Documentation request for FCM notifications in deep Doze with Sandboxed GMS

nom-rom-nomnom

Using a Pixel 9a with sandboxed Google Play Services and I gave it network, notifications, phone, sensors, and allowed it to run unrestricted in the background. I was surprised when push notifications (specifically calls) from VoIP apps such as WhatsApp and Signal were delayed, even though I gave both apps the phone and notification permissions as well especially after looking at the documentation here that says:

You should give a battery optimization exception to Google Play services for features like push notifications to work properly in the background. It isn't needed for the Google Play Store app.

I thought that just meant setting it to unrestricted in the background usage settings. However, I later found out after a debugging session (aided by AI) that because I leave my phone idle for so long (anywhere from 6-12 hours at a time) it entered doze a lot and notifications were delayed by 2-3 minutes (really bad for VoIP apps).
Before I did this, notifications would ring on time in IDLE mode (simulated with adb):
adb shell dumpsys deviceidle force-idle
but when I stepped it up into IDLE_MAINTENANCE:
adb shell dumpsys deviceidle force-idle adb shell dumpsys deviceidle step
Notifications/VoIP calls were delayed again.
I'm not very familiar with adb commands so I asked AI whitelist GMS from doze (which is what I'm guessing is what happens by default on stock android) using adb:
adb shell dumpsys deviceidle whitelist +com.google.android.gms
And when I want back into IDLE_MAINTENANCE, I did not experience that delay again. I'm wondering if this special quirk can be mentioned in the documentation, or ideally, GMS and other push notification apps (UnifiedPush is another one I think) could benefit from getting a permission toggle that whitelists them from maintenance windows.

I've got a lot to learn about the inner workings of android so if I'm getting anything wrong here just let me know. I don't check the forum very often so apologize in advance for a potential late response.
Thanks for your time everyone!

de0u

You should give a battery optimization exception to Google Play services for features like push notifications to work properly in the background. It isn't needed for the Google Play Store app.

nom-rom-nomnom I thought that just meant setting it to unrestricted in the background usage settings.

I believe "battery optimization exception" means that the "unrestricted" button should be selected as opposed to the "optimized" button (i.e., I do not believe that an "optimization exception" has been granted if the "optimized" button is selected). Has the "unrestricted" option been tried?

nom-rom-nomnom I later found out after a debugging session (aided by AI) [...] so I asked AI whitelist GMS from doze [...] using adb [...]

At present LLMs are more likely to provide "solutions" than they are to include cautions. If the LLM's advice didn't include anything about the risks of enabling developer options, including adb access, or how to disable adb access afterward, then the advice was not high-quality.

nom-rom-nomnom

Okay, after doing some more research (No AI) I realized that my adb command and the settings panel to set an app to unrestricted do the same thing (I guess this is what this and this mean). Well, this means I really messed up here since I overestimated the capabilities of AI. Well, I'll just undo the command (- instead of +), disable usb debugging and dev options and move on. I'm sorry for wasting your time @de0u for choosing to rely on this low-quality advice and making a report on it :(

I believe that the learning lessons here for me are:

Don't allow AI to do your research for you.
Understand the implications of any modifications that you are making to your device(s).
And don't "bite off more than you can chew" when making any modifications.

I'm sorry it had to come to this just for me to learn such a seemingly trivial lesson.

1qkv9ddu3so2irvz

nom-rom-nomnom learning lessons

Very good!

de0u

nom-rom-nomnom I think I might say that LLMs can be useful to experts, because experts know what they're looking for and thus know when to reject what an LLM says and steer it toward a better answer, but LLMs can be risky for non-experts, because what they say sounds good regardless of whether it will work or not, and whether it's dangerous or not.

For example, here is a report of an LLM suggesting mixing cleaning agents in a way that may sound plausible but is actually hazardous. Sounding good isn't enough to ensure that the advice will work, and "working" isn't enough to ensure safety.