ayumi-signal
commented
2 weeks ago Keep Messages is a data storage management feature that was primarily designed for low-end devices where free space can be limited, which is why it's located under "Data and storage" in the Signal Android settings. It was never intended to be a security feature, but it does make it easy for people to quickly free up space on their phone even if their Desktop instance still has plenty of room. You can read more about how and why we developed the feature here: https://signal.org/blog/storage-management-for-android/
If you want messages to be automatically removed across devices, we recommend setting the default Disappearing Messages timer for chats (under Settings / Privacy). Disappearing message settings are synchronized between linked devices (including Signal Desktop). This blog post goes into a little more detail: https://signal.org/blog/disappearing-by-default/
Adding support for synchronized message deletion outside of disappearing messages is a potential new feature that we're exploring right now. Even though this isn't a bug, we really appreciate your feedback!
Using a supported version?
Overall summary
Messages that are auto-deleted via the Keep Messages function on my phone do not propagate to my linked Signal Desktop. Desynchronizing the content of linked devices may create a security issue (neglecting to erase a message manually on every linked device would leave the message unwittingly in my possession), and an administrative issue (the desktop app, unlike the phone app, grows without bound, eventually running out of disk space).
This is a specific separable subproblem of #3634 .
Steps to reproduce
On Android, set Keep Messages to 30 days. Watch messages autodelete as they age past the "keep messages" duration. Notice that those message are still visible on the linked Signal Desktop app.
Expected result
The auto-deletion of a message on a device should propagate to linked devices.
Alternatively, the "keep messages" property value should propagate to linked devices, allowing each device to do its own auto-deletion.
Alternatively, one could work around the bug if a "keep messages" function were separately implemented on Signal Desktop and not synced, since setting it manually would cause the same deletions to occur.
Actual result
The message that was deleted on Android remains on Signal Desktop.
Screenshots
No response
Signal version
7.12.0
Operating system
MacOS Sonoma 14.5
Version of Signal on your phone
7.8.1
Link to debug log
No response