Signal is working on a way to sign up without a phone number. The feature has not yet been officially confirmed, and it is not yet known whether it will be available to all users or in what form.
The ability to register for Signal without a phone number is a frequently requested feature. While Signal hides phone numbers by default and gives users control over who can discover them, some users would still like the option to create an account without using a phone number.
The latest changes to Signal’s server code show strong indications that Signal is exploring support for registration without a phone number. The clearest commits are:
- Don’t allow or set registration lock on accounts with no phone number (GitHub commit ef2d257)
- Add utility methods for getting country/region codes for accounts that may not have phone numbers (GitHub commit 78e7e99)
- Add support for pessimistic locking of phone-number-less accounts (GitHub commit d7447b1)
- Do not allow accounts without phone numbers to perform PNI key operations (GitHub commit 29c5f8b)
Together, these commits show that Signal is making backend changes to support accounts without phone numbers, including adjustments to registration security, account handling, regional information, and phone number-related features.
Only for new accounts?
When we dive deeper into the commits, they give us a little more information about how it might work. GitHub commit d7447b1 states that “accounts without phone numbers can never get phone numbers, and accounts with them can never lose them”.
This suggests that, at least in its current state, accounts registered with phone number and phone-number-less accounts are treated as two different types. Users won’t be able to switch between them, meaning Signal won’t support adding a phone number later or removing a phone number from an existing account. For now, it looks like registration without a phone number will only be supported for new accounts. Of course, this could change in the future.
Paid feature to prevent spam?
Alongside the hints in Signal’s source code, Signal CTO Ehren Kret also mentioned registration without a phone number in a video from the FUTO Don’t Be Evil conference, published last week but recorded in March.
According to Signal CTO Ehren Kret, the main challenge and one of the reasons Signal does not yet offer registration without a phone number is preventing spam and abuse. Phone numbers currently add a small barrier to the signup process, making it more difficult for bad actors to create large numbers of accounts.
Signal is currently exploring possible solutions to replace the phone number requirement with another barrier for new registrations, while continuing to protect users and maintain the stability of the service. “We gotta figure out some way to induce a cost for signing up without a phone number”, Kret said.
It’s unclear whether this means that registration without a phone number will become a paid feature. Given that Signal is a non-profit organization, any fee would likely be small and will be used to cover the costs to develop and maintain Signal. However, “cost” does not necessarily mean a monetary fee; it could also refer to another barrier designed to prevent abuse.
When?
Kret said back in March that Signal hopes to introduce registration without a phone number later this year. Timelines can always change, but with new commits now appearing in Signal’s codebase, it looks like some form of registration without a phone number is getting closer.
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