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I have been using YouMail's service on my phones for quite some time and was excited to see there was an app for Android, but after 2+ months of use (and several versions of the .apk, including the most recent Beta) I am still experiencing 100% awake time when the app is running.
If I kill it my phone will immedietly because to sleep normally. But each time I receive a phone call or open the app it will keep the phone from sleeping again.
I have been in contact with their support (which is how I received the Beta version) and have been sending Dumps their way, but was wondering if anyone else is experiencing this issue.
Info: Running Fresh 1.1 on a newly 1.56 RUU'ed hero.
crunchybutternut said:
I have been using YouMail's service on my phones for quite some time and was excited to see there was an app for Android, but after 2+ months of use (and several versions of the .apk, including the most recent Beta) I am still experiencing 100% awake time when the app is running.
If I kill it my phone will immedietly because to sleep normally. But each time I receive a phone call or open the app it will keep the phone from sleeping again.
I have been in contact with their support (which is how I received the Beta version) and have been sending Dumps their way, but was wondering if anyone else is experiencing this issue.
Info: Running Fresh 1.1 on a newly 1.56 RUU'ed hero.
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Click to collapse
I stopped using the app because of this. I tried contacting support and was brushed off. I love the app but not the lack letting my phone sleep.
I am working with a developer of the app to fix the problem and have tested several versions. Will keep you updated of the progress.
crunchybutternut said:
I am working with a developer of the app to fix the problem and have tested several versions. Will keep you updated of the progress.
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That would be great. Thanks for helping him out with this as I would love to use the app.
I don't mean to thread jack this, but.
Whats the difference in YouMail and our Sprint Visual Voice Mail? I have never used youMail.
Kcarpenter said:
I don't mean to thread jack this, but.
Whats the difference in YouMail and our Sprint Visual Voice Mail? I have never used youMail.
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YouMail http://www.youmail.com/home/index.do is a service that replaces Sprint's (or any other provider) voice mail service with their own. It allows you to set custom "smart" greetings for each caller in your contacts, among other things. Check out the site for more info.
Here is the latest response from the developer I have been working with.
Hi [Name],
I did some more research and can confirm that I see the same behavior as you when I run the YouMail app ('active' @ 100%)
I'm not exactly sure what the cause is, as the application is indeed going to sleep when it has nothing to do. The problem also seems to be quite widespread, affecting what seems to be "most" applications that loiter around in the background doing nothing for most of the time.
Since you use 'Spare Parts' you should notice that in there is a way of viewing the 'Partial Wake Lock' usage of a given application. According to the Android developer documentation this is the ONLY way an application can keep the phone "awake" other than 'prodding' it every 30 seconds or so (and you'd notice that 'coz the screen would never go off).
As long as that "Partial Wake Lock" value is low (and it should be unless you're constantly hitting "Menu -> Poll") it means the application is indeed behaving correctly.
All I can offer is that we develop a new feature into the app so that you can tell it to automatically exit when all of the automatic polling settings are disabled - that way the phone would literally shut down the app "sometime" after you back out of the message list. Do you think that's worth it? Or should we wait for HTC/T-Mobile to fix the root cause of the problem?
Doug
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And my response:
Do you mind if I share some of our conversation with a community forum? It might help get others involved and more feedback for you to use in further development.
As far as other apps loitering in the background, my understanding is that Android (using the same process as other Linux distros) keeps recently used applications in RAM to make them more quickly accessible to the user, and will clear them as the RAM is needed by other apps.
I have seen this issue in the past with other apps (i.e. the HTC messaging app locking the dialer and maintaining 100% awake time) but has all been resolved by updates to the apps themselves.
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Lastly, his response:
Feel free, I don't think I said anything bad
I we get enough requests from "the community" I'll be given time to add the 'exit when done' option (basically it'll become a "dumb" app that only checks for messages when you start it up instead of waking up every so often to check [like after you miss a call])
And yes, Android is a little stranger than normal in that it tends to leave applications running for an unspecified time after you "close" them. (basically until it needs to run something else, or it runs out of memory, or .....)
