Signal will finally let you register without a phone number, for a price

Signal has always tied your messaging account to your phone number, and though you can hide your number by adding a username, you still needed one to sign up in the first place. If that was what held you back from joining the app, there’s good news.

Signal’s Lead Android developer, Greyson Parrelli, announced on the company’s community forum that the app’s latest beta version introduces numberless registration. This means users can sign up for Signal without giving the service their phone number.

Users will see an option to sign up without a phone number when they first start the registration process. They can select this option, pay a $3 fee, and receive an account ID and password to log in. Parrelli explains that Signal is instituting the $3 fee to prevent scammers from creating multiple accounts and flooding the network.

If you’re worried about the payment being tied to your account, Parrelli also explains that the app will use the same zero-knowledge proofs Signal uses for its donation system. This ensures that the payment is never tied to the Signal account and that there is no link between your payment and the account you create.

Registering without a phone number is easy, but users must store their ID and password safely in a password manager. Since no phone number is attached to the account, if a user loses either the ID or the password, they will be completely locked out and have no way to regain access. The app now also supports adding two-factor authentication for numberless accounts.

After registration, users can create a username to share with others. They can also opt not to create one. However, in that case, they can only participate in chats they initiate, because other users will have no way to search for them to start a conversation.

Signal beta v8.28.1 is already available through the Play Store or via GitHub. You can download it and set up your new Signal account without a phone number right now.