Two Signal accounts on one Mac
Keep a second Signal account in a second Signal on the same Mac: both open at once, each signed in to its own account, with its own notifications and Dock icon. Parallex is free and open source.
How
- Install Parallex (below). Your Signal isn't changed.
- Choose New Instance and pick Signal. Name it for what it's for, like “Signal Work”, and give it a color.
- Open it and sign in with the other account. Both run at once, each in its own windows, each with its own Dock icon.
What you get with Signal
- Its own copy of Signal, with its own Dock icon, name and color, its own notifications, and its own macOS permissions.
- Its own Library and keychain, so its sign-in, settings and caches are separate from your other Signal, and it has its own encryption key in the keychain.
- Guard keeps the copy out of the original's data, and the isolation check shows what the copy has opened of yours.
- Kept up to date by Parallex: Signal's own updater is turned off in the copy, and Parallex refreshes the copy when your Signal updates.
Tested every night
Parallex's compatibility lab makes a fresh copy of Signal 8.26.0 every night on a clean Mac and opens it. On October 2, 2026, on macOS 26.6.2, the copy ran, and nothing reached the original's data. Its copies have run clean on all 3 nights since September 30. See every app's latest result.
Good to know
- A copy can't use iCloud sync, push notifications or Sign in with Apple, which belong to the original's signature. Apps that don't use them aren't affected.
Questions
How do I link the second one?
Open the new instance: it starts as a fresh Signal Desktop, so link it to the other phone from that phone's Signal settings.
Get Parallex
Free and open source, for macOS 14 and later. In Terminal:
curl -fsSL https://parallex.mandip.dev/install | shOr download it from GitHub, or with Homebrew: brew tap mandipadk/parallex https://github.com/mandipadk/parallex then brew install --cask parallex. Then choose New Instance, pick Signal, and give it a name.
Already have Parallex?
This opens New Instance with Signal picked; you name it and choose its color.
Make a second Signal