The YouMail app is a little different in that it runs as a background service and schedules the phone to wake it up whenever "events of interest" occur (you get a TXT, your phone rings, it needs to poll, etc) - so even if the OS does close the app because you logged onto "hugebitmaps.com" and the phone ran out of memory, it'll start it up again as soon as it can.
I suspect the HERO OS is not allowing the phone to sleep, even though the application is literally doing nothing. I don't recall this problem on my trusty G1 when it had Android 1.5, so maybe some of HTC's customizations have broken something
Doug
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I can post more of the conversation history if it would help. Anyone have any ideas what might be causing this beyond coding issues?
If anyone wants to send their YouMail log for inspection just enter this code in the dialer *#*#963867#*#* (*#*#YMDUMP#*#*) and it will let you send an email with the log's text.
Tried in 2.1 beta
"I suspect the HERO OS is not allowing the phone to sleep, even though the application is literally doing nothing. I don't recall this problem on my trusty G1 when it had Android 1.5, so maybe some of HTC's customizations have broken something "
I also tried using this app on the 2.1 ROM that Flipz and company have been working on, and had the same issue. I do not know enough programing to determine if this is a problem with OS or the app. I can only give you my experience and try other stuff out to see what the results are. I hope this helps.
Kevin
Hi, Doug from YouMail here.
Just noticed my words and thought I'd give an update - although not much good news.
I basically spent the last 2 days completely reworking the YouMail app's back end code so that anything and everything that could possibly be shut down when it isn't actually doing anything is indeed shut down.
When it came time to test it out -- 100% awake time again (although I stand by my earlier comments that "its not just us").
If I run the same app on a HTC G1 the phone will last a good 2 days (maybe more) without battery issues. If I uninstall the app the difference is minor.
This information, added to all the discussion on the Sprint forums about how the HTC "extras" that this phone comes bundled with have caused the same problem leads me to think that there is something in the Hero that's not behaving properly.
I see other comments like "It does the same on my <insert phone model here>" - well, we don't have unlimited resources, so if you can put the small amount of effort in to dial the 'dump' code mentioned above (*#*#963867#*#*) then maybe we can start to find a pattern here (maybe it's all the Android 1.5 based devices for example).
I'd also like to thank crunchybutternut for all of his assistance and time in trying to sort this issue out.
Doug
superman.namrepus said:
I also tried using this app on the 2.1 ROM that Flipz and company have been working on, and had the same issue. I do not know enough programing to determine if this is a problem with OS or the app. I can only give you my experience and try other stuff out to see what the results are. I hope this helps.
Kevin
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If I can get in touch with someone who has access to the "guts" of the device and that can help me determine whats going wrong then that would be great. Neither the Android developer list nor the HTC forums are particularly helpful when it comes to tricky problems.
Bump
Anyone have some insight on this?
Ok - If someone working on one of these custom builds is prepared to lend a little assistance I'm willing to put a custom build on my phone and try to debug this a little deeper. However, with the number of hours that I get to work on this app.... and all the "fun" blocks that Google have been putting in our way w.r.t Android 2.x, I may not get much more time to work this problem.
That being said, I'm going to try experimenting with a new test app that just adds (one at a time) the raw features of the YouMail app in the hope that a single change triggers this wonderful problem you guys have. If that's the case then I'll put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and try to work around whatever is causing it.
Doug
Any news ?
soundmind said:
Any news ?
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Got this from ymDoug:
No progress as yet - not seen anything from xda folks either.
I've made *massive* changes to ensure the app is shutting down absolutely everything it can when it has nothing to do - still no joy.
I've even gone through a lot of the Android source code and can't find anything that would indicate I'm doing anything wrong. There is one debugging method I'd dearly love to call inside the Google Android code (it dumps out a list of who is keeping the phone awake at any point in time) but the method is only accessible to (a) Google, and (b) People who cook their own ROMs. The official Android people are doing their usual stand-up job of ignoring the difficult questions
I am still making the odd change here and there, and my test app doesn't seem to be having the same problems (of course)
Regardless, there will be an updated version on the web site in the next day or so - I'll need to ensure my changes haven't completely screwed things up
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Doug has made some changes, does not seem to completely resolve the sleep issue though.
