signalapp / signalapp/Signal-Android

Multiply edited message shows up as a new message on recipient devices

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Dominant language
Kotlin
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Description

Guidelines
  • I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
  • I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
  • This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic
Bug description
  1. Send message
  2. Be out of service (no mobile data or wifi signal available)
  3. Edit the message
  4. Edit the message a second time

Expected result: after you reconnected, the latest version is shown with the normal edit history.

Actual result: after you reconnected, on recipient devices (your chat partner (Android) but also your other devices (Desktop/Linux)) it shows up as a new message instead of having edited the original one. The original message is unedited. On the sender device, where it was edited offline, it shows up as the expected result, so you don't see the same as what the recipient sees

Occurred in 8.19.2 (Play Store version I think), reproduced on 8.20.4 (Langis)

Generally, I find it surprising that you get an entirely different UI style when long-pressing a message that has not finished sending compared to the menu after it sent. That would be a change request, not a bug report; I'm just noting it because maybe nobody looked at the offline menu in a while. The offline one looks more modern but also takes way more space, not sure which one I'd keep. For me there's also another bug where the message input disappears behind the keyboard when editing offline, but I haven't tried reproducing that (I can simply dismiss the keyboard to check what I've written) so feel free to ignore.

Screenshots

No response

Device

Oppo, Samsung

Android version

probably 15~17 for the Oppo, 11 for the Samsung

Signal version

8.19.2, 8.20.4

Link to debug log

No response

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the offline workflow described in the issue on Signal Android 8.20.4: send a message, edit it twice while disconnected, then reconnect and inspect the recipient devices. Compare the original and latest message, including edit history, across sender, Android recipient, and Desktop/Linux. Done means the latest version updates the original message with normal edit history rather than appearing as a new message.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
android, kotlin
Domain
mobile
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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