It would be nice if the clients were aware of each other, e.g. for history synchronization. I have a device that I regularly need to delete all profiles from and then use a new backup, simply because the device is online so irregularly that it’ll miss the window where the messages are still available via IMAP. But the other devices still have that history.
If they just connected to each other using iroh or the like and figured that out, I imagine all of this could become a non-issue. (I realize in practice this might be fairly complicated to implement, especially since e.g. a message explicitly deleted shouldn’t accidentally be restored from some device that was offline during the deletion event.)
I’m not saying it would be worth your time to implement, but I feel like it’s at least worth bringing up as something that would solve real user problems.
This sounds good in principle but at the moment it seems like it would make avoiding IP leaks in multi-device mode nearly impossible. Maybe clients could offer messages via IMAP, with dummy data to replace lost headers?
Not sure what you mean here. IP leaking how? We already have “Add second device” which works over the local network (Wi-Fi), no internet needed. We can have the same thing but automatic. If the devices need to re-discover each other in the local network, they may pass each other’s IPs over email (similar to how calls work, except no need to use a TURN / STUN server if they’re on the same Wi-Fi).
The fact that clients are unaware of one another also poses a security risk, as DC-Desktop does not prompt for a password when creating a backup or adding an additional device. Furthermore, many users are likely unaware of this issue, as they believe a profile can only run on two devices simultaneously.
Therefore it would make sense to rename the “Add Second Device” feature to “Add Additional Device.” This is a very simple measure that could help raise security awareness.
Furthermore, the ability to use one profile on an unlimited number of devices is a great feature that many other messengers lack. It shouldn’t be hidden.
For my use case it would be completely sufficient if they only synced each other while on the same wifi. Although I assume other people may have a different opinion here.