Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration • Hacker News Board

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#121

Post by fastball » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 4:54 PM UTC

lucideer wrote: post #111

fastball wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram has various issues for the privacy concerned, namely that group chats are never E2EE and 1-to-1 chats are not encrypted by default, among other concerns[1]. Also Telegram is not open-source. Also Telegram did some shenanigans with cryptocurrency a few years back[2]. Telegram does have better UX than Signal though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)#Security [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

> Telegram is not open-source The Telegram apps are GPL. Their server is (afaik) closed-source, but having an open source server implementation doesn't mean much for a centralised service without any server-switching support anyway, so no effective practical difference to Signal here in that regard. The E2E situation on Telegram is poor however.

I think the two things (open source servers and E2EE) dovetail together.

If the E2EE situation is poor, what is happening on the backend with your data becomes more relevant.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#122

Post by hojjat12000 » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 4:56 PM UTC

bravura wrote: post #99

Is there an API/application purely to archive my entire whatsapp, including voice messages? From an iPhone

I recently moved my gf from iOS to Android and searched all over the internet to see how I can move the WhatsApp database from iOS to whatsapp on Android!! You'd think whatsapp would let you do that! Long story short , there might be a way of doing that if you install an older version of it. I failed to transfer the data. But you can back it up as plain text using "share conversation" feature and then uploading or emailing it.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#123

Post by ViViDboarder » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

benlwalker wrote: post #116

I tried to switch to Signal the other day. In the US on Android, most people use the default messaging app and that means a lot of MMS/RCS messages. All the messages between myself and my wife are RCS, for example. Signal failed to import these - it only did SMS. I'd love to see someone tackle this problem much like this WhatsApp migration. It's essentially a deal breaker for people in this situation.

From what I’ve heard, Google has not provided any Android APIs for reading RCS messages in the way they have for SMS/MMS.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#124

Post by ViViDboarder » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:03 PM UTC

jl6 wrote: post #88

Snuupy wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On mobile you can do this via backups and use https://github.com/xeals/signal-back On desktop you can copy the appdata folder over to the new device. (warning: this is not officially supported) Note that you must close the app on desktop from the host computer before copying the files over, otherwise the forward secrecy stuff breaks and you'll have to reset the sessions on the migrated computer.

Is there an equivalent for iOS?

I don’t think so. I’m on iOS so I can always get access through my desktop app I have synced. That said, I’m also the kind of person who doesn’t care if I throw away all my text messages.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#125

Post by ViViDboarder » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:07 PM UTC

fartcannon wrote: post #117

We should all just go back to IRC. Failing that, certainly Matrix is the best option?

These are different things. Signal is designed as a secure, more robust alternative to SMS/MMS.

IRC is not even close to filling that role. It’s not more robust nor more secure. At the same time it does several things that Signal doesn’t. Signal, as a messenger, is not a “chat room” or “social network” in the same way that IRC, Matrix, and even Telegram function. There are. I thousand member rooms you can join. It’s meant for secure, small group, communication.

Maybe that will change and they’ll broaden, but I would rather see them keep to their niche and do it well. I have no problem having one messenger app and another for “communities” of sorts.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#126

Post by ViViDboarder » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

tomatocracy wrote: post #45

eloisant wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't harder to use than Whatsapp. It's actually simpler, because it has less useless bells and whistles. All you need to do is convince them that it's for their good, if they can agree on that then the technicality isn't difficult.

There are a few areas which are harder to use like backups. I suspect one of the most difficult to address is getting it to successfully evade the random vendor-built aggressive battery saving settings in Android. WhatsApp is usually whitelisted from those so "just works". If you don't do similar things for Signal, it will stop picking messages up/notifying you after a day or two of inactivity.

Did Signal for Android drop Google Play Services? I thought they still supported push notifications through Google on Android unless you opted out or use a phone without Google Play.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#127

Post by ViViDboarder » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

denys_maksymov wrote: post #105

Why migrating to Signal when there is a much better alternative as Telegram?

Because Telegram is not really an equivalent alternative for secure messaging.

Telegram is much better for “chat room” type capabilities, because that’s not what Signal does. Telegram, Discord, Matrix, Slack all have more robust large group features, but none of them are secure and private by default and none of them hide your social graph.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#128

Post by Jweb_Guru » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

framecowbird wrote: post #44

jsiepkes wrote: post #24

Can someone explain to me what use case I'm missing? Why do people care about old messages? Personally I just read incoming message and never "scroll back".

I’m with you. I can’t remember the time I last looked back more than a couple days.

But many of us have usecases for looking back at conversations from months ago, so just telling people "you don't need it" isn't likely to get you very far.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#129

Post by Qureshi157 » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

Has anyone used this? If so, how?

The ReadMe says to 'Build and install this version of the Signal App and import the encrypted Backup of your signal messages.', so I am assuming we would have to build it but there are no instructions/steps on how to actually do that.

I have been struggling to get my family all moved over but if they have access to their old messages (so I might have to do this for multiple people), that might make it easier to convince them.

Re: Signal Fork with WhatsApp Migration

#130

Post by folkrav » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

est31 wrote: post #53

Semaphor wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s essentially what this is. You install it to migrate, then you remove it again and install the original Signal app, as per the steps in the repo. I would guess it was easier (or even only possible) this way.

Yeah it's probably already hard enough to expect the average phone user to know how to (un)install apps. But expecting them to know which directory the file is in and is supposed to go into? Way harder.

> The purpose of this fork is to make the transition to Signal easier. It was created out of a personal need and might not be supported or extended in the long run.

Doesn't sound like he really put much more thought into it than "make it work". Like most of these one-and-done things, as a developer, you take the easy path, then forget about it.