Here's the link to the change log:
http://forums.youmail.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=18
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FYI: The version in the market is several revisions behind.
My push notifications from thirdparty apps and live tiles stop working very regularyly which is a shame since the platform heavily depends on this.
It fails to open a channel etc.
Is microsoft fixing this bug in the os? Since now they say yeah just do a factory rest and it should be fine. But i dont wat to lose my settings.
And a restart temporarely fixes it but after an hour or so its terrible again.
or are the ms servers just over crowded already? I dont like apple but my dads iphone just kept working while mine stopped receiving the toasts
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Marvin_S said:
My push notifications from thirdparty apps and live tiles stop working very regularyly which is a shame since the platform heavily depends on this.
It fails to open a channel etc.
Is microsoft fixing this bug in the os? Since now they say yeah just do a factory rest and it should be fine. But i dont wat to lose my settings.
And a restart temporarely fixes it but after an hour or so its terrible again.
or are the ms servers just over crowded already? I dont like apple but my dads iphone just kept working while mine stopped receiving the toasts
...
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Click to collapse
Toasts and tile updates come from the app developers servers, so depending on the platform they use there may be some down time. The Beezz twitter client occasionally stops working, but it's a free app and not ad supported so we should be lucky it has toasts and tile notifications at all.
sulphuricaciduk said:
Toasts and tile updates come from the app developers servers, so depending on the platform they use there may be some down time. The Beezz twitter client occasionally stops working, but it's a free app and not ad supported so we should be lucky it has toasts and tile notifications at all.
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not really since tested with the same apps at the same time. Its probably because it goes to the ms servers and fails to deliver timely. Also the unable to open a channel is not related to their servers i believe? Its related to a channel not able to open on the ms servers. Downtime should probably be equal when using the same apps on ios and wp7 sending out to each other, the messages do get delivered in app just no or really really delayed notifications. Like 20 minutes and then it just works normal for a while.. Then stops again. Other than this i really like the platform.
So i wonder does anybody else experience trouble? And which is the program you use which seems to be stable all times?
I'm experiencing the same troubles on my omnia 7.
Following programs do have some problems:
-Fim: Unable to open the channel - push notifications don't work anymore.
-TextMe: Push Notifications sometimes work - but with a delay of approx. 20 minutes
Following programs don't have any problems:
-Hotmail
-Messenger by Miyo
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This is really annoying - since a "usual" restart of the device doesn't help, i think i will have to do a hard reset (i wonder if this will help at all). But i don't want to lose all my settings, installed applications, short messages etc. So this really is a PITA.
stylopath said:
I'm experiencing the same troubles on my omnia 7.
Following programs do have some problems:
-Fim: Unable to open the channel - push notifications don't work anymore.
-TextMe: Push Notifications sometimes work - but with a delay of approx. 20 minutes
Following programs don't have any problems:
-Hotmail
-Messenger by Miyo
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This is really annoying - since a "usual" restart of the device doesn't help, i think i will have to do a hard reset (i wonder if this will help at all). But i don't want to lose all my settings, installed applications, short messages etc. So this really is a PITA.
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Click to collapse
hardreset, would that really help? I think it wont really help. I have the same phone same apps and same problems also with tigertext send to wp7 and notes to tile.
i dont have the time and or want to hardreset. It might be a driver thing with the 3g etc. If nobody with other phones is experiencing this. I think hardreset changes nothig and will return to same behaviour. I will hardreset when the update comes or see if this will fix it.
20 Minutes is just strange conpared to instant on iphone and happens a lot
Pff
Did a hardreset. Tested the push again, ait a damn thing changed besides that I lost all my settings and stuff. Its just not working right. And probably a samsung driver or a ms server/os issue....
Does nobody else experience push notification downtime? Or delays? It's just not the way it should work. IM apps and Text replacement apps can never work properly in the background with these delays...
@Marvin_S which apps, specifically are you having trouble with? It could very well be that the developers servers have been down or slow.
