No More Phone Number Swaps: Signal Messaging App Now Testing Usernames (www.pcmag.com)
from vowseh@lemmy.eco.br to technology@lemmy.world on 08 Nov 2023 22:57
https://lemmy.eco.br/post/1648112

Discussion on Signal’s forum

#technology

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netchami@sh.itjust.works on 09 Nov 2023 00:15 next collapse

Another reason to switch to Signal if you don’t already use it.

abhibeckert@lemmy.world on 09 Nov 2023 00:34 next collapse

That’s great news - but more importantly… is there a way to backup my messages yet?

tiny_electron@sh.itjust.works on 09 Nov 2023 00:54 collapse

You can backup your messages on Android at least

cybersandwich@lemmy.world on 09 Nov 2023 02:35 next collapse

How?

noxy@yiffit.net on 09 Nov 2023 04:10 collapse

settings > chat > chat backup

abhibeckert@lemmy.world on 09 Nov 2023 04:32 collapse

Yeah that’s Android only. If you drop your iPhone in a toilet, or if you need to factory reset it for any reason, everything in signal is gone. Even if you backup your device with the system backup feature, Signal sets a flag on all the files it writs to disk so they are excluded from all backups.

It’s been the number one feature request on their iPhone community support channel for six years, and the official response is “We will probably never add that feature. We understand that’s frustrating. Stop wasting our time by asking for it”. Meanwhile every day someone, somewhere, loses all of their message history.

Kushia@lemmy.ml on 09 Nov 2023 06:04 next collapse

I get it but I also see it as a feature too.

lemann@lemmy.one on 09 Nov 2023 07:57 next collapse

Does it not backup to a computer with iTunes, the same way WhatsApp and iMessage does?

laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 09 Nov 2023 14:51 collapse

Do they give a reason, or just “lawl no, sux 2 b u”?

Zima@kbin.social on 09 Nov 2023 01:25 collapse

I hope they look into how they are treating desktop clients as secondary devices with extra hassle. I'll try it if they address that.

Player2@sopuli.xyz on 09 Nov 2023 01:39 collapse

Really? The only problem I’ve had on desktop is the very frequent updates

TotalTrash@lemmy.ml on 09 Nov 2023 02:56 next collapse

No gifs is a minor bummer.

AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social on 09 Nov 2023 06:16 collapse

Gifs work if you add them from your PC rather than from an URL. Download it, pull it into chat, gift works. It's not as easy as it should be, but at least it has a workaround

EngineerGaming@feddit.nl on 10 Nov 2023 15:38 collapse

My main problem is that they wouldn’t allow registration without having a smartphone first. At first I used signal-cli, which was inconvenient because there was no message history even. Now I use it in Waydroid, but why should one bother like that? And last time I tried it, the only way to bind a different device was by scanning a QR, which is not doable by Waydroid and iirc kinda hard in a VM.