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Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

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Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#361
post #282
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because the common mindset here is that anyone can make a mistake, and that the person who did it learned their lesson and will never do it again.

Let’s be honest, if Telegram or WhatsApp did that mistake, all of that mindset would beat it to death and then jump on its corpse for three days straight.

And bring it up in every conversation even slightly tangential to either of them =)

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#362
post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But everyone wants to send money or money-equivalents. I use Venmo almost every other day.

But why roll that in to a chat app? Why not use your bank's app (or if you live in a country with a 19th century banking system like the USA, something like Venmo)?

I guess because your chat app is also your contacts management app, even if by accident.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#363
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is false https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server

So are you telling me I can run my signal server and use it to communicate with others on the signal network?

You seem to be confusing open source for a federated protocol.

Signal is not federated, as an explicit design decision.

The source code for the server and the client are both free software.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#364
post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a buzz kill. If I understand you correctly we shouldn't have expectations or constructive criticism on stuff we don't directly pay money for. I think that's nonsense. Does this only apply to certain opinions? You are not paying money for Signal. But by using it, and getting others to use it, you are definitely improving their position on the market by helping them become a monopoly. Money isn't everything.

> What a buzz kill. If I understand you correctly we shouldn't have expectations or constructive criticism on stuff we don't directly pay money for. I think that's nonsense. Does this only apply to certain opinions? You can have constructive criticisms, but they have to actually be reasonable and constructive . It's not reasonable or constructive to expect their software to never have bugs (i.e. be outraged when they…

> It's not reasonable or constructive to expect their software to never have bugs

I think nobody demanded anything of that sort, that is just a strawman. What was actually demanded is that priority of such bugs be raised, and perhaps users be adequately warned about known defects that may compromise the confidentiality of their messages.

That Signal developers didn't have an idea what was going on for 6 months? And then it turned out to be similar to that other stale/invalid database bug where messages were sent to unintended recipients? Back then fixing only the bug at hand but not taking steps to ensure that the type of bug (wrongly matching expired message IDs to existing messages) won't happen again? Doesn't paint them in the best light.

> to throw around labels like "proprietary" just because they don't release something on your schedule

I throw around the label "proprietary" because software which doesn't come with source code is in fact, proprietary. If Signal pushes new server code to production and keep its source to themselves, calling that still "open source" requires serious mental gymnastics.

> Signal, for whatever reason, seems to attract a lot of entitled complaints like the ones I enumerated.

No, besides your strawman the other commenters were all reasonable and constructive.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, they can. If they do, they're either incompetent, lying, or building something enormously expensive yet completely impractical for most if not all real world uses.

I don't understand this attitude. Where did we go wrong as a discipline where making products that actually work is such an outlandish proposition? No other consumer product industry would talk like this.

> I don't understand this attitude. Where did we go wrong as a discipline where making products that actually work is such an outlandish proposition? No other consumer product industry would talk like this.

Part of it is cost/benefit ratio for the extra effort, part of it is market demands, part of it is lack of technology, part of it is unavoidable stuff like the halting problem.

It's also worth remembering that Signal is developed by a non-profit with a total of 36 staff members (if Wikipedia is correct). That means they have fewer developers, and even fewer Android developers.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What a buzz kill. If I understand you correctly we shouldn't have expectations or constructive criticism on stuff we don't directly pay money for. I think that's nonsense. Does this only apply to certain opinions? You can have constructive criticisms, but they have to actually be reasonable and constructive . It's not reasonable or constructive to expect their software to never have bugs (i.e. be outraged when they…

> It's not reasonable or constructive to expect their software to never have bugs I think nobody demanded anything of that sort, that is just a strawman. What was actually demanded is that priority of such bugs be raised, and perhaps users be adequately warned about known defects that may compromise the confidentiality of their messages. That Signal developers didn't have an idea what was going on for 6 months? And t…

> I throw around the label "proprietary" because software which doesn't come with source code is in fact, proprietary. If Signal pushes new server code to production and keep its source to themselves, calling that still "open source" requires serious mental gymnastics.

It comes with source code, just not on your time-frame. That's still open source.

And if that's unacceptable to you, just use something else.

>> Signal, for whatever reason, seems to attract a lot of entitled complaints like the ones I enumerated.

> No, besides your strawman the other commenters were all reasonable and constructive.

We're going to have to agree to disagree there.

But if you want to (for instance) implement a plan so we can be "assured that this type of issue won't occur again" in Signal (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27951759), be my guest. Or maybe you could develop a fork of it and show us your vision for it (including a source release schedule that's satisfying to you, a federated protocol, and all the the other demands in ITT).

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One among many reasons I use different apps for different people in my life. My partner is the only person I message on one, my friends on another, my family only over text messages, and my coworkers only over email or phone calls.

I've never thought of doing this, but I often feel a pang of uncertainty whenever I open my phone's share sheet. Like.. when I pick person A, is the app going to screw it up and send it to person B somehow? I honestly have nothing life ruining going on, but huge embarrassment sometimes if a mistake were made? Definitely. This bug is a worst fear realized.

I also make sure that if I'm using a platform with more than one person each contact must be visually distinct. For example, all my friends are on WhatsApp and they each have their own chat background image. You can't slip up that way.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#368

Hi there, Signal-Android developer here. I updated the issue to reflect this, but this bug has been fixed. I was tracking it on a separate issue, and had forgotten to close this one. We do, in fact, take issues like this very seriously. This bug was extraordinarily rare, and because we have no metrics/remote log collection, there was an initial period where we had to spend time adding logging and collecting user-subm…

> I was tracking it on a separate issue

Do you mind linking to that issue? Thanks!

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#369

> [..] his Signal randomly sending images to me that he didn't intend to, even without initiating the addition of any attachments on the GUI... he even sees one of my messages displayed on his side with a random image attached to it, as if i have sent that image to him, even though that image is not even present on my phone. https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/10247#iss... Yikes. > [..] I've also recen…

Stopped doing calls on Signal after my Android contacts started telling me that they see active calls minutes after I successfully hung up from my side (iOS). Not to mention the countless UX bugs.

I’m back on WhatsApp and not telling anyone anymore to move to Signal or any app whatsoever. I’m done.

Re: Signal on Android: Images sent to wrong contacts

#370
post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But everyone wants to send money or money-equivalents. I use Venmo almost every other day.

But why roll that in to a chat app? Why not use your bank's app (or if you live in a country with a 19th century banking system like the USA, something like Venmo)?

Because I have performed out of band verification for contacts in my chat app.
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