4 ms·

I'm not a mobile developer (or heavy mobile user). Can someone ELI65?

by gary_0 4y ago

karmanyaahm 4y ago
My recent F-Droid blog post explained what UnifiedPush is in detail, basically: > until now, the only option for push notifications was Google’s proprietary service, Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). UnifiedPush is a new alternative that allows you to get push notifications without being tied to a single company. > Applications that support UnifiedPush can receive notifications via a dedicated UnifiedPush application that maintains a single server connection to receive all notifications. We call this “UnifiedPush application” a distributor; Conversations is now a distributor, and UnifiedPush-supporting apps like Element or Tusy can receive notifications through it. https://f-droid.org/en/2022/12/18/unifiedpush.html https://f-droid.org/en/2022/12/18/unifiedpush.html
- codetrotter 4y ago
  Does this work on iOS also?
  - gary_0 4y ago
    Nope: https://unifiedpush.org/users/faq/#will-unifiedpush-ever-work-on-ios https://unifiedpush.org/users/faq/#will-unifiedpush-ever-wor...
    - Spivak 4y ago
      It seems kinda silly to just not provide an abstraction over Apple/Google notifications like Pushover does and then provide opportunistic use of new network. If you compromise your ideals like a tiny bit you can build your network and be ubiquitous.
      - MattJ100 4y ago
        It's not about ideals, but technical limitations. UnifiedPush isn't an app like Pushover. It's plumbing/APIs for delivering notifications to apps, and it replaces the plumbing provided by the OS vendors. However, that's simply not possible on iOS (or if it is, as they say in the FAQ entry, please share how!). If all you want is to get a generic message in front of a user, UnifiedPush isn't what you're looking for - just use Pushover, ntfy.sh apps or whatever for that. They use Apple's push notification APIs.
      - resonator 4y ago
        I don't have or want a Google or Apple account. I use a de-googled android phone running Lineage with MicroG. I'm glad for Unified Push because it means i can now get instant message notifications for supported apps, without which I would need to rely on SMS which can take up to 15 minutes to appear. I am not willing to compromise my ideals. It there were no unified push, I would just live with delayed notifications of SMS, but this is better. edit: corrected that I would have no notifications, not delayed notifications without unifid push.
        crossroadsguy 4y ago
        This is commendable. But I personally would do it only when I can buy an OEM’s phone that supports a degoogled OS out of box. That would be not compromising my ideals in my case. (I guess there might be one or two around, maybe in the West, but nothing in my geography).
        MayeulC 4y ago
        There are a few, like fairphone, maybe shiftphones, and you can probably buy a few with /e/ pre-installed. You can also try any old phone supported by LineageOS. https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405858189585-FP4-Android-without-Google-services-Open-OS- https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/440585818958...
        crossroadsguy 4y ago
        These are not available in my country and I am not very hopeful it’ll be anytime soon
      - karmanyaahm 4y ago
        For cross platform UnifiedPush libraries, such as Flutter, it totally makes sense to support iOS by wrapping APNS. Unfortunately, most people on the UP team don't have Apple devices, or iOS development experience. Maybe someday...
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MattJ100 4y ago
Mobile OSes (such as Android and iOS) heavily restrict what apps can do in the background, or even terminate them entirely when they are not in the foreground. This is to increase battery life, etc. For many apps, notifications are important. Using Mastodon as an example - if someone mentions you on Mastodon, your app should tell you. But unless you actually have the app open, it won't be able to receive any notification from your Mastodon server due to the OS restrictions. As a solution, the OS vendors created special services embedded into the OS that are allowed to maintain a persistent network connection to the OS vendor's cloud servers. Then if an app developer wants their app to display a notification, they obtain an API key from the OS vendor and connect to the OS vendor's API and submit their notification to it. The OS vendor's servers will then deliver the notification to the notification service on the device, the notification service will display it to the user or wake up the app. Google's service (Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)) and Apple's Push Notification Service are proprietary things. On Android, there are free and open-source apps that don't link to Google's proprietary components, including their notification service. F-Droid is an FLOSS "app store" that will not distribute apps using Google's APIs in their repository. Some "de-Googled" Android flavours remove the component entirely from the OS. However some developers still would like a way for their app to receive notifications without constantly polling (repeatedly making requests to check for new data) in the background. It's annoying and not very efficient (for network usage or battery). UnifiedPush is an open API/specification that provides an alternative to the proprietary APIs. It allows you to set up a "distributor" app which will relay notifications to the other apps on your device. The distributor app generally keeps a single open connection to a server, and waits for notifications to come in. App developers can deliver notifications to the user's chosen notification server using a standard API, and know that it can reach their device. The OS vendors are no longer in the loop. Conversations is a messaging app, usually used for chats/calls like any other. It uses an open messaging protocol called XMPP, which has a bunch of open-source servers and clients, and can be self-hosted. Conversations already maintains a connection to the XMPP server, and XMPP already has various optimizations to minimize network activity and battery usage. The Conversations developer has developed a way to re-use the existing XMPP connection for notifications, as well as your messaging traffic. Conversations acts as a "distributor" and will relay notifications to other apps on your device that support UnifiedPush. Hope this helps! It can be a lot to take in :)

I'm not a mobile developer (or heavy mobile user). Can someone ELI65?

by gary_0 4y ago

I'm not a mobile developer (or heavy mobile user). Can someone ELI65?

