[Feature Request] Keep only recent messages in each conversation

[thefaboss]

Hello tmo1,
Thanks for this great app :)

Since google doesn't seem to want to offer any fine options for deleting messages in “Google Messages”, I join the other requests (#171 and #217 ) to suggest evolutions that would allow to delete old SMS via your app.

In addition to the future ability to export/import based on a given date, it might be interesting to offer an export/import option based on the number of messages per conversation.

Here's an example of a use case I have in mind:
Following a change of phone, I'd like to export all my conversations from my old phone to save them on my NAS.
After that, I'd like to import only the 100 most recent messages from each conversation on my new phone, as I have no use for messages that are several years old...

Another use case:
Without changing phones, I simply want to delete the old messages from each conversation and keep only the 100 most recent messages.

In each use case, the number of messages to keep should be up to the user.
It would be great to finally be able to reduce the number of messages in “Google Messages” conversations :)

Have a nice day

[tmo1]

Thanks for this great app :)

You're very welcome! I'm glad you find the app useful.

it might be interesting to offer an export/import option based on the number of messages per conversation.

I'll keep this in mind, although it might be preferable to implement something like this as an external tool / script rather than within the app itself.

[thefaboss]

I'll keep this in mind, although it might be preferable to implement something like this as an external tool / script rather than within the app itself.

Well, why not another app :)

[camp79]

Would it be possible to apply message filters when wiping as a quick work around?

[tmo1]

Would it be possible to apply message filters when wiping as a quick work around?

That would actually be pretty easy to implement - if I conclude that it would be useful functionality to have, I'll try to do it.

[camp79]

If that's the case, consider this a vote for it to be added as a feature. It was essentially my use case for the app in the first place - making a full backup, then a smaller filtered backup, wiping, and restoring the smaller backup to remove multiple gigabytes of old mms binary data. It would also be nice if there were some sort of indicator of how many messages / how much binary data would be deleted, even if it were only a number - i.e. "15 of 2000 messages and 20kb of 5mb will be deleted" or something along those lines - just a sanity check that you didn't swap your > and <.

If you decide against it, please make a note somewhere during the wipe process that they dont apply. During my use i wasn't quite sure if that was a thing that would happen or not.

[tmo1]

If that's the case, consider this a vote for it to be added as a feature. It was essentially my use case for the app in the first place - making a full backup, then a smaller filtered backup, wiping, and restoring the smaller backup to remove multiple gigabytes of old mms binary data.

Okay - I'll consider it.

It would also be nice if there were some sort of indicator of how many messages / how much binary data would be deleted, even if it were only a number - i.e. "15 of 2000 messages and 20kb of 5mb will be deleted" or something along those lines - just a sanity check that you didn't swap your > and <.

I'm not sure that this would be that simple to implement - the current filtering implementation just passes the specified filters to the SQLite query (or delete, in the proposed change), and I'm not sure there's a simple way to get the information you're asking for without a bunch of additional code.

If you decide against it, please make a note somewhere during the wipe process that they dont apply. During my use i wasn't quite sure if that was a thing that would happen or not.

Good point - I'll try to add some documentation either way.