4 Notify_signal
Chris Caron edited this page 2023-08-20 10:24:38 -04:00

Signal API

Account Setup

First of all you need a Signal account. So it is presumed you've either got the Apple or Android version of the Signal software.

From here, the plugin assumes you have configured yourself up with the Signal Rest API Service.

A simple setup might be:

# Create a directory for our configuration to get stored into
mkdir -p $HOME/.signal-api

# Launch a Signal API instance that listens on port 9922
docker run -d --name signal-api --restart=always -p 9922:8080 \
	-v $HOME/.signal-api:/home/.local/share/signal-cli \
   -e 'MODE=native' -e SIGNAL_CLI_UID=$(id -u) -e SIGNAL_CLI_GID=$(id -g) \
   bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api

If all goes well, you should be able to point your browser to: http://localhost:9922/v1/qrcodelink?device_name=signal-api and from your phone app, follow the instructions to add a Linked Device.

The {FromPhoneNo} must be the number associated with your account.

Syntax

Valid syntax is as follows:

  • signal://{user}:{password}@{hostname}/{from_phone}
  • signal://{user}:{password}@{hostname}:{port}/{from_phone}
  • signal://{user}:{password}@{hostname}/{from_phone}/{target}
  • signal://{user}:{password}@{hostname}:{port}/{from_phone}/{target}

You can post in multiple chats by simply chaining them at the end of the URL.

  • signal://{user}:{password}@{hostname}:{port}/{from_phone}/{target1}/{target2}/{target3}
  • signals://{user}:{password}@{hostname}:{port}/{from_phone}/{target1}/{target2}/{target3}

Parameter Breakdown

Variable Required Description
hostname Yes The Web Server's hostname
port No The port our Web server is listening on. By default the port is 80 for signal:// and 443 for all singals:// references.
user No If you're system is set up to use HTTP-AUTH, you can provide username for authentication to it.
password No If you're system is set up to use HTTP-AUTH, you can provide password for authentication to it.
from Yes This must be a From Phone Number you've added to the API service.
to *No A phone number or group id you wish to send your notification to. If one isn't specified, then the from is used instead.
batch No Send multiple specified notifications in a single batch (1 upstream post to the end server). By default this is set to no.
status No Optionally include a small little ASCII string representing the notification status being sent (inline with it) by default this is set to yes.

Acquiring A Group ID

Groups can be created in the app, or via the Signal Rest API Service. To get a list of available groups and their ids run:

curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" localhost:9922/v1/groups/+15555551234 | jq

Example output is as follows:

[
  {
    "name": "Test Group",
    "id": "group.abcdefghijklmnop=",
    "internal_id": "aabbccdd/eeffgghh=",
    "members": [
      "+1555555551234
      "+16666661234"
    ],
      "blocked": false,
      "pending_invites": [],
      "pending_requests": [],
      "invite_link": "",
      "admins": [
      "+1555555551234"
    ]
  }
]

The takeaway from the above is the group 

Example sending a notification to a group: group.aabbccdd/eeffgghh= identified by the id.

Example

Send a Signal Notification (via Signal API):

# Assuming our {Hostname} is localhost (hosting the bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api)
# Assuming our {FromPhoneNo} is +1-900-555-9999
# Assuming our {PhoneNo} - is in the US somewhere making our country code +1
#                        - identifies as 800-555-1223
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
   "signal://localhost/19005559999/18005551223"

# the following would also have worked (spaces, brackets,
# dashes are accepted in a phone no field):
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
   "signal://localhost/1-(900) 555-9999/1-(800) 555-1223"

Based on my personal experiences, I was able to send a notification to myself by simply doing the following:

# Assuming our {Hostname} is localhost (hosting the bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api)
# Assuming our {Port} is 9922
# Assuming our {FromPhoneNo} is +1 555 555 1234
apprise -vv -t "Test Message Title" -b "Test Message Body" \
   "signal://localhost:9922/15555551234"

If you know the Group ID you want to notify, you can idenify it as well on the command line:

# Assuming our {Hostname} is localhost (hosting the bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api)
# Assuming our {Port} is 9922
# Assuming our {FromPhoneNo} is +1 555 555 1234
# Assuming our {Group} is group.abcdefghijklmnop=
apprise -vv -t "Group Message:" -b "Hello group members" \
    "signal://localhost:9922/+1555555551234/group.abcdefghijklmnop="

I could even send an attachment without a problem:

apprise -vv -t -b "test" \
   signal://localhost:9922/15555551234 --attach apprise-test.gif

Which produced: image