[haffenloher]

It does not proxy through your phone. After the initial setup, you can switch off your phone and the desktop client will work just fine.

[Yeroc]

Except (unless something has changed very recently) you can't backup/restore your chat history to a new desktop client... Security over general usability.

[pseudalopex]

You can back up. Not restore though. The database key is in the config file.

How does it help security?