Delete Contact #1133
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Don't hold your breath. Signal Desktop conversation and contact management has got a loooooong way to go. I had been begging for this very issue to be looked at months ago. Only responses I've ever gotten were "Here, try this long, convoluted thing that fundamentally changes the way you manage your contacts" or, more often than not, shrug sorry. Evidently the ability to share animated dancing kitten GIFs free from snooping was a higher priority than archiving or deleting disused conversations like, oh, EVERY OTHER CHAT CLIENT EVER. The other chat desktop client teams clearly have implemented those features in their proper order. Just be happy you can do it on the mobile client. At least that works. |
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+1. kinda not cool to see exes whose names start with "a" every time i open signal desktop. |
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Here's the simple workaround for this that I found:
But upon relaunch, the bad contact will be gone from your contacts list. 👻 |
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@jm3 Can you provide some screenshots and logs for that off-by-one situation? |
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@scottnonnenberg hm, i guess not! i tried to reproduce it and this time it worked as expected ¯_(ツ)_/¯ UPDATE: I've recorded a screencast of the deletion and the above bug, and sent it privately via DM, since it contains personal info via the contact list. hopefully it helps. |
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I think the solution listed by @jm3 is actually reasonable for a contact you no longer want to keep. But why should my list of chat-contacts be the same as my list of OS-contacts or phone-contacts? What if we just had the ability to "hide" a contact instead? We would keep them as a contact, just not display them in the left menu? Or rather, all contacts are hidden until you engage with them or add them. |
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@scottnonnenberg @dharness oh man, it's worse than I realized — now the deleted contact is back in the Signal contacts list, again. Super annoying, and weird since they're fully deleted from my address book. If I had to guess, I'd say Signal is attempting to sync between mobile and desktop, and getting it wildly wrong, so that whenever I delete from the one, the other re-syncs it back? No idea. One of the weirdest things is, I've never messaged this person, yet they appear in between two other contacts who I've messaged this week. So not only is Signal incorrectly stopping me from deleting a contact, AND incorrectly re-inserting that contact after removing them, but they're sorting the (contact that should be deleted) in the wrong order. So sort of a triple fail. |
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I kinda like to send messages to myself. |
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It seems like the backlog on these basic blocking-and-tackling features is pretty deep. Is there a separate thread being worked on regarding a block feature? That would solve this, so maybe this is a dupe of that? |
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@jm3 You can block users in the mobile apps, and that blocked state will be sync'd to your linked desktop apps. It will prevent you from sending messages to them, as well as prevent any incoming messages from them from showing up. |
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@scottnonnenberg sadly that doesn't work because the user only appears in Desktop Signal. I've already deleted them from mobile. Every time I launch Desktop Signal, they appear, and then I have to select "Restart Signal" to make them disappear. Comical. Syncing also does not fix this. |
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Another workaround should be to |
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Really, all I need to do is get my ex-wife's name out of my signal contact list. She is not in any other contact list, not on iOS, MacOS, Google, etc. Has been deleted for years. At t his point I have a handfull of people I know who actually use Signal. At this point I dread notifications of incoming messages from any of them, because I know that that tortuous demon's name is going to show up on the top of the contact list. I would rather cut off an arm than use Signal, because of THIS ISSUE! Please fix this bug, so I can get that monster out of my life. None of the workarounds listed above work for me, even temporarily. |
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Forget it Pal. I abandoned Signal for this and a few other issues. I didn't want my ex's name on my contact list anymore either. I complained about this years ago and I'm not at all surprised to see it unresolved years later.
…________________________________
From: Jay Otto <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2018 7:52:39 AM
To: signalapp/Signal-Desktop
Cc: Gregory Pius; Comment
Subject: Re: [signalapp/Signal-Desktop] no way to remove contacts (#1133)
Really, all I need to do is get my ex-wife's name out of my signal contact list. She is not in any other contact list, not on iOS, MacOS, Google, etc. Has been deleted for years. At t his point I have a handfull of people I know who actually use Signal. At this point I dread notifications of incoming messages from any of them, because I know that that tortuous demon's name is going to show up on the top of the contact list. I would rather cut off an arm than use Signal, because of THIS ISSUE!
Please fix this bug, so I can get that monster out of my life.
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@jayotto & @piusg I am sorry you are still seeing people in your contacts that you do not wish to be there. Have you tried the ‘Delete messages’ workaround outlined above: #1133 (comment)? Or are you still receiving messages from that person? If so, have you tried blocking that contact on Signal iOS or Signal Android? Please provide us with more information so we can investigate this issue. |
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Makes no difference now. I stopped using signal a year ago. After being a big proponent, too, I might add.
