Yes, Signal is open-source where it matters.Signal’s apps and encryption protocol are fully open-source, and the server code is published as well. Signal is centralized by design, but messages are end-to-end encrypted by default and Signal cannot read them. This is not comparable to Telegram, where servers can read most chats and the backend is closed.
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Is Signal actually open-source? Isn’t the back-end closed source to this day, relatively similar to Telegram?
Yes, Signal is open-source where it matters.Signal’s apps and encryption protocol are fully open-source, and the server code is published as well. Signal is centralized by design, but messages are end-to-end encrypted by default and Signal cannot read them. This is not comparable to Telegram, where servers can read most chats and the backend is closed.
I am sorry, but the actual back-end server code is not published, if I am not mistaken, but a quite dated version only.
Related:
- Signal-Server code not public since April 22 2020 (Last commit on codebase)?
- It looks like Signal isn’t as open source as you thought it was anymore
- Can You Self-Host the Signal Server? [2025-04-22] (Self-hosting the entire service is almost impossible due to the documentation’s limited availability, the stack’s complexity, and the options to customize…)