Triage: Current State of Talk Notifications

[meichthys]

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Summary

Notifications are at the core of any messaging software and there seems to be some significant issues with Talk notifications.
A variety of issues list Talk notification problems. To summarize it seems like the main issue is the lack of consistent notifications of incoming messages. From my testing I've noticed the following:

• Notifications usually sometimes work when a user is tagged: @username you'll get this as a toast notification
• Notifications usually do not work when a user is not actively on the talk tab and tagged in the message (even if the user has chosen to be notified of all messages and has allowed notifications through the browser:
  
  • Some users have reported this to be working (see Sound alarm on receiving new message - option: turn on/off etc. #4651), but I was not able to get it to work in the latest version.
• Notifications are often delayed (this exists on both desktop & mobile, although more severe on mobile)

Related issues:

• Nextcloud Talk notifications not working #6075 : Nextcloud Talk notifications not working
• Notifications for chats are not showing when browser tab/window is inactive #1575 : Notifications for chats are not showing when browser tab/window is inactive
• New message notification is usually not displayed #5321 : New message notification is usually not displayed
• Nextcloud Talk Notifications Delay (15-20-25s) #5992 : Nextcloud Talk Notifications Delay (15-20-25s)
• Error while accessing microphone & camera #595 : Missing chat messages notifications
• Random emptycontent messages #116 : Sound on talk notifications
• Sound alarm on receiving new message - option: turn on/off etc. #4651 : Sound alarm on receiving new message - option: turn on/off etc.

Active Merge Requests:

• Better chat notification handling #1970 : Better chat notification handling
• Add basic sound notification #5335 : Add basic sound notification

Steps to reproduce

1. Install latest nextcloud & Talk App
2. Create conversation in Talk App
3. Navigate away from Talk App tab.
4. Receive no notification when message is sent (notification is sent if user is tagged in message)

Expected behaviour

The user receiving a new message should be notified in some way whenever a new message is received.

Actual behaviour

User is not notified other than * on Talk browser tab.

Talk app

Talk app version: 12.0.1

Custom Signaling server configured: no
Custom TURN server configured: no
Custom STUN server configured: no

Browser

Microphone available: yes

Camera available: yes

Operating system: Windows

Browser name: Firefox/Chrome/other chromium browsers

Browser version: Tested on multiple versions

Server configuration

Operating system: Ubuntu
Web server: Apache
Database: MySQL
PHP version: 7.2/7.3/7.4
Nextcloud Version: 22.1.0

List of activated apps:

• Talk
• Notifications
• LDAP user and group backend

[nickvergessen]

Notifications usually sometimes work when a user is tagged: @username you'll get this as a toast notification

This works for me 100% of the time.
Note: notifications are currently not sent, when the user has an active session in the chat. Be it an open tab in the background, foreground or a mobile device that has the chat open. There is some work in progress with #1970 to improve the situation, but there are pitfalls and annoyances all the way.

Notifications usually do not work when a user is not actively on the talk tab and tagged in the message (even if the user has chosen to be notified of all messages and has allowed notifications through the browser:

Same applies here, when you have a session (be it background or foreground) you will not receive any chat notifications for this conversation.

Notifications are often delayed (this exists on both desktop & mobile, although more severe on mobile)

Notifications for mobile clients are done via push and should be instant. There is a known problem with iOS which delays the waking up of the Talk app by a random amount of seconds, but this is nothing we can influence.

The desktop client and browsers pull notifications in a 30 second interval, so it can take between 1 and 30 seconds until you get a notification for a new chat message.
You can improve this by installing the notify_push on your server, which will make each browser and desktop client maintain a permanent open connection to the server: https://github.com/nextcloud/notify_push/

So apart from #1970 to fix #1575 there is nothing Talk can do to improve the situation atm.

