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> 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
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SaaSHub
SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives
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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.
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- 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.
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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.
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You could probably use something like https://github.com/benbjohnson/litestream to backup your signal db.
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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.
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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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