…________________________________
From: Daniel Gasienica <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2018 12:15:56 PM
To: signalapp/Signal-Desktop
Cc: Gregory Pius; Mention
Subject: Re: [signalapp/Signal-Desktop] no way to remove contacts (#1133)
@jayotto<https://github.com/jayotto> & @piusg<https://github.com/piusg> I am sorry you are still seeing people in your contacts that you do not wish to be there. Have you tried the ‘Delete messages’ workaround outlined above: #1133 (comment)<#1133 (comment)>? Or are you still receiving messages from that person? If so, have you tried blocking that contact on Signal iOS or Signal Android?
Please provide us with more information so we can investigate this issue.
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@gasi-signal Is there a reason this is a very difficult bug to fix? I would not think simply being able to remove a contact from being shown would be so hard that we have to use workarounds instead of just fixing the bug. |
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I also have this problem, only that in my case it was my number which was accidentally saved as a contact with a different name. Every once in a while, in a place where it should say my name, like in the new quoting feature, it sais the name of this contact that was erroneously associated with my number. Deleting the contact from my contact book has not worked, neither has deleting all messages (there are none). Does Signal have an internal record of contacts or personal information that I can edit? |
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@gasi-signal Do you take PR's for this kind of stuff? I would love to contribute |
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@tyrsius We have a really high bar for PRs, but yes we do merge them in. The difficulty with this one, of course, is that it will change the user experience, and there's no single correct solution. We'll want to be in communication with you as you consider potential designs. |
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Can I question the commitment to privacy for a moment? Consider how my most private app is allowing unwanted people (spammers) to sneak in and potentially contact me: I have a collection of blocked numbers, some are exes, others are people I never want to talk to again so I keep them in contacts to ALWAYS IGNORE. But the real privacy threat is robo-call phone numbers. So many robo-call phone numbers are showing up 'registered' on signal. I have over 100 recorded (and blocked) but there are many on Signal, allowed to contact me when I do everything possible to deny access. I don't like this sitting out there. A conversation should be a 2+ person accept cycle, not a "push because I have the number" scenario as it smells right now, ripe for abuse and automation. I use apps like Signal because I value privacy and wish to keep the greater spam of life at bay. I also support any effort to stifle or slow down the ability of my own government to spy on law abiding citizens. #justSaying I see the use of phone number(s) as a crutch and pending security fail for apps like this where no legitimate alternative (?) is available or even in serious discussion. My phone number is 90%+ robo-calls. I don't want a phone number anymore and am ready to slide over to signal or similar type of operation. Signal is not ready to operate on that level, only a small part of the problem is solved, and until I can drop the use of a phone number (I use burner numbers to protect myself, I know what can be done) I feel that signal is still tethered negatively to a reality that is a far too insecure. Phone numbers provide a keen method to track and create unwanted meta-data breadcrumbs. I can cite many issues in the telecom infrastructure as well as current HTTPS/etc standards where meta-data is in the open. We count on services like Signal to provide privacy on all levels, phone number dependency is a smudge on what should be something pretty shiny. I appreciate the app, features not found elsewhere, and the suite in general. I also appreciate the underlying crypto but reading the thread here I feel that the underlying development is tone deaf to the desire and need of people wanting to control communication access. A note for @gasi-signal - I appreciate your work and am also an overworked dev. Grok this: I deleted Signal desktop and Mobile, re-authed on mobile, then re-linked on desktop today (all up to date versions). The contact list was NOT in mobile (blocked contact access) but was present (still, after deletion. re-install, and relink). The cycle I took to delete unwanted contact noise underscores a security issue. Either there is a remnant list of data on desktop I missed on uninstall, or there is a lack of proper hashing and validation of clients allowing the desktop to pick up on artifact data. I have addressed this same situation with other apps, this is a simple and easy to exploit attack on personal information. Please consider the ramifications of not securing, uninstalling, and serializing conversations and devices correctly. The operation tells me that this data is not secure or encrypted correctly and lacks the expected serialization to an installed application.To talk more on this please email me via my Git address, never discount user error or the stupidity of people using your service/app. |
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@datamafia That is a legitimate concern, but you should really open a separate issue for it. Its not going to be easy to have both of those discussions in this thread, especially considering the fundamental design nature of your issue. |
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Wow, 4 years and basic privacy issues like that are still not fixed. |
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And it's not possible to rename contacts too without providing access to contacts on the phone. And even when contacts permission is not provided - the app gets the contact name somehow and does not allow it to change. |
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@baack I agree that this is an important issue to fix, but come on, since when is bashing it the way to go? Let's be constructive here! |
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@lschwetlick sorry, but I'm in frustration, read the thread - people suffer with annoying contacts removed years ago. The issue is not moving forward for at least 4 years. The basic feature to rename or delete contact is not available in Signal! Not on desktop nor on mobile app.
Maybe since politer ways apparently have not worked for many years now? |
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@baack I think this would be a good read for you: https://drewdevault.com/2019/01/01/Patches-welcome.html
=> https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop#contributing-code |
For example, a bad signal-desktop application that for 5 years has no basic features (rename/delete contact) and can't have tray icon that opens app on single mouse click IS WORSE than having no signal-desktop application at all.
