4 ms·
Report suggest there's some beta/stable mismatching going on. While Signal's greatest strength is its privacy features I think that at some point they are goin
by johnchristopher 6y ago
Report suggest there's some beta/stable mismatching going on.
While Signal's greatest strength is its privacy features I think that at some point they are going to have to meet their customers/prospects/users' other needs.
The biggest one being the availability of chat history anywhere, anytime at their own risk if needed.
We won't educate people to use messaging app in the way we want them to (for privacy sensible conversations only) because the vast majority don't use messaging app like that.
It's either give up on that idea or heavily advertise that Signal is not a Whatsapp/Telegram/Viber/Messenger/Whatever replacement: it's a tool to use when you want to have private conversations.
Maybe it'd be better to leave the Signal messaging app lives its life and allows a third party chat history viewer to emerge. You can already export your encrypted backup to a readable CSV file. https://github.com/xeals/signal-back https://github.com/xeals/signal-back edit: which obviously doesn't work with a corrupted database :p. Signal backup as a service startup ?
Point in case: mom complained the other day that Signal Desktop took some time to launch because it was “syncing things”. I told here that this syncing from her phone to the computer is the proof her messages only exist in the application. Desktop or smartphone, that's why it needs to sync, facebook and others don't work like that (I grossly simplified).
note: Thread with comments like is how I remember HN is now a site with a huge audience.
- reader_mode 6y agoI just use telegram - it has ptivate messages when I need them but it's a great chat app to begin with.
- matsemann 6y agoI don't really need my messages persisted across devices in the cloud or when buying a new phone. Search on Facebook messenger for instance is broken so it's not like I can find anything ("what was the code to the gate?"), and I've never felt the need to scroll more than a few days back for other stuff. What I need is just to persist the groups, really. So I easily can continue chatting there and not hope someone else sends a message first.
- JohnJamesRambo 6y agoYes I like Signal just like it is. I like that it can only be installed on one phone. It feels safer that way.
- eptcyka 6y agoI use software that works rather than one that feels like it works. And this doesn't.
- lordlimecat 6y agoWhy does that feel safer? It's an open protocol. It can be used on the desktop, albeit clunkily. When you send someone a message you lose control of it, regardless of how it "feels".
- JohnJamesRambo 6y agoWell I can be sure that there isn't another phone somewhere with my Signal logged in. When I get a new phone it makes me pick.
- contactlight11 6y agoWell, the messages are not syncing from phone to desktop. They're syncing from the server to desktop. Need proof? Turn your phone off any access signal desktop. The messages exist in separate "mailboxes" on the server, one per linked device, and deliver independently. The timeout is 60 days if I recall correctly, for messages to be deleted from the server if they were not delivered to the client. Can't find the better source I know exists at this moment, see here for now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15596980 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15596980
- XorNot 6y agoIt seems weird to me that device-to-device message sync isn't implemented, since that can be done trivially and securely. When I link a new device, give me an option to say "push my message history to this device" and let that work P2P.
- robinson-wall 6y agoIt's particularly frustrating because the framework for this feature already exists - if you link a new phone it offers to sync your history to it.