go run .
in a new terminal cd axolotl-web&&npm run serve
point a browser to the link printed in the terminal like http://localhost:9080

Run frontend and connect to phone ip

That way running the backend is avoided, instead your current registration on ubuntu touch is used

cd axolotl-web
VUE_APP_WS_ADDRESS=10.0.0.2 npm run serve replace 10.0.0.2 with the ip of your phone

Installation

Axolotl can be built and installed in different ways.

To find out how to build and install, please see below:

with Clickable: see here.
with Snap: see here.
with Flatpak: see here.
with AppImage: see here.
for Mobian: see here.

Run flags

-axolotlWebDir Specify the directory to use for axolotl-web. Defaults to "./axolotl-web/dist".
-e for either lorca-> native chromium (has to be installed), ut -> runs in the ut enviroment, me -> qmlscene, server -> just run the webserver. Defaults to run with electron.
-eDebug show developer console in electron mode
-host Set the host to run the webserver from. Defaults to localhost.
-port Set the port to run the webserver from. Defaults to 9080.

Environment variables

AXOLOTL_WEB_DIR Specify the directory to use for axolotl-web. This is used by axolotl during startup.
AXOLOTL_GUI_DIR Specifies the directory used for GUI specifications. This is used by axolotl only when in qt mode.

Contributing

Please fill issues here on github https://github.com/nanu-c/axolotl/issues
Help translating Axolotl to your language(s). For information how to translate, please see TRANSLATE.md.
Contribute code by making PR's (pull requests)

If you contribute new strings, please:

make them translatable using v-translate in the enclosing tag
avoid linebreaks within one tag, that will break extracting the strings for translation
try to reduce formatting tags within translatable strings

examples:

Translate me! instead of Translate me!
Translate me! instead of Translate me!
Translate me! Please... instead of Translate me! Please...

Migrating from `janimo/axolotl`

For information how to migrate from janimo/axolotl, please see MIGRATE.md.

Flaburgan/axolotl