As far as I know the backup is encrypted.
> Are you not able to import these backups into the desktop client?
No, the desktop client is not standalone, and ONLY syncs with the a phone to get content. Moreover, if you don't use the client for a period (2-3 weeks in my experience?) it de-syncs that desktop client. Re-connecting that desktop to your phone will only sync messages starting as-of the connection, so there's no way to get the desktop app to pull your whole history. (This is another gripe I have about their sacrifice of actual usability for security that only helps a few very specific use-cases.)
You're probably rigth about hacking something together. Someone has created a library [0] allegedly for decoding the backup files. Friday night is D&D night though, so I haven't had the chance. :-)
I agree that there aren't really any great solutions. But the alternative is that Signal stores your data. I think this would make a lot of users very upset and compromise part of Signal's core mission.
This is one area where, and I know what you're going to say, but Matrix actually does really well. My data, on my server, in my house, not tied to any specific single device I own but distributed across several and backed up in an encrypted manner.
But you've got me thinking about the data export option. Saturday is coming. Hmm...
I'm actually a fan of Matrix. I just see Matrix and Signal as different tools. You're probably aware of it, but if not, there is a Matrix bridge for Signal.
> But you've got me thinking about the data export option. Saturday is coming. Hmm...
Hey, I'm really hoping it works. Let me know how it goes!
I'm confused at what is stopping you from doing this?
> ideally in a format that the app could search on request.
Are you not able to import these backups into the desktop client? IIRC it is just reading from a file structure. I don't see why a small script couldn't resolve this. Obviously you wouldn't be able to search on your phone, but you said you didn't want that data on your phone anyways. If you did want to search on your phone from your computer's storage, I think you're asking way too much of them (and in danger of asking them to store data for you, which they never will do). But this is hacker news, and I don't see why you can't hack together that tool in a weekend. Probably just a few beers on a Friday is enough for it tbh.