@peat_psuwit said in Call for testing: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.1:

(there has been flooding in my area).

I'm glad to hear that you're safe. Please give priority to your health and safety, and those of your family, over a software update!

@libremax Thanks for posting! I'm still at Bornhack, and beside the talk, there are so many folks here who are interested in Ubuntu Touch. Now that people know that I'm using it, lots of people want to talk to me about it and ask me questions, and I answer as many as I can.
My show-and-tell device (BQ Aquaris E4.5) goes from hand to hand (yes, we use sanitizer) and people are amazed by the smooth operation, and more when I tell them how old it is.

I'm hoping to be causing a small influx of interest in our OS and community. I'm certainly doing my best to do so!

I was one of the volunteers humanning the stand, and it was great. We were able to answer a lot of questions, we showed many different devices on our stand, and people were quite enthousiastic about what we had to show and say. It was an inspiring day and we helped promote UT and make contact with organisations for possible collaboration. Time well spent!

=================================================
NOTE written on January 20 2026:
The post below was written in February 2025. Since then, a native version of Signal for Desktop has been made available by one of our app developers (thank you!)
It's working quite well and you can find it here.

ORIGINAL POST below:

=================================================
Unfortunately, there is currently no native, working Signal client for UT and this is unlikely to change soon. But if that's a problem that impacts you, read on! I found a solution that works well for me and maybe it will work for you, too.

My solution consists of several parts:

• Signal for Android, running in Waydroid. You can download it from their webpage or from F-Droid or Aurora Store.
• Signal Desktop running on several computers, and linked to the first Signal, which is the primary device. All others are secondary devices. You can have only one primary.
• Cinny, running on UT, using a Matrix bridge to connect to Signal. This is very new to me and yet it was easy.

I followed these instructions given by Danfro:

For everyone here who is looking for an alternative to use Signal on Ubuntu Touch.
There is a matrix signal bridge hosted here: https://tchncs.de/matrix.
This can be used with Cinny or any other Matrix client. Instructions are given on the website there.
Note: Some things do still not work. Image download is fine, but right now no other file types. I am working on it...

• Open Cinny (or another matrix client)
• create a new room
• invite the bridge bot @signalbot:tchncs.de
• open your primary signal device and head for settings, linked devices
• add new device
• got to chat with bridge bot and type "login" as message
• scan the qr code with your primary device, it should now link them
  Done.

I had an extra step because my primary is running in Waydroid and it's a pain generating and scanning a QR code on one and the same device, plus it refused to work. So I installed the latest Cinny on a spare phone and used that to link Cinny to Signal. It worked fine.

I hope this is useful to anyone else!

YESSS
It's working! I have zoom, autofocus and flash! This is the last thing that was missing for me to be able to say that the phone is fully functional under UT!

Excuse me while I dance the happy dance...

Some of their applications can run on Waydroid. But most people who are using Ubuntu Touch wish to get away from Google. Personally I want to avoid Android applications and the Google Playstore.

If we are going to do everything that Android does, what would make us special? Why would we even bother?

This was a lot of fun. We had a really simple stand because we didn't bring a lot of equipment, but it was enough: we got plenty of interest, had some good conversations, and answered many questions. It's definitely worth planning for T-Dose 2026 (June 6 and 7)!

Greetings from all the creatures of T-Dose!

I'm not sure how relevant this is to the development of this extremely useful native app. But I think it's at least interesting.

https://aboutsignal.com/news/signal-desktop-without-a-mobile-phone-standalone-version-in-development/

Ubuntu Touch:
It's in your hands.

@cliffcoggin said in Ushby have released an official Review on UT.:

I suggest the review is removed until a more objective one can be written.

Let's cut the author a little slack. They're allowed to voice their opinions, even if their opinions are based on a misunderstanding; as for feeling ill, the world would in my view be a better place if everyone was this open and honest about what influenced their mood at a certain time.

@Perrete You're welcome! There's another app that may in time offer what you are looking for, and will probably become available soon:
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/12162/alpha-greenline-a-qml-whatsapp-client-for-ubuntu-touch

@Perrete The post location is fine but I've made your topic a bit easier to find by adding tags and adjusting the title. 'Calls' will usually refer to telephony, so it's relevant that you are actually using voicechat in WhatsApp; furthermore it's good to let people know that you are doing this in Waydroid, not natively.
Best of luck and I hope you find a good solution!

By the way, have you tried this?
https://open-store.io/app/whatslectron.pparent

@KoJans said:

That worked in a few minutes outside.

Glad to hear it!

@KoJans Try the app MessWerk, it often gets faster GPS fix. After that, the navi apps should have it too.

But also: we don't have A-GPS because it's from Google. So getting a fix will take longer than you are used to. Never fear though: the more regularly you use your GPS, the faster the fix.

For the first fix, going outside and keeping the screen awake should help a lot.

@KoJans Van harte welkom!

@pparent said:

Any way to report it? Maybe @moem ?

I'll see what I can do to forward this to the right people!

@arubislander said:

De medewerking die Telegram heeft verleend was dat ze de push service van Canonical, die wij hebben geërfd, hebben geïmplementeerd.

Ah! Okay, dat verschil is met mijn kennisniveau wat vaagjes. In elk geval hebben ze een vorm van medewerking verleend, wat meer is dan we van Signal kunnen zeggen.
Dank je voor de correctie!

@DerekZoZo said:

Does the google free version of waydroid come with MicroG

Not automatically, but it can be installed. I'm having trouble remembering how I did this, but here's a video that may help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UNbDCZMQqE

@nomadster I would say that 'months'' sounds most accurate. But it depends on the porter, who needs to apply the fix to the port for this specific device. And it depends on another step that needs to happen first...

Your device is currently not included in the beta testing for the 24.04-2.x version, which comes with this fix. The reason is a problem with the size of the root file system. Let's hope a solution for that can be found soon. (My own daily driver is not included either, for the same reason)

@nomadster You're in luck! A fix for rounded corners is being tested, and will very likely come to your device soonish.