Post #3742439
2026-07-11 15:13 UTC
I use disappearing messages with Signal on several conversations, so that messages only exist for 1-3 days before auto deleting. The other day i signed into Signal on my laptop and about a month's worth of messages populated into these conversations and then dutifully deleted themselves a few seconds later. Messages that -- in theory -- were long gone.
Does anyone know why this is so? I understand Signal has to cache messages so that people who are offline can receive them later, but it seems like not-a-good-idea to cache messages for longer than their lifetime.
#signal #privacy
Replies (1)
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@iMeddles@mastodon.eddmil.es 2026-07-11 21:21
@ojensen@hachyderm.io I'm not an expert on Signal, but from what I understand, the signal server has no idea what the lifetime of a message is, and until it's decrypted on the device, it's indistinguishable from a non-disappearing message (which is one of the reasons you need to be really careful with multiple linked devices, as they can easily become a security issue).