Emoji reactions don't always persist and become visible on other devices

[gvwaal]

Using a supported version?

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates.
• I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

Overall summary

When reacting to a message with an emoji, sometimes (<10% of the time?) the emoji displays as applied on Desktop but won't display on other devices, like Android or iOS, minutes or hours after the emoji was applied. Users will then need to re-apply the emoji on Android/iOS.

It also occurs when reacting on Android or iOS and viewing on Desktop. It occurs even when the safety number popup doesn't appear. The error is most often observed with the ✅ or 🟡 emojis.

Steps to reproduce

1. Be in a chat with hundreds of users in it
2. React to a message with an emoji
3. Emoji doesn't always become visible on other devices, necessitating reacting on another device so people can view the emoji reaction

Expected result

The correct behavior should be that after reacting to a message with an emoji, the emoji appears as a reaction to all other users in the chat.

Actual result

Sometimes no emoji reaction appears for other users. No error message is displayed.

Screenshots

No response

Signal version

7.88.0

Operating system

Windows 11

Version of Signal on your phone

7.72.2

Link to debug log

No response

[yash-signal]

Hi @gvwaal , thank you for reporting this issue. To help us investigate, can you send your debug logs for your desktop and mobile clients? In addition to that, it would be helpful to know the ID of the message where you tried to apply the reaction but it did not go to your other devices.

Instructions for retrieving the message ID: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360054649071-View-Message-Details

Instructions for getting debug logs: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007318591-Debug-Logs-and-Crash-Reports

You can send this information in this issue or send an email to support@signal.org with the link to the GitHub issue. Thank you!

[gvwaal]

Thank you - I'm in the process of trying to get logs from people that observe this happening. I imagine it will be several days.

[yash-signal]

For clarity - are you saying the reactions sent to your other devices but not the recipients, or they didn't go to your other linked devices nor your recipients?

[yash-signal]

For now even just your debug log would be helpful! Then I can let you know if I need more

[gvwaal]

For clarity - are you saying the reactions sent to your other devices but not the recipients, or they didn't go to your other linked devices nor your recipients?

The latter. What teammates have been doing is apply a reaction on Desktop, and then check their Android/iOS to see whether it showed up, and if not, re-apply the reaction on their Android/iOS. It can also happen in the other direction, with reactions not persisting when applied on Android/iOS and needing re-application on Desktop.

Our workflow is that messages going into the chat have reactions applied so teammates know whether a message has been acted upon, and due to this issue, reactions don't get applied, resulting in duplicate work.

[yash-signal]

Thank you for the context! In this case just your own log would probably be enough, as well as the message ID you attempted to apply the reaction on

[gvwaal]

Hi @yash-signal, I emailed details to support - I was not the one that submitted the log so please let me know if you run into issues.