I haven't had any Live Tile problems that couldn't directly be traced back to either the app dev's server or the way they've implemented notifications. Not on my Omnia 7 nor the HD2. Afaik, and I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about it - the wife's Omnia7 is doing just fine also. Have you tried flashing the new updated ROM? That seemed to fix a bunch of data issues.
Oh, as for the 20 minute thing, I've never seen this. Beezz for example notifies me (via toasts) in about a second or so.
Beezz has never worked for me. I always get an error whenever I try to enable push. The same happens for GReadie. I get a fail to open channel error. The weatherbug app also stopped working.
Right now my HTC hub live tile works. Its the only 3rd party live tile app I use.
emigrating said:
@Marvin_S which apps, specifically are you having trouble with? It could very well be that the developers servers have been down or slow.
I haven't had any Live Tile problems that couldn't directly be traced back to either the app dev's server or the way they've implemented notifications. Not on my Omnia 7 nor the HD2. Afaik, and I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about it - the wife's Omnia7 is doing just fine also. Have you tried flashing the new updated ROM? That seemed to fix a bunch of data issues.
Oh, as for the 20 minute thing, I've never seen this. Beezz for example notifies me (via toasts) in about a second or so.
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Well I seem to be running the latest version pre-installed by samsung... i asked in the omnia7 forum what kind of rom I was running.
Well the thing is, it builds up all the notifications and than releases them all after each other 20 minutes later.
Basically these apps: Textme and tigertext (which I tried later to see if it could replace textme, very kind and responsive developers btw)
Also send to wp7, which often than comes up with the failed to open channel stuff.
If this rom should rely fix it, then I will just reflash it eve though its exactly the same rom... I think it has something to do with losing 3g+ signal, or wifi drops.
I'm testing the reliablility heavily since I such problems by sending constant test messages to myself (or to the echo server) the messages are received fine, but the toast is so unreliable.
Can you maybe type the versions of your firmware so I can compare it with mine? Because its for sure not an app problem since the messages all come later from diffrent apps. My test flow is like this: Open app, send message, close, send message with the second app, close and than wait. If it takes to long, open app again, resend. Sometimes it works quite right for a while, than teribly bad.
And note that I'm from a crowded area with lots of cellphone towers and have also good wifi coverage in the places I tested it. Same apps on the iphone work without problems, I compared side by side as well.
So it might just be my omnia, thats why I would like to hear which versions you are running. Since hardreset did not change a thing, I'm starting to believe its or a driver problem or ms-servers are overcrowded. I would like to try beez and see if its diffrent, however I dont havee twitter and i guess its required.
I don't think the newer ROM from Samsung fixes anything, because i installed it. Version 2424.10.11.1
but perhaps the region affects this problem, e.g. North-American Azure-Servers work fine while European Servers are struggling.
I personally have massive problems with push notifications since monday or so, and it's really starting to pi** me off!
Hard resetting idny going to fix anything permenitly because it is not the phone it is the apps just gotta wait for and update to fix
Sent from my EVO 4G using XDA App
Weird. I'm using Beezz, SendToWP7, uController, eBay, Weatherbug and probably a few others using toast and/or live tile notification. Beezz server seems to go down every so often, but both uController and SendToWP7 notifies me real quick.
I'm running the latest Omnia 7 ROM as people said it was slightly faster and had a better data connection - that said, I was entirely happy with the phone even before updating.
I did a hard reset/reinstall of my apps and such, I'm still having intermittent push problems with some apps, and with others the push won't work at all. I will say that it seems to be the same apps having the same problems, and the ones that always have worked (weather bug) still work.
I'm thinking (hoping, praying!) this is a problem simply because of the infancy of the OS...I remember the first iphone, which I bought on day one, had all sorts of problems and "gaps" in technology
emigrating said:
Weird. I'm using Beezz, SendToWP7, uController, eBay, Weatherbug and probably a few others using toast and/or live tile notification. Beezz server seems to go down every so often, but both uController and SendToWP7 notifies me real quick.
