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Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

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Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#161

Post by beezle »

Lutger wrote: post #84
sjaak wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This. Signal devs should understand that different people have different use cases as well as different tolerances for (theoretical) secrecy/privacy. Some convos/groups are worth keeping history for, others probably not. Signal does not have anyway to know which so should let the user decide and allow for an easy(ier) backup/restore option.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#162

Post by Asraelite »

dopu wrote: post #148
sim_card_map wrote: post #129

Signal is not an open alternative. It's not federated, but most importantly, they don't allow 3rd party clients: https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco... So you are stuck with their Electron junk without any options. Matrix should be promoted as an open alternative instead.

Are these things so important that we should give up the easier maintainability (and potentially, security) that comes from centralization and the standardization of user clients? I absolutely think projects like Matrix are worthwhile, but it seems foolish to me to argue that there are no benefits that come from doing things the way Signal does. Besides, as sexy as decentralization is, in the wild it is not really pr…

In my opinion an ideal position is somewhere between the two extremes - promote the use of a single official client and server and let 99% of users use just that, but allow the development of alternatives for those that want them.

There are more possible stances than just "we disallow third party clients" and "we strongly encourage third party clients".

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#163

Post by tinus_hn »

parliament32 wrote: post #118
_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 .…

Why would you want this? You don't save history for other types of chats, like in person conversations or phone calls (even though you could, with your phone recording in your pocket or call recorder apps). If something important comes up, like an address or recipe, copy/paste it into your notes app. Otherwise set your messages to expire after a month and be done with it. I used to be a message-hoarder too, but I rec…

Why would I want you to decide for me if I should keep my messages or not?

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#164

Post by godelski »

jolmg wrote: post #123
godelski wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I personally just want the ability to save specific messages. My friend sends me a recipe? Save. Just shooting the shit? Don't save. I don't understand why people want to save their whole chat history but I do understand why you'd want to save specific messages, and that's a big missing feature.

s/specific messages/& and conversations/ > I don't understand why people want to save their whole chat history Valuable messages and conversations can happen too often that it's a hassle to save them manually. This is probably more common in group chats where lots of people occasionally share valuable stuff.

Sure, conversations. But honestly I feel like saving everything just generates more noise and makes it difficult to find the signal.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#165

Post by amelius »

godelski wrote: post #104
upofadown wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...the Signal team fundamentally does not value chat history the same way a lot of people do. Keeping around old messages more or less negates the value of forward secrecy. The Signal Protocol is obsessively forward secret. So it would be reasonable for those that have put so much work into getting rid of old messages for good would not value them.

Honestly I personally just want the ability to save specific messages. My friend sends me a recipe? Save. Just shooting the shit? Don't save. I don't understand why people want to save their whole chat history but I do understand why you'd want to save specific messages, and that's a big missing feature.

The idea is to save all messages and have a good search option, so you'll only ever see the good posts when looking back into your history. No need to tag them beforehand.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#166

Post by pgalvin »

unicornporn wrote: post #82
_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

Unfortunately that’s for the Android app. Signal iOS has no way of backing up your messages, at all.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#167

Post by thekyle »

pgalvin wrote: post #145
officeplant wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Main problem being you don't have access to the file structure on an iphone. So you can't simply drop a backed up folder in there like you can on Android. You are stuck needing the previous device.

iOS has had a Files app for years, locally. You could easily export an encrypted .zip from Signal and save it locally, just like how Signal on Android saves it to your internal storage. For some reason, the Signal devs won’t even acknowledge this possibility and continue to say “we can’t enable iCloud backup” - which is fair enough, but nobody is asking for that and they’re simply putting their fingers in their ears.

Buy why can't they enable iCloud backup? What's so bad about uploading an encrypted blob to the cloud.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#169

Post by godelski »

amelius wrote: post #165
godelski wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I personally just want the ability to save specific messages. My friend sends me a recipe? Save. Just shooting the shit? Don't save. I don't understand why people want to save their whole chat history but I do understand why you'd want to save specific messages, and that's a big missing feature.

The idea is to save all messages and have a good search option, so you'll only ever see the good posts when looking back into your history. No need to tag them beforehand.

Honestly I don't want all messages saved. I don't see that as useful. Not only is that noise but just makes me feel uncomfortable in the same way I would if someone pulled out a tape recorder while we were shooting the shit over beers. Then you think about how cultures change and people make a fuss over things from years ago on Twitter even when the person has changed opinions? No thanks. Not everything needs to be recorded. That's the premise of too many dystopian sci-fi stories.

Re: Signal WhatsApp Chats Import

#170

Post by juniperplant »

Asraelite wrote: post #162
dopu wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these things so important that we should give up the easier maintainability (and potentially, security) that comes from centralization and the standardization of user clients? I absolutely think projects like Matrix are worthwhile, but it seems foolish to me to argue that there are no benefits that come from doing things the way Signal does. Besides, as sexy as decentralization is, in the wild it is not really pr…

In my opinion an ideal position is somewhere between the two extremes - promote the use of a single official client and server and let 99% of users use just that, but allow the development of alternatives for those that want them. There are more possible stances than just "we disallow third party clients" and "we strongly encourage third party clients".

Which is what Telegram does.

Still, I would like to see proper use of encryption by Telegram. Secret chats have no meaning if no one uses them.

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