Support notifications for f-droid version

In #58 it was asked to release an version to F-droid , thanks that this happend.
Also there were a huge discussion related to #75, why not to use gcm/fcm.
To summarize, there are users which have concerns to use Google- infrastructer in anyway.

#75 was closed because of the relation to #58.
But now we do have a gcm/fcm free version of talk so I would like to ask to support notifications in this version.
My proposal would be to handle it like every other open source messenger like telegram, signal or riot by keeping it in foreground through a notification.

Thanks in advance! And please keep up the great work.

[gradinaruvasile]

+1

[mario]

You do understand this will kill through battery and still be super NOT reliable?

[gradinaruvasile]

Well it is still worlds better than NO notifications.
Riot (F-Droid version) for example works quite well even with 20 sec checks. The app places a notification icon and it worked for me on Android 6 and 8.1. It was reliable. Now i'm not arguing in some setups this could create issues, but you could take a look how Riot works, it seems quite all right.

I used riot in the passed and there was not that big battery drain same with signal what I'm still using with for example 21mAh over the last 8 h.

I do know that it is probably not that reliable as gcm/fcm but I think for people who live completely without google it is not the biggest downside.

For example signal gives a warning to the user when it is set up without gcm.

I would be really happy if this could be done because then I could drop signal

Kind regards

Maybe in addition the question if there is a technical debt which makes an implementation similar to riot, signal, telegram ... impossible?

[gradinaruvasile]

@nr458h I used the fdroid Riot for a half a year or so and it was very stable. I used even a faster, 20 sec refresh time. The overall battery time improved only marginally after i installed the google play version.

Maybe one last post to convince you :)

It came to my mind that NC advertises metadata-free communication, so on nextcloud.com/talk it says:

"

Unique protection

Nextcloud Talk goes further than other encrypted communication technologies by keeping metadata private.

While public solutions like Whatsapp or Telegram might encrypt content, they and whomever monitors them still can see who you communicate with and when. With Nextcloud Talk meta data never leaves your server."

With this in mind it could also be an option for the gplay version!

[mario]

Not metadata-free, just that it's all on your server. Push is the only way to wake up a device. All content in a push message is encrypted with YOUR OWN DEVICE-SPECIFIC KEY which can be verified.

@mario I think people realise the downsides of not using GCM, but as gradinaruvasile said, it's still better than not getting notifications at all (or being forced to install MicroG for one app). And other apps have been doing this for quite a while now. Not as the primary or ideal way of delivering notifications, but as an alternative method for app versions delivered outside of the Playstore and for people using custom ROMs without Gapps.

If that's not a priority for you right now, it's totally fine, but people know what they're asking for.

[Gaeldrin]

+1, @DudleyDursley summarized it perfectly.

A little repetition for newcomers (original link): the only thing I wish I knew is how WhatsApp does it as it works perfectly and shows no "permanent notification" at all (maybe a hidden notification? I know the icon can be hidden but whole notification?) without any noticeable battery drain. Facebook Messenger works the same at least for calls (I receive calls immediately, messages often slip by without notification..).
I am running LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2) without any Google licensed apps.

Edit: added original link and also a correction: today even the Messenger works great for message notifications

[mikelupe]

+1, @DudleyDursley summarized it perfectly.

[testbird]

Only workaround with f-droid I know is using something like the https://delta.chat Email-Messenger, to ask each other to call back.

The situation could be improved of course:

• init video chats using setup-links (through other messaging apps) #96 Allow other, push-capable apps to initiate calls

And there are at least two ways to solve the push issue properly:

• Publish to F-droid #58 (comment) Proof-of-concept to test IMAP-push notifications.
• Add a https-push "protocol" to the nextcloud server, let it just keep a websocket connection open over time, sending just enough keep-alive messages that NAT routers don't close it as a stalled connection (14 min.). Then nexcloud-apps and other app-servers could use the nextcloud server as a push server, and mobile apps could use a free push client library (e.g. https://gitlab.com/foss-push/planning/wikis/home) that implements a service that uses the required tricks to remain running in the background and would allow the apps to subscribe to nextcloud's push notifications.

[testbird]

In case you haven't seen it: Battery consumption in deltachat is down to 1% (seems less than what gcm would use if it were installed) and reliability is good since v0.18.2

[bam80]

@testbird, it's fine!
Is there any overhead of IMAP-push notifications compared to GCM?

[testbird]

Don't have any comparison, but the Email-chat spec that deltachat uses sure leaves room for some Email-notify spec that could minimize the overhead.