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[feature request] Conversations messenger has to run in foreground

asked 2017-03-03 17:29:57 +0300

broncheolus gravatar image

Dear Community!

I use Conversations as messenger. In order to be able to receive notifications when Conversations is running in the background one has to activate the setting "run in foreground" in Conversations expert settings. This has the side effect that every time the connection gets interupted and established again conversations comes up with the notification "touch to open conv." (This can be quite often when beeing in regions with poor connectivity)

Thats annoying. When using Conv. in native andriod or other messengers from within SOS with activated "allow app to run in background" (like WA or Signal) it works without the expert setting from Conversations. When you just use the SOS setting Conversations runs in background but does not let notif. come through.

Is there a chance that in future the android virtual machine can handle Conversations' way to let notifications to come through. That woul be great because Conv. is a great app using the free standard of XMPP.

Thanks, broncheoli.

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I can confirm this on Jolla 1 under SFOS 2.0.5.6 (and the original, AOSP 4.1.2 based AlienDalvik).

This behaviour is indeed a bit annoying, but there is no loss of funcionality.

Note: Conversations is a ("the best", IMO) XMPP- ("Jabber-") Client for Android.

olf ( 2017-03-03 21:26:36 +0300 )edit

What exactly do you mean with "Conversations is running in the background"? Do you mean that the app is actually closed? Or do you mean that the app is running, but you're using another app or locked your phone, etc.? In the second case I do get notifications, however cas, Conversations often looses the connection and doesn't reconnect automatically. But this does not change, if I use the "run in foreground" option you mentioned..

Mario ( 2017-03-04 20:56:42 +0300 )edit

Well, with "running in background" I mean: When from within Conv. "running in foreground" is not ticked, it still runs in background (after closing the UI) when I allow it to do so in the app settings within SOS, like some other messengers do (WhatsApp, Signal) You can see this in a task manager. With the difference that no notifications are coming through. Instead with "foreground" ticked notif. work but every now and then I get the notif. "touch to open conv.", it looks like that's the case every time the connection gets reestablished after a lost connection. Then I take my phone to see who's sent me a message, but it was just Conv. itself.

broncheolus ( 2017-03-05 17:08:27 +0300 )edit

WRT my comment above:

Due to the high battery drain with Conversations' service in foreground, I re-tested this recently with Conversations 1.18 and SFOS 2.1.0.11 (i.e. switching off 'Settings --> Expert settings --> Keep service in foreground' in Conversations, again).

Using this for a couple of days (mostly on WLAN), I now experience prompt message delivery and notification (having Conversations start with AlienDalvik automatically), no issues, but well reduced battery drain!

Looks like something changed (most likely in Conversations).

Note: Since SailfishOS 2.1.0, https://openrepos.net/content/schturman/android-apps-notifications (or editing the corresponding file manually) is not needed anymore; i.e. before that, Conversations' notifications were not displayed without the aforementioned tool or manual intervention.

olf ( 2017-04-26 01:39:51 +0300 )edit

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answered 2017-03-04 15:45:41 +0300

Mario gravatar image

Hi,

I'm actually thinking about writing a simple native Jolla app that checks for new jabber/xmpp messages and gives a notification. To answer the message one would still need to open Conversation (just because it's too much work to write a fully featured Jabber client and Conversations does a really a great work). Hopefully this would also save battery, because somehow I assume that Android apps use more battery than native ones, but I'm not sure if this is actually true.

Also I'm not so sure if people would be interested in such a (hacky?) solution..?

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If I'd get such a notif. (i.e New message in Conversations) it would really be ok for me. The notification does not need to com from within Conv. Besides, I don't think it's hacky it simply adds some flexibility to chose a maybe convenient way.

broncheolus ( 2017-03-05 17:08:36 +0300 )edit
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answered 2017-03-04 16:17:04 +0300

nthn gravatar image

This is not a solution to your question, but more an answer to the problem in general:

For your and the general public's information, developer geobra is hard at work creating a native XMPP client for Sailfish, called Shmoose, which supports everything Conversations does, including OMEMO and HTTP file upload. It is still in heavy development, however. https://openrepos.net/content/schorsch/shmoose

Likewise, developer Feathers McGraw is working on an XMPP client for Sailfish, called PingYou, that hooks into the already existing structures in Sailfish for XMPP communications. https://openrepos.net/content/feathersmcgraw/pingyou

Additionally, it is now relatively easy to get the XMPP accounts in Sailfish Messages working properly. The following link explains it more clearly, but do note that it is still not possible to talk in an MUC conversation through Messages, and OMEMO encryption is also not yet supported. http://devel.kondorgulasch.de/telepathy-gabble/ In addition to that link, there is also a sharing plugin available so you can easily share pictures from the Gallery with an XMPP account in Messages. http://devel.kondorgulasch.de/share-plugin-telepathy/

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Shmoose looks quite promising. Supporting the serverside archive from Conversations.im would be great. It looks as if it does not right now. I will use Shmoose along side with Conv. to follow the developement. Great job (Rrrrh, that sounds trumpish) from Schorsch.

broncheolus ( 2017-03-05 17:08:20 +0300 )edit
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Asked: 2017-03-03 17:29:57 +0300

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Last updated: Mar 04 '17