Re:Signal WhatsApp Chats Import
by pgalvin on Friday January 08, 2021 @02:03PM
(#25688623)
I can think of many reasons full message history is valuable.
- a friend says something that you don’t realise is important until months later and need to reference
- a friend or partner dies and you wish to revisit old times by reading your messages
- a couple wish to nostalgically re-read random conversations from their early time together
- a group chat for work or students shares valuable resources that you wish to reference, but is impractical to make copies of the dozens of messages
- legal reasons if somebody accused you of saying or doing something you did not do
- you’re going to an address (for example) that somebody sent you a week prior, but you forgot to save it
People are forgetful, people are emotional and nostalgic, and people are argumentative. All very good reasons for a chat history. Disappearing messages are simply always opt-in precisely because most people do not want it.
Re:Signal WhatsApp Chats Import
by Frondo on Friday January 08, 2021 @08:46PM
(#25694982)
I'm sympathetic to all of these, but I do remind myself that sentimental reasoning is probably as close to diametrically opposed to Signal's goals as you could be.
- a friend says something that you don’t realise is important until months later and need to reference
- a friend or partner dies and you wish to revisit old times by reading your messages
- a couple wish to nostalgically re-read random conversations from their early time together
- a group chat for work or students shares valuable resources that you wish to reference, but is impractical to make copies of the dozens of messages
- legal reasons if somebody accused you of saying or doing something you did not do
- you’re going to an address (for example) that somebody sent you a week prior, but you forgot to save it
People are forgetful, people are emotional and nostalgic, and people are argumentative. All very good reasons for a chat history. Disappearing messages are simply always opt-in precisely because most people do not want it.