I'm running the latest Omnia 7 ROM as people said it was slightly faster and had a better data connection - that said, I was entirely happy with the phone even before updating.
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Click to collapse
oKe im running the latest rom since the beginning. Created fake twitter account sended a ton of messages. Crap as hell, very unreliable and today i was not able to load fb app data on 3g full bars. So it can be a phone problem on drivers with data over 3g, while 3g+ works fine. Probably euopean servers are overloaded than. Does changing my location from USA based (im dutch) To germany change the servers as well? Bc germany is much closer thus more reliable?
jmerrey said:
I did a hard reset/reinstall of my apps and such, I'm still having intermittent push problems with some apps, and with others the push won't work at all. I will say that it seems to be the same apps having the same problems, and the ones that always have worked (weather bug) still work.
I'm thinking (hoping, praying!) this is a problem simply because of the infancy of the OS...I remember the first iphone, which I bought on day one, had all sorts of problems and "gaps" in technology
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Its the apps not the phone the apps need to be updated inorder to work on the os not the other way around
Sent from my EVO 4G using XDA App
v hubris v said:
Its the apps not the phone the apps need to be updated inorder to work on the os not the other way around
Sent from my EVO 4G using XDA App
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this is not the case, read my post. Has nothing to do with the apps since ALL apps behave like this, it has nothing to do with the apps itself but probably slow ms servers. So no this is really an os or server or device firmware problem and not an app. Since all notifications come at the same time all after eachother highly delayed.
Apps have own servers they Sony go threw ms os is not mad for apparently apparently are made for os if apparently no work on os they need update
Sent from my EVO 4G using XDA App
v hubris v said:
Apps have own servers they Sony go threw ms os is not mad for apparently apparently are made for os if apparently no work on os they need update
Sent from my EVO 4G using XDA App
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its not the problem of the apps! Since all apps fail at the same time to update. This is no coincidence, only a restart or waiting will solve this and than all notifications not yet delivered by multiple apps come at once! Now tell me how this is an app poblem,its the phone who is not able to receive the push even on wifi. The apps do deliver, but there is a huge delay even with beez which i checked with fake twiter account.
Every once in a while the phone just fails to receive any data based push notifications! All of them. While i do have wifi and or 3g. On 3g+ it seems to be more stable.
This could be europe related or omnia related. And narrowing this down will help dtermine the issue, since the apps are not the problem. These work fine for the others...
Marvin_S said:
This could be europe related or omnia related. And narrowing this down will help dtermine the issue, since the apps are not the problem. These work fine for the others...
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Click to collapse
It is neither Europe or Omnia related as I'm using the 16GB Omnia7 in Europe (slightly north of you) at the moment without fail.
If it really is all apps, I would suggest there is a problem with your data connection - are you able to browse the web properly and without pages having to reload or taking a long time to open? If not, make sure you are indeed within range of, either, 3G/HSDPA or WiFi - if you are, and it works fine on another phone/laptop I would say you have a hardware fault and need to take the device back for a replacement.
Several things to be aware of with live tiles and notifications.
I am a developer of a few apps and offer push notification and live tile updates i have done alot of testing and know the ins and outs of this..
1st there is a such thing of the phone not being able to "open a notification channel" and Hard Reset is the only way to correct this.
2nd it is possable that the app developer side to also be the problem not sending because of their service going down server problems etc.
3rd when your batt. get to be less than 1/4 percent the notification service shuts down on the phone and you will not recieve updates. once the batt is above the 1/4 percent the service will then start working again.
4th sometimes the push service is delayed due to MS.
Hope this helps to better understand.
My Apps
World Weather (Live Tile)
TV Show Alert (uses Push Notification)
To Doos (Comming soon Push, Live Tile)
Been using Android Lost on my droid phone for a while. Have it on all the family phones for sometime, but never really thought of putting it on the KF primarily due to a lack of GPS which would make locating it kind of hard...
However, after I loaded the GR6 rom a while back, I had some basic location services that seemed to work okay. I loaded Android Lost Website - - - - App shortly after that, I found it works pretty good.
