Signal-android: send and receive contacts (vCard) properly

Created on 11 Apr 2017 · 14Comments · Source: signalapp/Signal-Android

I have:

[X] read https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
[X] searched open and closed issues for duplicates

Hi :smile:

This is a fresh feature request for #535 and #1407.

|Signal|Android Message|Android Message detailed|
|-----|--------|--------|
| screenshot_20170411-143016 | screenshot_20170411-142238 | screenshot_20170411-142251 |

Sharing contacts with Signal will extract only phone number and not any other information such as emails, dates, or contact picture. Worse, it won't do anything if a contact does not contain any phone numbers.

Can you add the ability to share contacts in vCard format with an easy way to import/export them from Signal app?

A good example of how it could work is Android Message (see screenshots).

Things worth mentioning:

Looking at privacy, it would be really nice to be able to share sensitive contacts this way with all metadata included.
vCard format is not something easy: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6350
Some implementations exist: https://github.com/mangstadt/ez-vcard
Most SMS/MMS applications support this: Signal is late.
Opening a text editor and copying or making your own vcf file is not a solution.
This has been requested many times: #535, #1407, #922, #2504, #3808, #4205, #5075, #5612, #499, #2306...

Source

jean-io

👍8

Most helpful comment

Well, there is a few reasons...

to poke the bear
to point a real issue with the actual way of sendind contact (only phone numbers)
to make a clean feature request
the old issue for this feature (#535) has been opened 3 years ago, is not clear, and has no more activity
to summarize what has been said in all this different issues
latest Signal app and latest Android version make it different than 3 years ago
the list of closed duplicates is there point out how this has been heavily requested

jean-io on 12 Apr 2017

👍4

All 14 comments

You already provide a list of issues that your issue is a duplicate of. Why do you even create a new one then?

ByteHamster on 12 Apr 2017

👍2 👎1

Well, there is a few reasons...

to poke the bear
to point a real issue with the actual way of sendind contact (only phone numbers)
to make a clean feature request
the old issue for this feature (#535) has been opened 3 years ago, is not clear, and has no more activity
to summarize what has been said in all this different issues
latest Signal app and latest Android version make it different than 3 years ago
the list of closed duplicates is there point out how this has been heavily requested

jean-io on 12 Apr 2017

👍4

Just ran into this one myself, while trying to show someone how wonderful Signal is and why they should use it. They decided not to. There's your problem.

VikOlliver on 29 May 2017

👍3

I message with an iphone user often, and I can't even copy the message into a text file to make it work. I can import other vcf files, for instance, when sent by email. Don't know why it doesn't work coming through Signal.

This is what comes out of signal and fails to import as a vcf file (anonymized):

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iPhone OS 10.3.2//EN N:Doe;Dr. John;;;
FN: Dr. John  Doe 
ORG:Doctor;
TEL;type=pref:19995551234
item1.ADR;type=HOME;type=pref:;;00 S. X Dr. \nSuite 0;X City;CA;;United States
item1.X-ABADR:us
END:VCARD

travisfw on 2 Aug 2017

Came here to report this, found this issue. I could possible make a PR about this but I don't know if I'll have time. It should definitely be added. @moxie0

zanedb on 11 Aug 2017

I've got the same problem as @travisfw. People send me contacts and I can't import them.

agottschling on 18 Aug 2017

👍1

jimreesman on 12 Sep 2017

👎1

+1, I get vcards often and every other SMS app I've used handles it natively. I don't think I can continue using the app without this feature.

veeyah on 20 Sep 2017

+1 i believe we need to handle vcards. the actual raw output in the chat window is alarming as users arent expecting to see vcard code, and may interpret it as malicious/dangerous activity in their secured chat application.

nimbius on 21 Sep 2017

👍2

Perhaps we could use a library such as this. This may also be useful. It is interesting that this has received pretty much no input from the Whisper Systems dev team. I could try to setup a PR.

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To: WhisperSystems/Signal-Android
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Subject: Re: [WhisperSystems/Signal-Android] send and receive contacts (vCard) properly (#6520)

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zanedb on 21 Sep 2017

I also need vcard imports on a regular basis. This could be easily solved with not much work at all and without requiring any extra permissions than what signal already wants. Saving a recognized vcard as a vcf file in a temporary location (that gets cleaned up automatically) and then sending an intent for the phone's contacts app to open that file would suffice. The contact apps support vcards already, so no need to manually parse the card, just recognize it and hand off to another app.

damccull on 25 Sep 2017

👍2

I just switched away from Signal due to this.

wt on 6 Mar 2018

May I ask what to? Vcards are a relatively minor deal for me, at least compared to the single-point-of-failure vulnerability that SIgnal suffers from - and demonstrated in the last day or so. Nevertheless, if you've found a workaround I'd like to hear it.

VikOlliver on 6 Mar 2018

GitHub Issue Cleanup:
See #7598 for more information.