feature request: edit contact names

[Be-ing]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug description

There is no way to save a new contact with a name in Signal Desktop. My phone just got stolen, so I have been telling new people I meet to send me a message on Signal so I can receive it in Signal Desktop. However, I can't set a contact name for these new numbers.

Steps to reproduce

• Receive message from a new phone number that is not in the phone's contact book

Actual result: New contact is shown in Signal Desktop only as a phone number, making it difficult to tell who is who.
Expected result: Clicking on the phone number at the top of the conversation or the conversation settings menu would allow saving the new contact with a name. If this could then be synced with Android and iOS contacts, that would be nice too.

[b4rton]

I'd love to see this too.

[haffenloher]

@b4rton please don't post "+1"s or "me too"s in issues. It generates email notifications for everyone without really adding new information. Use github's reaction system instead. Thanks!

[gojomo]

More generally, and extending to mobile apps: please let us set our own nickname/handle/petname for any contact, from within the app.

It's great that Signal is usable on iOS without granting full contacts access – but having all correspondents listed just by phone number is still hostile/non-scalable UI. Letting the user set a nickname (perhaps even via prompt at initial communication) would help on the mobile app, and in the 'new contact to desktop' case as described above.

[hexmode]

Is there any way to find out the priority of this request?

I'd love to see this but I understand that WhisperSystems doesn't have the resources to add every feature people want.

Of course, if there were some pointer to what would be needed to implement this (or, as a fallback, to sync from the mobile app), that would help, too.

[scottnonnenberg]

In general, our approach is that the mobile device is the 'source of truth' for contacts. If you want to edit a contact, you should edit it on your phone.

Otherwise, would you expect us to send that updated contact name back to your phone? Should it update your address book on the phone? Or do you want unique set of desktop-specific contact names?

[gojomo]

It seems things like message-histories are already synced back to a mobile-device from the desktop, so it's not unthinkable that desktop-edits could be propagated back as well.

But please also consider my "more generally" request above, which is not desktop-specific: let us set our own nicknames/pet-names, including in the mobile app. I have not given Signal iOS app access to my full contacts; given that, forcing me to now work with just phone numbers is a major usability drag. (The new correspondent-provided profiles might be helpful, but I haven't seen one yet and their chosen names/images could be confusing/deceptive compared to descriptive names I'd pick myself.)

[hexmode]

I agree having a single source of truth is easier. But when I initially set up the desktop, no names were synced. I did find #1428 just now and my contacts are now synced.

Shouldn't they sync initially?

(Sorry for hijacking this issue with a separate problem.)

[bungabunga]

People are using their phones in many different ways and have different needs. While there's no way to comply with every single bizzare wish there are some repetitious patterens of usage. Being able to completely separate Signal contacts from the phone ones is certainly a frequent one among people that need stronger privacy. It's not my need or yours but there was just too many requests as the one from @gojomo here on github and elsewhere to leave them ignored.

[scottnonnenberg]

@hexmode Yes, they should sync initially. It's a bug if not.

[tommueller]

I want to bump this up, as almost 2 years have past without any activity here. I am using Signal Desktop without a phone, so syncing is not an option. Just having to know my friends phone numbers is quite a task to manage to chat with them. So I would most kindly ask to review if this feature could be added?
Cheers

[muelli]

You won't be using your desktop-only version for too long, then. AFAIU, it will need to "see" the phone every so often. I will be more than happy to be told otherwise.

[paulmueller]

Just being able to edit the user names on the Desktop (without syncing to the phone) would already be a huge improvement. I am using Axolotl on my phone (https://github.com/nanu-c/textsecure-qml).

[gojomo]

And to reemphasize the point of my comment 28 months ago: this isn't a Desktop-only need. Setting app-side contact names/petnames in the mobile app would also be beneficial.

[vogues]

adding nicknames would also solve this

[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.

[janvlug]

This would still be a useful feature.

[gojomo]

If a beneficial feature is still a popular request, but has been auto-closed, should a new request for the exact same missing feature be made?

[EvanHahn-Signal]

@gojomo Yes, but not on GitHub. We're trying to move all feature requests to our community forum. You can create a new topic here.