My recent F-Droid blog post explained what UnifiedPush is in detail, basically: > until now, the only option for push notifications was Google’s proprietary service, Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). UnifiedPush is a new alternative that allows you to get push notifications without being tied to a single company. > Applications that support UnifiedPush can receive notifications via a dedicated UnifiedPush application that maintains a single server connection to receive all notifications. We call this “UnifiedPush application” a distributor; Conversations is now a distributor, and UnifiedPush-supporting apps like Element or Tusy can receive notifications through it. https://f-droid.org/en/2022/12/18/unifiedpush.html https://f-droid.org/en/2022/12/18/unifiedpush.html

codetrotter 4y ago
Does this work on iOS also?
- gary_0 4y ago
  Nope: https://unifiedpush.org/users/faq/#will-unifiedpush-ever-work-on-ios https://unifiedpush.org/users/faq/#will-unifiedpush-ever-wor...
  - Spivak 4y ago
    It seems kinda silly to just not provide an abstraction over Apple/Google notifications like Pushover does and then provide opportunistic use of new network. If you compromise your ideals like a tiny bit you can build your network and be ubiquitous.
    - MattJ100 4y ago
      It's not about ideals, but technical limitations. UnifiedPush isn't an app like Pushover. It's plumbing/APIs for delivering notifications to apps, and it replaces the plumbing provided by the OS vendors. However, that's simply not possible on iOS (or if it is, as they say in the FAQ entry, please share how!). If all you want is to get a generic message in front of a user, UnifiedPush isn't what you're looking for - just use Pushover, ntfy.sh apps or whatever for that. They use Apple's push notification APIs.
    - resonator 4y ago
      I don't have or want a Google or Apple account. I use a de-googled android phone running Lineage with MicroG. I'm glad for Unified Push because it means i can now get instant message notifications for supported apps, without which I would need to rely on SMS which can take up to 15 minutes to appear. I am not willing to compromise my ideals. It there were no unified push, I would just live with delayed notifications of SMS, but this is better. edit: corrected that I would have no notifications, not delayed notifications without unifid push.
      - crossroadsguy 4y ago
        This is commendable. But I personally would do it only when I can buy an OEM’s phone that supports a degoogled OS out of box. That would be not compromising my ideals in my case. (I guess there might be one or two around, maybe in the West, but nothing in my geography).
        MayeulC 4y ago
        There are a few, like fairphone, maybe shiftphones, and you can probably buy a few with /e/ pre-installed. You can also try any old phone supported by LineageOS. https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405858189585-FP4-Android-without-Google-services-Open-OS- https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/440585818958...
        crossroadsguy 4y ago
        These are not available in my country and I am not very hopeful it’ll be anytime soon
    - karmanyaahm 4y ago
      For cross platform UnifiedPush libraries, such as Flutter, it totally makes sense to support iOS by wrapping APNS. Unfortunately, most people on the UP team don't have Apple devices, or iOS development experience. Maybe someday...

deleted 4y ago

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deleted 4y ago

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MattJ100 4y ago

Mobile OSes (such as Android and iOS) heavily restrict what apps can do in the background, or even terminate them entirely when they are not in the foreground. This is to increase battery life, etc. For many apps, notifications are important. Using Mastodon as an example - if someone mentions you on Mastodon, your app should tell you. But unless you actually have the app open, it won't be able to receive any notification from your Mastodon server due to the OS restrictions. As a solution, the OS vendors created special services embedded into the OS that are allowed to maintain a persistent network connection to the OS vendor's cloud servers. Then if an app developer wants their app to display a notification, they obtain an API key from the OS vendor and connect to the OS vendor's API and submit their notification to it. The OS vendor's servers will then deliver the notification to the notification service on the device, the notification service will display it to the user or wake up the app. Google's service (Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)) and Apple's Push Notification Service are proprietary things. On Android, there are free and open-source apps that don't link to Google's proprietary components, including their notification service. F-Droid is an FLOSS "app store" that will not distribute apps using Google's APIs in their repository. Some "de-Googled" Android flavours remove the component entirely from the OS. However some developers still would like a way for their app to receive notifications without constantly polling (repeatedly making requests to check for new data) in the background. It's annoying and not very efficient (for network usage or battery). UnifiedPush is an open API/specification that provides an alternative to the proprietary APIs. It allows you to set up a "distributor" app which will relay notifications to the other apps on your device. The distributor app generally keeps a single open connection to a server, and waits for notifications to come in. App developers can deliver notifications to the user's chosen notification server using a standard API, and know that it can reach their device. The OS vendors are no longer in the loop. Conversations is a messaging app, usually used for chats/calls like any other. It uses an open messaging protocol called XMPP, which has a bunch of open-source servers and clients, and can be self-hosted. Conversations already maintains a connection to the XMPP server, and XMPP already has various optimizations to minimize network activity and battery usage. The Conversations developer has developed a way to re-use the existing XMPP connection for notifications, as well as your messaging traffic. Conversations acts as a "distributor" and will relay notifications to other apps on your device that support UnifiedPush. Hope this helps! It can be a lot to take in :)