Signal Desktop is corrupting its database

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  • Signal-Desktop

    A private messenger for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

    > Updates have been meaningful and minimal.

    Opinions may differ here. Their sticker packs feature added at least 50 MB (mostly via node_modules): https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/3919

    > Can't say I'd be happy if it started adding a bunch of features I didn't ask for.

    What features do you mean here? The GitHub issue is a bug report and not a feature request. However, there are two features that could help: Backups (export and import functionality) and syncing older messages from the phone during the initial setup. Both of these features can be fully optional and shouldn't require much code.

    And they do regularly add new features (that I didn't ask for but I get why) anyway: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/releases

  • TelegramSwift

    Source code of Telegram for macos on Swift 5.0

    Telegram hires better developers and was started by someone that had successfully run a company before. The clients for the different platforms in the case of telegram were developed by very small teams of excellent programmers.

    - macOS client: https://github.com/overtake/TelegramSwift/graphs/contributor.... Written almost single handedly by one developer.

  • InfluxDB

    Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale. Get real-time insights from all types of time series data with InfluxDB. Ingest, query, and analyze billions of data points in real-time with unbounded cardinality.

  • tdesktop

    Telegram Desktop messaging app

    - Telegram Desktop: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/graphs/contribut.... Written almost single handedly by one developer, who also wrote almost all of the supporting Qt code.

    This is what you get if you focus on hiring exceptional talent. The Signal clients are a disgrace in comparison.

  • signal-back

    Decrypt Signal encrypted backups outside the app

    Report suggest there's some beta/stable mismatching going on.

    While Signal's greatest strength is its privacy features I think that at some point they are going to have to meet their customers/prospects/users' other needs.

    The biggest one being the availability of chat history anywhere, anytime at their own risk if needed.

    We won't educate people to use messaging app in the way we want them to (for privacy sensible conversations only) because the vast majority don't use messaging app like that.

    It's either give up on that idea or heavily advertise that Signal is not a Whatsapp/Telegram/Viber/Messenger/Whatever replacement: it's a tool to use when you want to have private conversations.

    Maybe it'd be better to leave the Signal messaging app lives its life and allows a third party chat history viewer to emerge. You can already export your encrypted backup to a readable CSV file. https://github.com/xeals/signal-back

    Point in case: mom complained the other day that Signal Desktop took some time to launch because it was “syncing things”. I told here that this syncing from her phone to the computer is the proof her messages only exist in the application. Desktop or smartphone, that's why it needs to sync, facebook and others don't work like that (I grossly simplified).

    note: Thread with comments like is how I remember HN is now a site with a huge audience.

  • litestream

    Streaming replication for SQLite.

    You could probably use something like https://github.com/benbjohnson/litestream to backup your signal db.

  • Unigram

    Telegram for Windows

    https://github.com/UnigramDev/Unigram

    In addition, there’s a libpurple plugin should one feel want to use Telegram with Pidgin, as well as several other clients including one that’s TUI based.

    The choice of client is a massive boon. It’s unfortunate that one can’t use a alternative Signal clients, because they’d likely solve many of the gripes people have with Signal.

  • Signal-iOS

    A private messenger for iOS.

    Signal has been completely anti-backup basically since it's inception. That's their prerogative, but I think it's something that needs to be made clear, front and center, before anyone starts using Signal (or asking anyone else to use Signal). Signal is the type of messaging that needs to be treated as a black hole.

    Here's issue #905 from 2015, a request for transferring messages when moving phones, closed the same day: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/905

    Similarly, #967 https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/967

    And #2542 (2017, when I was first looking for transferring my Signal to a new phone) https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/2542

    That issue was locked and I was told to create a thread on their forum instead: https://whispersystems.discoursehosting.net/t/ios-backup-kee... - 3.5 years and 400+ messages later, backup functionality still doesn't exist for iOS, and the best solution for archiving your old messages requires jailbreaking and extracting encryption keys from your keychain: https://cight.co/backup-signal-ios-jailbreak/

    NOTE: last year, Signal introduced functionality for transferring messages to a new device, but that won't help you from data corruption or losing your device since backups and export are still not supported: https://signal.org/blog/ios-device-transfer/

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    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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