archive chat conflicts with multitasking gestures

[newhinton]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
• This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

When an android device uses navigation gestures instead of the 'old-school'-navigation bar, moving back to the last app (swiping right at the bottom of the screen) archives the last visible chat.

Steps to reproduce

• Go to chat overview
• swipe right at the bottom of the screen to go to the last app
• see a slight green shimmer before the app switches
• go back to signal, see that the chat has been archived

it should be mentioned that the result of point 4 is not consistent. Sometimes, depending on how fast the user swiped it can be reproducible, but often it does not finish archiving the chat.

Actual result: Sometimes the chat gets archived
Expected result: When a user switches the app, chats should never be archived.

Maybe the archive function should be on a timer that unarchives the chat if the app does get dismissed in a (very)short time, i think disabling the swipe action for the last visible item is not actually doable or reasonable.

This is the same underlying issue as in #10894

Device info

Android version: 11
Signal version: 5.15.6

Link to debug log

[cristiteodorov]

How useful is the swipe to archive? Why is it needed/preferred vs an option on the chat menu that says "Archive Chat".
Is the "archive" function so commonly used that it requires its own gesture?

I find the swipe to archive the most annoying feature of the Android app - the "UNDO" button saves me every time.

[stale]

Is this still relevant? If so, what is blocking it? Is there anything you can do to help move it forward?

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[newhinton]

This is relevant. A useful change would be to remove the gesture and replace it with a contextmenu on a long press. Whatsapp has such a functionality

[stale]

Is this still relevant? If so, what is blocking it? Is there anything you can do to help move it forward?

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[newhinton]

Again, this is still relevant. Please dont mark valid tickets as wontfix by a bot.

[greyson-signal]

What phone and android version are you running into this issue on? Doesn't happen on my Pixel 5 (as in, I can't get the archive to trigger when I swipe between apps).

[newhinton]

lineageos 18.1 (Android 11)
On a Samsung Galaxy S9
It's not always happening, but if you touch it just right it archives instead of switching

[newhinton]

Instead of fully removing the swipe gesture, signal could also detect whether gestures are used as a navigation-style or not.

If they are used, only the longpress-context menu allows archiving, on 'old-school button-bars' the swipe gesture will still be enabled.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[newhinton]

not stale!