Conversations: Long messages are cut off

[tyler71]

General information

• Version: 2.6.1+pcr
• Android Version: Android 9.0 stock

• Conversations source: PlayStore Beta Channel

  Steps to reproduce

• Receive a long message of about 4090 characters

• Message is cut off with a ... eg maleA -> male...
  

  Expected result

Should have method of viewing full message if desired
Message Options to include a "Expand message" option

Actual result

Unable to view full message in conversations chat
The full message is kept, just not displayed since it lets you copy, share or quote the full message

[Lykos153]

This is really annoying. I don't even see the need for an "expand message" option. Just show the message full length. What's the problem?

[licaon-kter]

The bubble is fragile, it breaks if the message is too long.

What's the usecase exactly? Why not send a file instead?

[tyler71]

Normal usecase. I have another contact sending me a message they wrote and want me to read.
They like to write long messages.

[Lykos153]

Same here. One could argue that email would be better suited in this case, but why not let the user decide? Sometimes single messages inside an otherwise short message conversation need to be a bit longer.

I don't see any technical reason for cropping the message. Could you elaborate on what you mean by "fragile"? IMO, the only limit should be the the max stanza size of the server. Exceeding this limit normally results in an error so the sender is aware that their message wasn't delivered. Conversations silently drops information here (sure, it's retrievable, but not conveniently so). A message that can be sent should be able to be read. And other clients like Gajim allow long messages, so how should I know the recipient can't read it?

XEP-0205 also states that it's the server who's responsible for a stanza size limit:
https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0205.html#rec-stanzasize

[licaon-kter]

The bubble is an Android thing on screen, that's the fragile part.

[Lykos153]

We are constantly running into this issue. This is becoming a real problem in our group chat. We need to explain it to every new user. Users don't expect this behavior, please do something about it. Part of the information does not reach the destination and the only indicator are three small dots that are easy to overlook.

There must be a better way to handle this. If you really can't stuff more text into the bubble (I still don't get what would happen if you did), maybe you could automatically split long messages into more bubbles. Or at least add an "expand" option as suggested by tyler71....

[subpub]

It also affects when irc server sends a looong initial join message (you may argue who would read that. But what if)

[Darkspirit]

Imagine you send some long personal messages to a quiet and insecure friend you miss and discover weeks later that your messages have been cut off with ... as if you have been angry or super disappointed. It happened. :-/ (Severity: As long this bug exists there should be a warning in Readme.md and the app store to not use this app for the most relevant conversations one can have.)

[ToEatFreshBabies]

Why cannot long messages be fragmented into sequential [numbered] messages to avoid truncation?

Why accept a long message without indicating prior to sending it would be truncated?

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[iNPUTmice]

If we ever do a rewrite it will be fixed automatically due to the use of the framework libraries. But implementing this in the current code is not possible.