Contribution: Soft Delete & Swipe-to-Delete in Messaging App + Introduction

gmarkley-VI

Hello everyone,

My name is Gabriel, and I’m excited to join the GrapheneOS community. I come from a background in open-source development and leadership (previously at Red Hat, and now focused on AI and sustainable tech practices), and over the past year I’ve been re-aligning my digital life—moving to self-owned services, Linux, and GrapheneOS.

Recently, while using the GrapheneOS Messaging app, I ran into some friction with handling spam messages. The app has an Archive feature, but it didn’t have a “soft delete” or swipe-to-delete option, which are common in modern messaging UX. To explore and learn, I forked the app and implemented these features, following the code style and patterns already present.

What I’ve Built
This feature adds a Trash / Recently Deleted functionality, similar to what you’d find in many email clients

Two-stage deletion – conversations first go into Trash, then are permanently removed later.
Configurable retention – choose how long messages stay in Trash (0–999 days, default 14).
Swipe-to-delete – delete conversations quickly with a swipe.
Restore option – recover accidentally deleted conversations from Trash.
Auto-cleanup – Trash empties itself automatically once the retention period expires.

How It Works

Delete a conversation → it moves to the Deleted Screen just like the Archive one.
Restore from Trash → select and restore.
Permanently delete → delete again while in Trash.
Configure retention → Settings → Advanced → Recently deleted retention.
If retention is set to 0 days, messages are deleted immediately (skip Trash).
If set to -1, autodelete is disabled.

Technical Details

Added deleted_status and deleted_timestamp columns to DB.
Upgrade safe...
Auto-delete job runs daily at 00:05 AM and on app open
Single source of truth for retention default (14 days in constants.xml).
Behavior is safe-fail: background jobs fail gracefully, user actions have safe defaults.

I’ve been testing this on my Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL, but I’ll continue stress testing to make sure I haven’t missed anything.

Next Steps & Questions for the Community

Would this functionality be useful to others here?

Are there improvements or additional message-handling features (like spam filtering) you’d like to see I know I would?

I noticed the automated tests in the repo seem out of date—would it be valuable if I worked on updating those as well?

I’d be happy to open a PR with these changes if the maintainers think it’s aligned with the project’s direction.

I know the core developers already have a lot on their plates, and I deeply appreciate the work that’s gone into making GrapheneOS what it is. My intent is to contribute thoughtfully, listen to feedback, and see where I can be most helpful.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, suggestions, and guidance.

Thanks for welcoming me into the community,
Gabriel

Xtreix

gmarkley-VI Welcome to the community !

If you haven't already done so, you should also publish your proposal on the Github page : https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker

Your suggestions could really improve the Messaging app, which is too much basic currently. Since I hardly ever use SMS and instead use E2EE messages via Molly, I don't notice the Messaging app's shortcomings every day, but I do remember that deleting messages is outdated. It really needs a side swipe feature to delete messages much more quickly and easily.

An anti-spam feature would be great. I suppose blocking would have to be done locally and use a list of known unwanted numbers in order to respect privacy. Unfortunately, we know that enumerating badness doesn't really work, but I would still be enthusiastic about this idea. The same thing would be needed for telephone spam, although I have activated a JavaScript script in my mobile operator's account profile, which has blocked quite a few unwanted calls.

gmarkley-VI

Xtreix Thank you for the pointer. I will do that. I have not already. I too mostly use Molly for E2EE. But I was getting very frustrated with the spam texts clogging up my inbox.

I will put in some thought about the best way to do a phase one on spam. I am thinking maybe a regex solution so it can be run locally and securely.

Do you have instructions on the JavaScript in the mobile operator's account profile? I would love to look into that more.

Xtreix

gmarkley-VI Do you have instructions on the JavaScript in the mobile operator's account profile? I would love to look into that more.

It's a script based on a French tutorial that only works with my mobile operator, so I don't know if it will revelant for you. I no longer have the link to the tutorial, but if I find it, I can share it with you.

gmarkley-VI I am thinking maybe a regex solution so it can be run locally and securely.

I don't know how blocking based on regular expressions works, but yes why not, I guess ! Also, perhaps it is possible to use the shouldianswer block list, I don't know which method would be best.

But first and foremost, I think you need to discuss it with the GrapheneOS project team.

mar2112

I suggest adding a block and delete option. If it's spam then I want to block itt so I don't see it again.