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Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

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Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#81

Post by actuator »

antirez wrote: post #73

That's funny. People use Whatsapp because outside US and Asia is the worldwide de facto standard for messaging. The new TOS does not state that Whatsapp is going to read your messages, actually even the non-techo-savvy population in Europe knows that Whatsapp uses end-to-end encryption (they just know that "it cannot be intercepted"), so they use it for good reasons, and will continue to do so, because 99% of people…

Regarding your other point, while you are theoretically right that this is a dangerous precedent.

But I think this week's events were extraordinary. At the end of the day humans are running these platforms and it becomes very hard to ignore developments like these. As much as I love free speech we have seen throughout the world that there is a real human cost to not censoring these things.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#82

Post by unicornporn »

_l4jh wrote: post #19

I have been using Signal for two years now and I love it. However I really, really hope they can work on a good backup and restore process as losing my message history because I have to reinstall the app on my desktop[1] or have to reset my phone is a horrible experience. Just build an encrypted blob and zip it up and pop it on my iCloud or Google Drive or leave it local and let me deal with it but I need something .…

Not a solution for the average user, but this works: https://github.com/bepaald/signalbackup-tools

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#83

Post by mystcb »

vinay427 wrote: post #77
izacus wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a backup which demands that you WRITE down a very long numeric code, then manually copy files off and then hope your family doesn't lose all of it. It's a horrible user hostile process which isn't even implemented for iOS.

To be fair (to iOS users, not to Signal), the device transfer procedure on Android is somewhat more cumbersome as a result. iOS gets the smooth new device-to-device direct transfer of the backup while Android users need to copy the encrypted blob (~2GB for me) to the new device and enter the encryption key. Admittedly, it does still allow for more flexibility than on iOS.

It is nice that the iOS version has that, but it a major pain say, if you are asked to reset your phone and restore from backup.

The recent issue with the Apple Watch not syncing health data meant that to get anywhere I had to wipe my phone, I had no where to transfer my Signal data too, thus - all gone.

It's not ideal when dealing with members of your family who really don't want to lose data, and is probably one of the few things that stops me in my own situation going over.

I do understand that in some cases this is actually a feature too, so I am not discounting it - just in my case this specific reason makes it really hard to justify a move over.

Just annoying that there isn't really a viable alternative anywhere at the moment :(

If iOS had that same option of a encrypted blob option then that would have solved my issue with the phone restore!

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#84

Post by Lutger »

sjaak wrote: post #6
FreakyT wrote: post #5

The issue with Signal that annoys me most is the complete lack of any meaningful backup/export on iOS. I lost my entire chat history when I got a new phone because their bizarre "proximity based" solution failed.

Why is keeping a chat history important? I don't take notes of IRL conversation I have, they're ephemeral. Not trolling, honestly curious :-)

Some people use chat software for more than just chitchatting and want the history as a memory.

This is the reason why mattermost exists - the devs lost their chat history of some enterprise solution and thought: never again. So they created mattermost.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#85

Post by WaitWaitWha »

j1elo wrote: post #70
izacus wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However I really, really hope they can work on a good backup and restore process as losing my message history because I have to reinstall the app on my desktop[1] or have to reset my phone is a horrible experience. I've tried to report bugs and talk to developers about this but there's one fundamental problem here - the Signal team fundamentally does not value chat history the same way a lot of people do. They thin…

I might see why they think that way, but I'll have a harder time sympathizing when the parent's use case starts being more prominent: what happens when your app grows in usage, gets out of the "niche curiosity" category for the mass public, and people start wanting to use it for "serious" matters? Not being able to back some conversations up is not an option. It would be very ironic if the answer to this was "well, t…

Signal is used both in many governments, and by groups in danger of punishment.

In my opinion, Signal is not a "niche curiosity", and mass public is rarely right.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#86

Post by dotdi »

antirez wrote: post #73

That's funny. People use Whatsapp because outside US and Asia is the worldwide de facto standard for messaging. The new TOS does not state that Whatsapp is going to read your messages, actually even the non-techo-savvy population in Europe knows that Whatsapp uses end-to-end encryption (they just know that "it cannot be intercepted"), so they use it for good reasons, and will continue to do so, because 99% of people…

My dude, the new TOS stipulate that "you grant WhatsApp a royalty-free, transferable license to use, reproduce and derive works from data you upload, send, ..."[0], which makes no sense at all if WhatsApp/Facebook did not have a way to decrypt the things people send via WhatsApp.

[0]: https://twitter.com/FSFTamilnadu/status/1346864102698754050

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#87

Post by temptemptemp111 »

antirez wrote: post #73

That's funny. People use Whatsapp because outside US and Asia is the worldwide de facto standard for messaging. The new TOS does not state that Whatsapp is going to read your messages, actually even the non-techo-savvy population in Europe knows that Whatsapp uses end-to-end encryption (they just know that "it cannot be intercepted"), so they use it for good reasons, and will continue to do so, because 99% of people…

One can reliably scroll to the bottom of the comments section to get higher quality comments. Thanks censorship for ordering the world (albeit inverted;)

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#88

Post by mauricioc »

xrisk wrote: post #78
izacus wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. You can't even use it on a tablet without owning a smartphone.

So is the model similar to that of WhatsApp web? can you receive messages on the desktop app if your phone is switched off?

Unlike WhatsApp, the desktop app receives messages when the phone is off. Also unlike WhatsApp, messages received on the phone before you paired the desktop app do not get transferred to the computer.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#89

Post by j1elo »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #85
j1elo wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might see why they think that way, but I'll have a harder time sympathizing when the parent's use case starts being more prominent: what happens when your app grows in usage, gets out of the "niche curiosity" category for the mass public, and people start wanting to use it for "serious" matters? Not being able to back some conversations up is not an option. It would be very ironic if the answer to this was "well, t…

Signal is used both in many governments, and by groups in danger of punishment. In my opinion, Signal is not a "niche curiosity", and mass public is rarely right.

I originally didn't write "mass public" but ended adding it to somehow convey that currently is already being used for "serious business", no doubt, but it has been far from widespread adoption so far.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#90

Post by LolTwo »

antirez wrote: post #73

That's funny. People use Whatsapp because outside US and Asia is the worldwide de facto standard for messaging. The new TOS does not state that Whatsapp is going to read your messages, actually even the non-techo-savvy population in Europe knows that Whatsapp uses end-to-end encryption (they just know that "it cannot be intercepted"), so they use it for good reasons, and will continue to do so, because 99% of people…

That is DEFINITELY a serious problem.

Personally, I want to see more people using Matrix because it solves that exact problem, but before that can happen I think we need a really, really good, easy to use client for it that's less like a Slack/Discord clone and more similar to something like FB Messenger, WhatsApp, Signal, Etc.

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