Add option to exclude Apps from "Delete old messages from devices"

Feature Proposal
1

Hello (sorry if bad english),

In DeltaChat, there is an option to delete old messages from device after 1h, 1 day… 1 year or never.

This setting deletes every types of messages, including media and APPS.

Is it possible to add an new option “Do not delete old APPS” ?

If activated, the old messages would be deleted but not the ones containing APPS.

Why ?

Because for a lot of chats and group chats, text messages are often something ephemeral (I don’t need to keep years of deltachat messaging), but Apps (Shopping list, Split Bills, Birthday Lists, Whiteboard, Wiki, Blog, etc) often have a “permanent” use.

Example of the situation :

I have a chat with my brother. I activated "Delete old messages from device" on 5 weeks to avoid keeping an infinite number of messages.

My brother and me are using the app Divvy Bill to share expanses. 5 weeks after the initial message containing this App, my Deltachat deletes the messages older than 5 weeks, including Divvy Bill, and so it deletes all the shared expanses we had noted during the 5 weeks.

My brother had still the App on his side, but with no way to send me the App with the expanses data included (he can transfer me the old message containing the app but it results into an new empty Divvy Bill on my side, without the previous expanses he has).

Thank you for DeltaChat and Chatmail !

2

Hi and welcome!

I think this might be a job for pinned messages Pin a message in a group chat?
Though other messages still delete pinned messages on auto-delete, Signal and WhatsApp at least. Signal explicitly warns about it when you pin a message with an auto-delete timer.

3

Experience shows that webxdc can be the source of quite some space leakage.

As a workaround, you can create a new profile where you keep all your important content. You can then disable automatic deletion of messages from the device on that profile, and either

  • Keep disappearing messages disabled in chats where you use such important apps
  • Disable disappearing messages right before sending in an important app and then restore it to its default value of 5 weeks after sending. Apps are scoped to the lifetime of the original sent message that contained it as an attachment.

This could be made even more friendly if it was possible to override the timer per message or per message kind (i.e., automatically disable it for apps):

4

Hello,

Thanks for your answers.

To make things clear for other readers, I am not referring to the “disappearing messages” in the settings of a chat, at the top right of the chat window.

I am referring to the “Delete Messages from Device” in Settings → Chats → Delete Message from Device.

Your workaround using “disappearing messages” forces MY choice of disappearing time on other people. Maybe I want a 5 week retention time on my side, and maybe my brother wants 1 year retention time on his side.

It’s not a solution, juste a workaround.

I tested but it does not solve the problem. According to FAQ - Delta Chat , Pinned messages are in reality “Saved messages”, meaning a copy of the message placed in the saved messages chat (with a link to the original message).

I tested with an app, the App in the Saved messages chat is just a copy and does not retains the App data of the original message (and it is not shared anymore with the other users). When the original message disappears, the saved App message becomes totally useless.

5

Those are not pinned messages. They are saved messages. Pinned messages are not implemented yet.

6

ah sorry, I misinterpreted your first message.

7

arguably “saved messages” / bookmarked messages should also not be deleted by the “delete messages from device” setting (and yes also pinned messages when they come shouldn’t be affected by that global setting)

in general I suggest you to not use the “delete messages from device” option but instead set disappearing messages in the chat AFTER sending the mini-apps so they don’t get affected, that will also solve your problem today without needing any change