Molly

Molly is a modified version of the Signal app, maintained by Oscar Mira since 2019. Its README: “Molly is a hardened version of Signal for Android … Molly connects to Signal’s servers, so you can chat with your Signal contacts seamlessly.” It follows Signal’s releases, this one being based on Signal 8.19.2, and is “an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by” Signal.

What it adds to Signal

From the code of this version:

• Database passphrase: at first start, Molly offers to encrypt its data with a passphrase, which you can decline. The key is derived so that each guess takes about three seconds, and weak passphrases are refused. In the app’s words, until it is unlocked “Molly cannot receive notifications or calls.”
• Automatic lock after a time without unlocking your phone, and a memory wipe when it locks, clearing decrypted data from RAM.
• Screen security, which blocks screenshots and previews in the recent-apps list, and the incognito keyboard are on, unlike in Signal.
• Proxy: a SOCKS proxy or Tor through Orbot.
• The network stays off until you start registering.

It needs a phone number that can receive an SMS or call, or you link it to an existing Signal or Molly account.

What goes online

• Signal’s servers: messages, contact discovery, file storage, calls and registration.
• Link previews are on, and the app fetches the linked page itself to build them. GIF search goes through Signal’s proxy to Giphy, and location sharing loads OpenStreetMap tiles.
• DNS: the phone’s own first; Cloudflare’s and Quad9’s DNS over HTTPS as a fallback.
• Push as described in the questions below. The Firebase code for Google’s push service is included; its analytics are switched off.
• Molly’s server only for the update check, which is off; a banner offers to switch it on. After a week, a banner asks for donations through Open Collective, at most once a month.

Emoji

Molly, like Signal, shows emoji from bundled images in Apple’s style, without a licence statement in the project. A setting switches to your phone’s own emoji instead.

About this file

• This is the developer’s own build of version 8.19.2-4, byte for byte the APK on the project’s GitHub release, signed with the key whose fingerprint the README publishes. The same file is in Molly’s two F-Droid repositories, so updates from there install over it. Molly isn’t on Google Play, in F-Droid’s main repository or on IzzyOnDroid. The README says Molly is updated every two weeks; this release, from 31 July 2026, was the latest on 13 October.
• The 96.8 MB file runs on Android 8.1 and later, on ARM, 32- and 64-bit, and on 64-bit x86. It declares 73 permissions, much like Signal: contacts, the camera and microphone for calls and attachments, location for sharing it, phone state for calls, notifications, and the services that keep calls and downloads running.
• Molly is licensed under the AGPL-3.0. Its fonts include Inter, under the Open Font License, and Roboto, under the Apache-2.0; a few fonts and sounds inherited from Signal have no licence statement of their own.
• The project publishes no screenshots, so this page has none.

CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017); armeabi-v7a (32-bit ARM, older and budget phones); x86_64 (64-bit Intel, emulators and Chromebooks).

Recent releases on the project’s GitHub. We host and check only the newest one. Full changelog.