Signal-android: switching between secure and insecure persists between contacts

[xortim]

I have a few contacts that still have Signal installed in hopes of bugs like https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-iOS/issues/421 being resolved but do not prefer Signal for their daily driver until the application is usuable for them. Which for users that are experiencing this iOS bug, the application is insanely frustrating to use.

Signal rightfully defaults to messaging being secure. However, when I switch to insecure for this contact, move to another contact the method of delivery is still insecure. This is also true the other way around. If I switch that contact back to secure and then go to the contact that prefers insecure (iMessage conveniences etc.) then the delivery is set to secure.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open Signal contact "A", send insecure message
2. Open Signal contact "B", message defaults to insecure
3. Change delivery of message for Signal contact "B" back to secure.
4. Switch to Signal contact "A", message delivery now set to secure due to action in step 3

I would like to see a per-conversation or per-contact preference for delivery of secure vs insecure. An additional "remind/confirm insecure messages in x days/hours" would also be awesome.

[2-4601]

I'm unable to reproduce with those steps.
Nexus 4, stock 5.1.1, 3.8.1

For Signal contacts the app always uses Signal messages unless you change by long pressing the attachment/send button. And then when you exit the conversation and come back it will automatically change to Signal messages again.

Can you post a debug log after the steps?

[xortim]

After the latest update I'm unable to reproduce it using the steps I indicated before. However, the feature to change the default delivery per contact would be immensely helpful. If this happens again I'll comment on this issue with a debug log.

Thanks!

[2-4601]

Thanks, closing for not reproducible any more.
(Default delivery option is a dupe of #2329.)

[xortim]

This behavior was observed again. Debug log https://gist.github.com/anonymous/894da8a95af06389e849 please reopen

[2-4601]

Can you reproduce this consistently with the steps in your first post?

[xortim]

At a high level the steps are still the same. It's happened a few more times. In addition to the original steps to reproduce, could you try these?:

1. Open Signal contact "A", send insecure message
2. Receive message from Signal contact "B"
3. Tap on notification to go to received message from Contact "B"
4. Change delivery of message for Signal contact "B" back to secure.
5. Receive message from Signal contact "A"
6. Tap on notification to go to received message from Contact "A"
7. Message delivery now set to secure due to action in step 4

[2-4601]

All right, I can definitely reproduce a bug with the transport mode now:

1. Open conversation with Signal contact A
2. Long-press send button and change to SMS transport (you don't have to send anything)
3. While you are in the conversation with A receive a Signal message from Signal contact B
4. Tap the notification to open the conversation with B
5. Observe that the transport mode is SMS (should be Signal)

Alternative to step 3 is to press the Android home button or the app-switch button to leave the conversation with A and then receive a Signal message from Signal contact B.

Nexus 4, 5.1.1, 3.9.0
Huawei U8800, 4.0.4, 3.7.2

[henrykratom]

Could this be related?

https://github.com/SMSSecure/SMSSecure/issues/309

[sudhirkhanger]

@2-4601 One of my contacts is on Signal but he has decided to not purchase data plan for now. Signal insist I send him secure message which will of course not reach him. It's a design flaw that Signal thinks that once you become a Signal user you will always have access to it and it gives Signal authority to override user choice. If I have switched to unencrypted channel then Signal should honor my choice until I choose to.

[rdfurman]

I second @sudhirkhanger.

I had a friend try out Signal on her iPhone but when I found out that she isn't able to use Signal for regular SMS conversations as I am able to on Android I had her remove Signal. So this means that Signal was installed on her iPhone, we sent a message or two, then she uninstalled it. I say this fully understanding that it's IOS that doesn't allow 3rd party apps to manage SMS messages and not the fault of Signal.

I can send her regular SMS messages through my Signal app but it keeps defaulting back to Signal messages when I exit the conversation. So every time I want to have a conversation with her I have to long press the send button and set it back to Insecure SMS. This isn't very user friendly, and as @sudhirkhanger stated, I believe that it is a design flaw to assume that just because Signal may have been associated with someones number once it doesn't mean they will always have it.

A per-conversation setting that allows the user to set the default message mode with explicitly clear wording around what changing the default message mode means for security would be a very useful feature to have.

[rdfurman]

Steps to reproduce the usability issue I mentioned above:

1. Open a conversation with a contact
2. Long press send/attachments button
3. Select "Insecure SMS" option
4. Tap back or hit the back button at the top of the conversation window
5. Open the conversation from step 1

Note how the app has defaulted back to the "Signal" option. Every time I have a conversation with my friend that uninstalled Signal I need to select "Insecure SMS" again.

EDIT:

Just read the referenced closed case #2329 and can understand the reasoning for not having an explicit option to change the delivery method. I do not anticipate my friend installing Signal again so I must long press the send/attach button to change the channel every time I talk to her. This seems like an unnecessary hurdle.

I still insist that having Signal remember the last delivery method you selected on a per-conversation basis would make this app significantly easier to use. There are enough cues in the UI indicating that messages are insecure that I do not believe this will have any significant impact on the "secure by default" approach.

Thoughts?

[2-4601]

@shakurass That's currently expected behavior. This is a different issue. The issue you are describing is tracked at #2285

[rdfurman]

Thanks @2-4601.

[nsrosenqvist]

This is still an issue on Android and it's very frustrating and is almost forcing me to stop using Signal. This seems like a very simple fix to make the setting persist, is there no work being done on this?

[moxie0]

I'm unable to reproduce this. I tried these steps from @2-4601 :

1. Open conversation with Signal contact A
2. Long-press send button and change to SMS transport (you don't have to send anything)
3. While you are in the conversation with A receive a Signal message from Signal contact B
4. Tap the notification to open the conversation with B

[nsrosenqvist]

@moxie0 For me all I have to do is open a conversation with a Signal user, change to "insecure SMS" and then back out of the conversation view, then it will have reset as I go back in again. This makes it really inconvenient to message people who aren't using the app any longer since they can't see my text messages

[moxie0]

@nsrosenqvist That's not what this issue is about. This is referring to the opposite situation, where changing to "insecure SMS" persists that setting when communicating with other contacts.

I'm going to close this as fixed, but please reopen if it's still an issue.

[nsrosenqvist]

@moxie0 sorry about that! I must have misunderstood the issue from the description. Is there an equivalent bug where the issue I described is being tracked?

Edit: saw it mentioned previously in the conversation (https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/2285), please ignore my question