[MarcS1975]

Well it doesnt work for everyone else. Many users have reported the same issue.
I myself have tested this on 6 different Android devices and notifications on those devices work for ALL other apps.
Only Nextcloud Talk fails.
I am not even involving any browsers/open sessions etc. Just try to chat between 2 mobile devices and Android does NOT show any notifications.
It is worth noting that the notifications sometimes work initially but after a few days of usage just stop working.
So if you feel like it, then you can close all these tickets but the problem is NOT solved.

[nickvergessen]

Okay, when you talk about Android notifications only then the issue might be in Android or our Android app, but at least not in the server part, because there notifications are sent out and handed over to Google/Apple respectively.

Maybe you can debug it together with the Android Devs in the android repository then, but it mostly ends with some energy save settings or custom roms from manufacturers or missing google play services or something along.

[MarcS1975]

I have checked all the Android energy settings. It's also not play services or custom ROM as we tested 6 separate phones from different manufacturers with latest play versions inatalled. And as I said notifications work for all other apps and even all chat apps and on those 6 different devices So there is a big bug In the Talk code . I don't know how exactly your server interacts with the Android app during notifications but somewhere there is a breakdown but nobody is willing to look at it. I think the issue can only be found if the server notification and Android teams talk to each other. How can we escalate this issue and involve the Android dev teams?

…

On Fri, 20 Aug 2021, 09:04 Joas Schilling, ***@***.***> wrote: Okay, when you talk about Android notifications only then the issue might be in Android or our Android app, but at least not in the server part, because there notifications are sent out and handed over to Google/Apple respectively. Maybe you can debug it together with the Android Devs in the android repository then, but it mostly ends with some energy save settings or custom roms from manufacturers or missing google play services or something along. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6096 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMNNHGQDO3EPPADZV2FKJEDT5YECRANCNFSM5B2EJQXA> . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675> or Android <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&utm_campaign=notification-email> .

[meichthys]

@nickvergessen Thanks for the clarification on this. It is very helpful. I will take a look at notify_push (i think it's called Client Push in the app store.

There does however still seem to be an issue with the talk notifications from the server to the client. I cannot get consistent notifications via the client - even with all nextcloud browser tabs closed. Steps to reproduce (without notify_push):

1. Install nextcloud latest & nextcloud client (latest)
2. Install talk app & start 1 to 1 conversation
3. Choose to be notified of all messages
4. Have friend send a message to conversation
5. Wait indefinitely for nextcloud client notification (no notification ever comes through)

Sometimes I will get a bunch of notifications that all come through at once, but they could be 15 minutes late or more. When I am tagged in the conversation, notifications seem to come through more often, but not always.
(This morning it took 10 minutes - almost exactly for the notification to come through for a tagged message)
Some notifications never come through.

[nickvergessen]

Desktop client is nothing I can help you with. But it might need a restart after notify_push has been setup before it detects it correctly and utilizes it.

[meichthys]

Ok, I'll work on setting up notify_push, but I was expecting things to work (albeit slowly) without notify_push.

[nickvergessen]

… but I was expecting things to work (albeit slowly) without notify_push.

They do, with a max. 30s delay

[meichthys]

I guess that's where I'm seeing the discrepancy. I don't get the notifications within 30 seconds. It takes up to 10 minutes for some, and others never show up. I'm not trying to be ignorant, just trying to report my experience and iron out issues before a potential office-wide deployment.

[MarcS1975]

I think one issue could be the link between the Nextcloud app and the Nextcloud Talk app. Although both use a separate login mechanism they appear to be linked. We are running multiple NC servers and that seems to have killed the notification functionality for NC Talk.

…

On Fri, 20 Aug 2021, 15:15 MeIchthys, ***@***.***> wrote: I guess that's where I'm seeing the discrepancy. I don't get the notifications within 30 seconds. It takes up to 10 minutes for some, and others never show up. I'm not trying to be ignorant, just trying to report my experience and iron out issues before a potential office-wide deployment. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6096 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMNNHGXJCDI3LTPRQIIXNL3T5ZPPBANCNFSM5B2EJQXA> . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675> or Android <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&utm_campaign=notification-email> .