The KF doesn't have a SIM card, but AL assigns it a code which makes it unique. Most of the logical functions work.
This evening, I couldn't remember where I left the Fire, so i used the web interface to turn on the alarm and it was easy to find.
Couple notes... I am using the GR6 rom which activates some of the google location services. There are other roms that can do this, but not everyone has been able to do it. I also have my KF setup to keep it's wireless connection even with the screen off. So communication keeps going even after the screen it turned off or it times out. Without that, it would be hard to send command to it.
Android Lost is a free app.. but the dev is great, lots of updates and worth a donation...
Man, I wish I'd known about this before. Works great! I love the little messages that you can send to it and the flashing screen with the alarm!
guys, please help me out, whenever I touch a notification, nothing happens, in facebook for android app, It worked perfectly till 2 days ago but now, since I don't have my PC, it is disturbing me a lot.
I have this issue too (similar)
Honestly, the only push notifications I ever see from fb are messages, and when I try to click it, nothing happens.
I don't know how but they started working on their own again, maybe it was a temporary problem at facebook's server
I can't remember the last time I had a facebook notification. I've got notifications enabled but haven't seen any for a very long time, I just assumed it stopped working since Facebook Messenger was released
try and see if you get same problem with 3g or wifi. I had same problem but with 3g only and that is because it can take longer to load.
They stopped working for a while for me too but now they seem to be back. I haven't ever counted on them working because it's always been pretty spotty
Same error here
Maybe it's going to be a update with facebook app.
I get those notifications too and they are anoying.
It just about time to wait an update from FB devs.
Tidane said:
It just about time to wait an update from FB devs.
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If they were to ever put any actual care into their Android app... :/
Notifications for Facebook never seem to work. I have tried to unistall/reinstall, turn notifications off then back on, doesn't matter. They really need an overhaul of the app!
Yeah i had problems getting the notifications to work on android 2.3.6 on my note. They opened about half the time. I'm trying out ICS now and hopefully it'll work better!
Guys, Im on ICS resurrection remix for a time now, and the bugs you refer are still there, to me the app's faulty. Its only useful when you want to share a photo
is better use a web browser alternative
has been happening to me for the past few weeks. doesn't always happen though, more like randomly
The very first Android phone I purchased was in 2010, and it was an HTC Desire. I have been a huge fan of Android ever since, owning literally hundreds of phones and tablets from various manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, Xiaomi, LG, Sony....the list goes on and on. I've tried iOS a few times, but I simply just didn't like iOS. In recent years my loyalty to Android was severely tested because of an issue that many may think is inconsequential and even petty, but to me it was ultimately a deal-breaker - delayed push notifications (predominantly when the screen is locked and off)
So picture this - I'm sat at home with three other members of my family who also own Android phones, and we have a group chat (FB Messenger) going with other members of the family. Every time someone posts a comment *PING*...but wait, four android phones, and only two went *PING*...then a few seconds later another goes *PING*, then a few seconds later the fourth goes *PING*.
I'm not exactly sure when this issue first arose, but I only really started to notice around the time Oreo was mainstream, and I've been obsessed with trying to figure out a cure ever since. Of course I've tried literally everything that's been suggested, hard resets, turning off battery optimisations, locking the affected app in the recents, disabling Doze with ADB, clearing the cache, custom roms, different routers, different networks, heartbeat fixing apps for GCM/FCM, bla bla bla...none of it works. Now I have finally accepted there is a flaw in the way the Android OS handles push notifications, a flaw that affects every single Android device, at least since Oreo, and maybe even before. It's a strange one because the issue doesn't seem to occur when the screen is awake, only when it is locked and off. At one stage I was hopeful features like AOD on AMOLED devices might be a solution, but alas, even with AOD active, the problem persists.
Now before you say "I've never had a problem with push notifications on my Android device", are you sure. Have you ever really been in a situation where you would notice? Try it for yourself, perform a test using a similar scenario to the one I mentioned in the second paragraph. Create a group chat in any messaging app you like, and have several of the group members with Android devices sit in the same room with their screens locked and off, then have one person send a message in the group chat, then watch as some get the messages immediately, some with a slight delay, and some not at all until they wake the screen. Do it a few times and you will soon notice there is no pattern at all, sometimes you will get the notifications immediately while others are delayed, then sometimes others will get the notifications immediately and yours will be delayed.