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Do you also have a romantic partner from another high school?
That goes two ways.
You're happy to bash it though.
Apply this thinking to your comments
This complaint rings hollow when you're previous complaint was
So it's not that the desktop version is bad, or missing features from the mobile app. No version has this ability. Its not that expectations from mobile are met with surprise on desktop. No, it boils down to entitlement. You use other apps that have this feature, or that feature, and you expect Signal to live up to these expectations. When it doesn't you feel entitled to hurl abuse at the maintainers. Just stop. |
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Once again somebody replies with off-topic (not related to the actual bug discussed).
Yes it does. And look, I'm not telling anybody "it's F/LOSS, so shut up", am I? Use your right to speak as you wish.
Sorry, I can't. I see no logic of your proposal, really. Because my comment was good - detailed, convincing and right. And was not made in 5 years.
Not true:
Have you even read the posts in this issue? People told all that's needed.
Thanks for this piece of advice, but it's not true. The existence of one bad official Signal desktop application reduces chances of getting another one (good or any at all) by many-many times. The reality is different, see. Read my message again if you did not get this part.
Hmm, what are you talking about, pal, are you OK? |
Just to be clear, your position is that if I respond to you and your behavior in this thread that's off-topic because you are not the bug? That's a nice way to make yourself immune to criticism. It's also hypocritical, since you have no issue with replying to others with your comically self-righteous justifications (e.g.
Indeed they have. You adding comments like Isn't it ridiculous? and repeatedly saying that this is a bad application add nothing of value to the discussion. The issue has been stated, the community has shown support with emoji-reactions. You complaining and bashing the product and its developers is toxic and unnecessary. Please stop. |
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Too much about me, too little about basic bugs not being fixed in many years. In the main desktop version of application.
Let's hope emoji-reactions will make it possible for signal-desktop to rename or remove contacts in next 5-10 years, that'll be great! Or maybe after 5 years the clicking on tray icon (flatpak version has no icon at all, btw) will make it possible to open application at once! That will be great too. Maybe it's just not enough emojis were provided in last five years by community? |
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Let's settle this - can you confirm that no external party or government is pressuring for the retention of this tracking paradigm? Considering the nature of the project, people engaged, and the ecosystem, there is clearly a blocker that Signal can't talk about. Joe Rogan ragged on Marley on JRE about this item with a very odd answer. I smell funny business, so I am offering this canary. |
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I wrote a forum post that addresses this issue. If you're a user with feedback or experiences to share, or a developer who can actually take a look at implementing this, please check out the post: https://community.signalusers.org/t/handle-contacts-properly/36807 |
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@josh-signal I consider this a bug, not a feature request. |
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I agree that it is very frustrating that an expected feature is missing, specially this one. Nonetheless this is would be a new feature and it would help us prioritize these if there is discussion in the community forums regarding it. |
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@josh-signal
See, it was not an important issue to fix, not even an issue after all, but feature request! :) @kyeotic |
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Don't know about the desktop app, But just suffered from this issue on Android app. Deleted a contact from the Android Contacts app, but it still shows up in Signal's contact list in "New Messages". No amount of Refresh worked. |
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This is still an issue with Signal Desktop (Windows) version 6.36.0. I had two ghost contacts that kept showing in Signal Desktop after they were removed from Google Contacts. I even tried to add them back to Google Contacts and delete them again (from Google Contacts). The updates were propagated just fine, but the deletions were not. The only reliable workaround I could find was to delete my Signal Account (via Android). Of course I did the whole ritual of unlinking every device first (from Android), then remove the Signal Account, even uninstall the Signal application and restart Android, and also uninstall Signal Desktop. !!! NOTE: Be aware that by deleting your Signal account you will loose all your messages, account info and profile photo. !!! |
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Why is this ticket is closed if nothing is solved nor fixed? |
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In v6.37.0 we now have support for hiding a contact; please let us know if that helps in these scenarios. |
Does it mean delete the contact? Or what is the difference with "hiding". People want to be able to delete contact that still gets stuck in Signal, even when user removes the contact from the Android. |
We don't want to hide a contact, but to delete it (from the Signal's internal database wherever that might be residing). It is puzzling to me why this concept is hard to reach to you (i.e., the development team). The CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) concept is more that 40 years old. |
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@trevor-signal |
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I see that now there is a 'Remove' option (when long tap on any contact or when clicking on the three-dots menu near a contact). I have not tested this yet. Signal (Android) version 6.38.2. I am still confused about the mismatching language (hiding vs. deleting/removing). I wish to believe is just developer-speak vs. user-speak. To be honest I don't have the bandwidth (mental or time-wise) to audit the code. |
and others
contacts that signal finds that were once in my contacts list are appear in the signal desktop app once those contacts join. however, they had been deleted from my google contacts list a long time ago. there is no way to remove them from the Signal desktop app. please update so i can remove these contacts.
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