Signal will finally let you transfer your encrypted chat history to new linked devices

[email protected]

Why?

Recently me and my gf were reminiscing about how we met and what we talked about first, since we have many common interests and we got along really well on our first date, it was interesting to go and actually look up what it was we talked about then because we couldn't agree on what it was.

Was a shame we didn't have our very very first messages from OkCupid but at least we had our WhatsApp and Telegram history.

On another occasion, a friend of mine was feeling nostalgic for a time we were playing through RE6 together, and I was able to go back in our chat history and find the memes we made about it at the time, full of in-jokes and whatnot and screencaps, which really cheered him up and was just fun to reminisce.

Another time I had an argument with some friends over which year we went to see A Wonderful Life in the cinema, and whether it was 2023 or 2024 and that was nice to have messages from that time to refer to and we ended up remembering a small adventure we had.

Or what about a nice heart to heart? What about something kind a friend said that cheered you up? What about some good advice someone gave you once? What about that one funny video you can only remember one bit from but you remember you sent it to a friend or a song or whatever?

What about raising an issue with your partner over something bad they do and being able to directly quote examples?

Maybe it's a westerner thing but growing up in Eastern Europe my parents always showed me photo albums and old noteworthy train and plane tickets and so on. Little nice things that remind you of good times or just important events.

I guess if you're older as well you probably don't have a lot of friends who text as well.

I also love seeing older photos too, Google Photos and Immich both have that feature where every day you can look back on images the same day from X years ago.

Heck I used my photos of the time I moved to a new flat figure out when I actually moved in, since the tenancy agreement was on some old portal I had no access to anymore and I needed to know the day I moved for a visa application.

To be honest I'm kind of baffled, what do you even reminisce on, if not experiences shared with others? Or do you just not like having a record of memories?

[email protected]

What could actually be easier than CTRL+F the primary source?

[email protected]

They would have to have access to your account though? By that same logic whatever you do keep records in could be compromised all the same. Actually far more likely to just be lost due to hardware failure.

[email protected]

Why? That stuff is literally your life, it's absurd to toss it in the void.

[email protected]

SMS is inconvenient and expensive. I use IM because it's more convenient, not because it's more secure, though it's a neat bonus.

And why would you not be looking that up months or years down the line? Why would you want to trash it?

[email protected]

Surely when the chats are on-device they are not encrypted, or encrypted separately with an unrelated secret in storage which can be passed to another device?

[email protected]

Do you know what signal is?

https://www.signal.org

It isn't associated with reddit or lemmy.

[email protected]

Oh fucking shit, setting this up today

[email protected]

This may be out of date, since it's been a while since I last tested this, but: will Signal on desktop still store media in an easily accessible folder where the only security is the use of random strings to identify each individual media file with the file type extension deleted? So, for example, if you've had the desktop Signal client synced with your account for a period of time and have running conversations that include sensitive media, that media can be accessed and viewed without even opening the desktop app (which also, last I tested it, lacks most of the locking/security mechanisms found in the phone versions of Signal).

Most media viewers can open the files without the need for adding the file extension to the end of the filename, albeit you would be browsing the files in a pseudorandom fashion if you didn't try to sort by date or size.

[email protected]

And why would you not be looking that up months or years down the line?

I use signal for real time communication. Which is mostly casual bullshit or organizing. What exactly would I want to look up beyond say a week's time? In-person and phone conversations fade away all the same.

Why would you want to trash it?

Because I don't want someone going over long-term records of my chats if my devices are ever compromised. I consider those conversations private and would rather they were forgotten than leaked.

[email protected]

in this context?
haha

[email protected]

Yeah I've been doing this

[email protected]

It is quite a bit out of date luckily. Signal-Desktop already stores data encrypted for quite a while. However it used to store the decryption key right alongside it. Recently (a few month ago) Signal switched to storing the key within the systems keystore, greatly improving security. Also causing a flood of users complaining that the can't just copy their .config to a new desktop and retain their chat history. This may have prompted the release of this new feature

[email protected]

What exactly would I want to look up beyond say a week's time?

Uhm, anything and everything? Like what "casual bullshit" you were up to or what you were "organising"?

In-person and phone conversations fade away all the same.

So you don't even wish you could preserve those?

That's crazy to me how different some people's idea of social relations is. Well you do you! Thanks for explaining!

[email protected]

and 98% do upvote this old news, it is crazy

[email protected]

A good time

[email protected]

I heard signal dislikes forks using its server, did molly get approval to do so, or is this based on generosity until signal can ban them?

[email protected]

I still wait for an option to officially use signal without having to have a proprietary operating system running 🥲

[email protected]

Uhm, anything and everything? Like what “casual bullshit” you were up to or what you were “organising”?

I'm honestly curious and your answer just parroted what I said without explanation. Are you just sitting around reading conversations from months ago for entertainment or something? What value are you getting out of keeping chats from years ago?

So you don’t even wish you could preserve those?

Not in the slightest. For what purpose would I want that? I'm not making a This American Life podcast using my inane conversations.

[email protected]

Wrong thread! Oops.

agnos.is Forums

Signal will finally let you transfer your encrypted chat history to new linked devices