My most recent (and very last) Android purchase was the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (outright, not on contract, so you know roughly how much I paid). When I'm paying that amount of money for a mobile phone, I expect timely push notifications as a given, but no, the same issue occurs even with one of the very latest and greatest. I contacted Samsung Tech Support and the guy admitted it's the most common complaint he deals with every single day. I was previously given a similar story by Motorola and Huawei support too, and a little digging around online shows that thousands of Android users are complaining about the very same issue. Needless to say they now have that phone back.
I know I know, something this trivial shouldn't really bother me this much, but it does, it's just who I am. I can accept there is no such thing as a perfect mobile phone, I can live with an average camera, a budget processor, a dull screen, lifeless aesthetics etc. but there are some compromises I just won't make. Apart from the obvious (the ability to make and receive calls and texts), my requirements are quite simple - I require a phone with stable WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC, a decent battery life and of course timely push notifications. With no Android device currently able to fulfil my very simple requirements, it really did only leave me with one option - joining the dark side....so I bought an iPhone.
I have owned an iPhone for just over a month (that's two weeks longer than my last three Android devices), and thus far my delayed push notification woes have vanished. Now when someone in the family posts in our group, *PING* immediately every single time. The battery life is acceptable for someone like me who isn't the most demanding user, WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC have presented no issues, and it makes and receives calls and texts without a problem. I can honestly say the only thing I miss so far is my Android App Drawer. I know iOS introduced their App Library in iOS 14, and it's a start, but it's just not the same. There is probably an app in Cydia that would give me an app drawer, but I'm not quite ready to get into the world of jailbreaking just yet (I'm not that brave).
So after my big rant, here's a summary - Android push notifications are broken, they've been broken for some time and Google don't seem interested in fixing the problem. If someone told me tomorrow that Google had finally fixed push notifications, I would drop iOS like a hot potato and rekindle my love for Android. Please Google, help bring me back from the dark side, it's really cold out here!
Des
energy6uk said:
The very first Android phone I purchased was in 2010, and it was an HTC Desire. I have been a huge fan of Android ever since, owning literally hundreds of phones and tablets from various manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, Xiaomi, LG, Sony....the list goes on and on. I've tried iOS a few times, but I simply just didn't like iOS. In recent years my loyalty to Android was severely tested because of an issue that many may think is inconsequential and even petty, but to me it was ultimately a deal-breaker - delayed push notifications (predominantly when the screen is locked and off)
So picture this - I'm sat at home with three other members of my family who also own Android phones, and we have a group chat (FB Messenger) going with other members of the family. Every time someone posts a comment *PING*...but wait, four android phones, and only two went *PING*...then a few seconds later another goes *PING*, then a few seconds later the fourth goes *PING*.
I'm not exactly sure when this issue first arose, but I only really started to notice around the time Oreo was mainstream, and I've been obsessed with trying to figure out a cure ever since. Of course I've tried literally everything that's been suggested, hard resets, turning off battery optimisations, locking the affected app in the recents, disabling Doze with ADB, clearing the cache, custom roms, different routers, different networks, heartbeat fixing apps for GCM/FCM, bla bla bla...none of it works. Now I have finally accepted there is a flaw in the way the Android OS handles push notifications, a flaw that affects every single Android device, at least since Oreo, and maybe even before. It's a strange one because the issue doesn't seem to occur when the screen is awake, only when it is locked and off. At one stage I was hopeful features like AOD on AMOLED devices might be a solution, but alas, even with AOD active, the problem persists.
