Signal-desktop: Sync disappearing message state between desktop and phone apps

Created on 14 Oct 2016 · 17Comments · Source: signalapp/Signal-Desktop

[x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

Bug description

When I turn on disappearing messages on one device (phone) then start communicating on the other device (desktop), the disappearing messages setting is cleared. I get no indication of this on the desktop app.

Steps to reproduce

On phone: Set messages with a contact to disappear after a set period of time
On desktop: Load that contact's conversation in desktop app

Actual result: The conversation's disappearing messages setting is reset to desktop setting.
Expected result: The conversation's disappearing messages setting is synced to phone setting.

Platform info

Operating System: Windows 7 / OS X 10.12 / iOS 10.0.2
Browser: Chrome 53.0.2785.143 m

Signal version: 0.25.1

Feature Request

Source

robbarry

👍3

All 17 comments

Is your phone iOS or Android?

When you configure disappearing messages on your phone, you should immediately see a notification on both your phone and desktop to the effect of “You set the timer to 12 hours”.

And vice versa, when you configured disappearing messages on your desktop, you should immediately see a notification on any other devices as well as your desktop.

What are you seeing?

On Oct 14, 2016, at 9:40 AM, Rob Barry [email protected] wrote:

I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
Bug description

When I turn on disappearing messages on one device (phone) then start communicating on the other device (desktop), the disappearing messages setting is cleared. I get no indication of this on the desktop app.

Steps to reproduce

On phone: Set messages with a contact to disappear after a set period of time
On desktop: Load that contact's conversation in desktop app
Actual result: The conversation's disappearing messages setting is reset to desktop setting.
Expected result: The conversation's disappearing messages setting is synced to phone setting.

Platform info

Operating System: Windows 7 / OS X 10.12 / iOS 10.0.2
Browser: Chrome 53.0.2785.143 m

Signal version: 0.25.1

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michaelkirk on 14 Oct 2016

My phone is iOS 10.12.

The problem only occurs on first contact on the desktop app. Once I've interacted with someone on the app, it no longer occurs.

For example, I have an individual I've been communicating with via phone and have messages set to disappear after 24 hours. I have not communicated with this person via the desktop app.

When I send them a message via the desktop app (for the first time), I see no indication on the desktop app that disappearing messages were set for this conversation.

On the phone, I see a message that says: "you disabled disappearing messages."

From that point forward, the disappearing message timers appear to be synced.

robbarry on 14 Oct 2016

I had a conversation two days ago with someone. Me on Android, they on iOS. THey had the timer set to 30 seconds. All good.
Today, I log in to my laptop with the Signal extension (Chromium, Debian Stretch) and the 'disappeared' messages are replayed entirely through the extension. Every. Single. Message. Which had expired.

PeteLawler on 27 Nov 2016

👏 Always 👏 post 👏 debug 👏 logs. 👏

liliakai on 27 Nov 2016

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:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:so:clap:good:clap:luck:clap:with:clap:me:clap:getting:clap:the:clap:debug:clap:logs:clap:anyway

PeteLawler on 27 Nov 2016

👎2 👍1

the 'disappeared' messages are replayed entirely through the extension

Sounds like the expected behavior. Messages expire client-side. The server has no knowledge about expiration because everything's encrypted end to end.

haffenloher on 27 Nov 2016

👍1

Sounds like the expected behavior. Messages expire client-side. The server has no knowledge about expiration because everything's encrypted end to end.
This sounds like a more plausible scenario, to which no debug logs will help. It probably also explains, come to think of it, why certain other services that promised end-to-end only allow it to happen on one device. Hmmmm...

PeteLawler on 27 Nov 2016

Just a further thought. If this is how it's meant to work, that is that it's entirely client side, shouldn't the client be telling the server that the message has been seen and the server then scrubs the message? Or does the server maintain a copy of everything even after I manually delete a message client side hmmm

PeteLawler on 2 Dec 2016

The server does not do anything.

The client receives a message, and sets a timer for that message after receiving.

Your devices have their own message queue on the server, and messages will stay in there unless the queue overflows or the device receives them and reports them as received.

Trolldemorted on 2 Dec 2016

Ah, right I understand better now that I know each client has its own queue.
So all I need to do to be able to read someone else's deleted messages, is find and log in to a device of their which they've not read the message on.

PeteLawler on 13 Jan 2017

if you get your hands on someone's device, you can of course read all incoming/pending messages.

You can also deploy a modified version of Signal which does not care about disappearing messages.

Trolldemorted on 13 Jan 2017

I run into this issue everyday at work.

Could this not be taken care of by sending the dekstop client the current timer threshold for each chat/group when the contacts/groups are synced?

goukipoo on 16 Feb 2017

If this is reproducible for you, please submit a debug log.

liliakai on 16 Feb 2017

Debug Log

It really easy to reproduce.

Install Desktop App.
Sync to mobile
Send message from desktop to chat or group that has timer set on mobile before you send another one from mobile, or your contact sends one to you.
Timer reset to off

Platform info

Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04.1 64bit
Browser: Chrome 56.0.2924.87

Signal Desktop version: 0.29.0
Signal Android: 3.29.6

goukipoo on 17 Feb 2017

I can also reproduce this behavior.

Android OS on Samsung S6.

ruicruzpt on 17 Feb 2017

Folks, this issue #944 now contains two separate issues. @robbarry's original issue should stay here, the "all the disappeared messages get replayed on the other devices" issue should move to #1065.

daveloyall on 21 Apr 2017

I just observed the same issue. I had communicated with a contact from my iOS device and two Signal-Desktop clients; disappearing messages were enabled. I now added a third Signal-Desktop device (entirely new install, macOS), sent a message to that very contact, and figured that there was no indication of disappearing messages on the desktop client whatsoever. The iOS app stated that I had disabled disappearing messages. I enabled that feature on iOS again, and now it shows up on the desktop as well. All clients are the latest releases.