All of this could be avoided if you were part of a different network. One where you can connect with several open source clients to the server, and choose a client that didn't behave like this. One where you could save your history from the client, if you wished to do so.

You chose to get into a captive ecosystem; Signal's code-dump "look but don't touch" (well, clientside, serverside was closed source for a year). Signal's "our way or the highway".