Now before you say "I've never had a problem with push notifications on my Android device", are you sure. Have you ever really been in a situation where you would notice? Try it for yourself, perform a test using a similar scenario to the one I mentioned in the second paragraph. Create a group chat in any messaging app you like, and have several of the group members with Android devices sit in the same room with their screens locked and off, then have one person send a message in the group chat, then watch as some get the messages immediately, some with a slight delay, and some not at all until they wake the screen. Do it a few times and you will soon notice there is no pattern at all, sometimes you will get the notifications immediately while others are delayed, then sometimes others will get the notifications immediately and yours will be delayed.
My most recent (and very last) Android purchase was the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (outright, not on contract, so you know roughly how much I paid). When I'm paying that amount of money for a mobile phone, I expect timely push notifications as a given, but no, the same issue occurs even with one of the very latest and greatest. I contacted Samsung Tech Support and the guy admitted it's the most common complaint he deals with every single day. I was previously given a similar story by Motorola and Huawei support too, and a little digging around online shows that thousands of Android users are complaining about the very same issue. Needless to say they now have that phone back.
I know I know, something this trivial shouldn't really bother me this much, but it does, it's just who I am. I can accept there is no such thing as a perfect mobile phone, I can live with an average camera, a budget processor, a dull screen, lifeless aesthetics etc. but there are some compromises I just won't make. Apart from the obvious (the ability to make and receive calls and texts), my requirements are quite simple - I require a phone with stable WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC, a decent battery life and of course timely push notifications. With no Android device currently able to fulfil my very simple requirements, it really did only leave me with one option - joining the dark side....so I bought an iPhone.
I have owned an iPhone for just over a month (that's two weeks longer than my last three Android devices), and thus far my delayed push notification woes have vanished. Now when someone in the family posts in our group, *PING* immediately every single time. The battery life is acceptable for someone like me who isn't the most demanding user, WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC have presented no issues, and it makes and receives calls and texts without a problem. I can honestly say the only thing I miss so far is my Android App Drawer. I know iOS introduced their App Library in iOS 14, and it's a start, but it's just not the same. There is probably an app in Cydia that would give me an app drawer, but I'm not quite ready to get into the world of jailbreaking just yet (I'm not that brave).
So after my big rant, here's a summary - Android push notifications are broken, they've been broken for some time and Google don't seem interested in fixing the problem. If someone told me tomorrow that Google had finally fixed push notifications, I would drop iOS like a hot potato and rekindle my love for Android. Please Google, help bring me back from the dark side, it's really cold out here!
Des
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Now that's what I call a structured rant!
But what type of phone did you owned ?
I know this problem from samsung phones, and other phones I've tested. usually it's because of the OEM's aggressive take on battery management. They freeze apps in the background, and run them periodically to check notifications.
I know that's frustrating, but with your story I could feel the social isolation you've felt. And even with all the perks in the world, I wouldn't want a phone that makes me the third wheel.
But I'm much more radical than you, I don't want to change my phone, so I changed my friends. Way better now you should try it, those Apple "cool kids" pigeons weren't good friends anyway.
Obviously I'm just kidding, but I think the issue can be solved by using a ROM to espace your OEM's restrictions, or try another brand. If you ever want to come back to the light (which I'm sure you will because I couldn't bare iPhones after using an android all this time, seriously wtf if that file manager of them, and wtf is the "Other" memory partitions that increases without me having any control over it!), ask in various xda sections if users experience notifications latency, and if they don't know suggest them your little experiment you described in this post.
Hope you'll come back from your journey in the shadow,
Have a great day
Interesting rant.
Were all the phones that your friends had on the same networks? It could easily be a network latency issue
affecting how fast each message was distributed. Given that the passage of a message, say a Whatsapp message is at least: :
from phone screen
to
Whatapp encryption software
to
wi-fi-switch
to
domestic router
to
domestic ISP
to
internet backbone
to
commercial ISP
to
Whatsapp run cloud server
to
Whatsapp redirection processes
to
commercial ISP
to
internet backbone
to
domestic ISP
to
domestic router
to
wifi-switch software
to
friend phone
to
Whatsapp decryption software
to
phone notification sub-routine
to
phone screen
I'd say a small discrepancy in arrival times would be expected.....
I only mention this because it seems that you've tested massive of phones - but did you take into account different networks?