Signal-android: Final plea to fix "other user uninstalled but didn't unregister" bug

[zacharycohn]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [x] I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
• [x] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

This is a final plea to address the "my friend/coworker uninstalled Signal but didn't know you had to also do this extra step it doesn't mention anywhere, and turns out they haven't been getting my messages for months because Signal decided to fail silently" bug (because a UX issue of this magnitude IS a bug).

You may be familiar with this bug from such threads as this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, or this. (There are more, I just got tired of opening tabs and pasting links here).

It's a hard problem to solve. But people have been complaining about this bug for years. I personally run into this bug 2-3x a month. It has caused non-trivial disruptions to my life, missed business opportunities, and damage to friendships.

Whenever I discover that I've run into this bug, I have an email saved that I send people that says "Hi. You used to use Signal. You don't anymore. Scary I know that, huh? Well here's how I know..." 100% of the time, those people respond back and thank me because they now know why they're not getting text messages from some of their friends, family, or coworkers.

I've stopped recommending Signal to people because of this bug. I'd like to go back to recommending Signal to people, because I believe in all the things you believe in.

The most secure software is software no one uses. And that's what you're building right now, until you stop ignoring this bug.

[Dyras]

You can always tell them to go on the website and unregister there.

https://signal.org/textsecure/unregister/

[minnmann]

Isn't this the fact for all (or at least most) messengers? I could have tons of unread ICQ messages, too.
I don't know if other (current) competitors, e.g. WhatsApp, have some better handling of that scenario, but I guess that I would also have to specifically delete my account in the settings. Otherwise people could just send me messages and I would not receive them until I reinstall the app.

I understand the trouble, but AFAIK there is just _technically_ no way for the server to know if somebody uninstalled the app - therefore I would not call this a bug at all (maybe some inconvenient behavior).
And even if the server could know, it is not clear, if the user just does an uninstall+reinstall or if he wishes to delete the account.
After 1 year of inactivity (no registered client (phone or linked device) contacted the server), the account is deleted anyway AFAIK.

If I am not mistaken, you would just have to disable the switch "Signal messages and calls" in the Advanced settings before uninstalling the app. Maybe you could discuss whether this switch could be placed more prominently or if there should be some specific setting "Delete my account", but even then people could just uninstall the app without deleting their account first.

In general, I guess this whole topic should be some feature discussion in the community forum.

[zacharycohn]

@Dyras Yes. That's what I tell them to do. After they miss 6 months of messages from me and I finally realize this bug struck again.

@minnmann No, it isn't. If I'm not logged into ICQ, IRC, AIM, MSN Messenger, gchat, etc, I show up as "unavailable" or "offline." So while I don't know if you use it still or not, at least I don't send you a message assuming it will get to you.

[minnmann]

Yes, but that seems to be somewhat use-case dependent. Some people only send messages while the other person is online, some also send offline messages (at least many old messenger also supported offline-messages and me and my friends used that quite a lot).
Nowadays, I think everybody tries to avoid the differentiation between "online" and "offline".

[rakenodiax]

@minnmann Kik will indicate when messages haven’t been delivered to a user for an extended period of time, indicating that the app is most likely uninstalled (or at least the server was unable to send a push notification to the device).

[minnmann]

@rakenodiax Thanks! That seems to be a reasonable feature request.
Basically, I do this manually. If some contact does not receive the message (no double checkmark) in e.g. 1 week, I'll text him on a different channel.

But I am not sure, if this would be an appropriate solution for @zacharycohn.

[moxie0]

@zacharycohn Thanks for writing, but we do not use GitHub for feature requests or for discussion topics. Opening issues here inappropriately does not make the work go any faster, it makes it go slower. As a reminder, nobody is "ignoring" anything; there is a single person working on this project, and much more than a single person amount of work to do. It's great that you want to help the project, but please try to use the communication channels we've setup in the way that we find the most helpful, and please try to be a little less judgmental/confrontational in assuming our motives.

As for users who silently uninstall, I'd love to see more discussion, including any ideas people may have, but please use the forums for that.

[mryellow]

@moxie0 Love your work. Ignoring this bug isn't helpful. It's a major blocker on your systems adoption and a complete UX failure on Android. It should be a top priority not something that gets sweap under the rug over and over again.

I have now been forced to stop using this software due to this failure of the systems UX.

It can't be continually ignored and no amount of working faster on other aspects of the software will win back all the goodwill you've lost in these endless issues posted on this subject.

I'm sure you can appropriate some of us don't like registering with 101 different forums. I've been breached enough times already from forums.

[mryellow]

there is a single person working on this project, and much more than a single person amount of work to do

Would you like me to make the SMS button red and the Signal button blue?

Then allow it to retain the setting so that a user doesn't have to switch with every single message?

[kiplingw]

I don't know if Android APK packages support this the way Debian packages do, but in the latter it is possible to have uninstallation hooks that can run. All Signal needs to do is automatically unregister when it is uninstalled and problem solved.