iMessage with PQ3 Cryptographic Protocol

Re:iMessage with PQ3 Cryptographic Protocol by godelski on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @11:20PM (#39463223)

While I agree with your point and I think you're right, let's remember that part of the issue is Apple.

Might be worth reading this comment from the devs[0]. I wish the feature existed too, but I get it and don't think all blame is on them. For lost devices, well... is that a bug? Where would the backup come from? Signal is anti-cloud, as they should be.

BUT, I do think people store too much data. Pictures, messages, etc. I think we're getting very little value for maintaining all of this and that it is mostly laziness. Don't get me wrong, I do it too and I like it and it does come in handy time to time, but my life wouldn't significantly change were this not the case. It's something I'll be irked about when I hit the speed bump the first time but move on quickly (like quitting Facebook). 99.999% of the time it would just result in me asking someone about something months ago and it's never been anything important (because if it was, I'd have made that information redundant, and that's not a action because Signal, that's an action because the information is important and I do this wherever that type of info comes from.) Truth is that >>99.9% of that data is junk. It's only the nuggets we care about and I think it's a bit weird we treat it all the same.

[0] https://community.signalusers.org/t/ios-backup-keeping-messa...

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Re:iMessage with PQ3 Cryptographic Protocol by walterbell on Thursday February 22, 2024 @12:08AM (#39463464)

Can't Signal export the local messages? Wire on iOS has local export.

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Re:iMessage with PQ3 Cryptographic Protocol by godelski on Thursday February 22, 2024 @01:56AM (#39464025)

The post addresses that a bit, but it is a few years old now. I'm not a app dev so I have no clue about these systems. But the claim is that Apple doesn't give you a lot of control and that sounds like a very Apple thing to me. I mean aren't they well known for "my way or the highway" attitude?

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Re:iMessage with PQ3 Cryptographic Protocol by jwells89 on Thursday February 22, 2024 @10:06AM (#39468155)

One thing that the post oddly omits but has been possible and reasonably easy to implement on iOS for ages is simply bundling up messages, keys, etc into an archive in internal app storage and then letting the user AirDrop it to a Mac or another iOS device. I might be missing something but this is the sort of thing a capable engineer can have working smoothly in somewhere between an evening and a few days.

If they want to extend this transfer ability to other platforms, they could do what some comic/manga reader and video player apps have done and bundle in a tiny web server that allows the user to download/upload files with a web browser protected by a username and password, which is started/stopped as needed. As a bonus they could offer this on Android too for wireless backup management.

There’s also nothing stopping them from building Signal clients such that they’re able to directly connect to each other over the local network and do whatever transfers are required that way.

Apple doesn’t prohibit of any of these. I wonder why they weren’t explored.

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Re:iMessage with PQ3 Cryptographic Protocol by walterbell on Thursday February 22, 2024 @12:39PM (#39470406)

> bundling up messages, keys, etc into an archive in internal app storage and then letting the user AirDrop it to a Mac or another iOS device.

Wire E2EE messenger on iOS does something similar and allows the user to save the file to any storage provider.

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Re:iMessage with PQ3 Cryptographic Protocol by godelski on Thursday February 22, 2024 @01:24PM (#39471028)

> There’s also nothing stopping them from building Signal clients such that they’re able to directly connect to each other over the local network and do whatever transfers are required that way.

There's also nothing stopping you (or anyone else here) from adding such a feature. Either into the official, Molly, or one of the other forks.

You may also be interested in this feature request.

https://community.signalusers.org/t/signal-airdrop/37402

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Re:iMessage with PQ3 Cryptographic Protocol by jwells89 on Thursday February 22, 2024 @10:09AM (#39468201)

The thing about message history is that many of the times it’s been useful, I’ve had no way of knowing the messages had any importance in the moment. It’s only been months or years down the road that they’re needed, by which point the person I’d been conversing with has likely forgotten the message content and so asking them again isn’t helpful.

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