Signal Notification issue + googleplay services without logged in

W1zardK1ng

I recently logged out of sandboxed google play services from owner profile, and later i started noticing that signal notifications are no longer working unless signal is being opened, so i reinstalled the signal.
Now i see signal is using its own method to get notification, and showed there is no google play services installed.
My understanding was that notifications will work even if i didn't logged in to google play services, please correct if was wrong.

[deleted]

W1zardK1ng yes, it will work, it just won't be as reliable (or timely) for notifications as with Google Play Services. Make sure though that Signal has unrestricted battery use, so it doesn't get killed in the background.

W1zardK1ng

Yes i know the Signals own implementation works better i was using that previously, but its taking lots of battery that's one of the reason i went with google play.
But now without signing in to google play services it wont work i feel, or im missing something.

pdagenius

I would recommend making a backup of Signal data, deleting and reinstalling the app.

trilogy6202

W1zardK1ng

No need to reinstall as pdagenius suggests as it won't solve anything. Unfortunately with Signal you have to chose between Google Play Services, high battery drain or no notifications.

For me Google Play Services is not an option on my main profile and with unrestricted or optimized battery Signal drains 25-35 % battery over a full charge cycle with only 10-15 active screen time so I've chosen restricted battery even though it's a drag to have to open the app ever so often to check for new messages.

I would love to find a better solution.

2dognight

trilogy6202 For me Google Play Services is not an option on my main profile and with unrestricted or optimized battery Signal drains 25-35 % battery over a full charge cycle with only 10-15 active screen time so I've chosen restricted battery even though it's a drag to have to open the app ever so often to check for new messages.

25% battery usage for Signal? That doesn't match my (still very limited) experience. My Owner profile has no Google services installed, I have Signal installed (sideloaded from the Signal website), my notifications work fine and the battery usage for it is usually showing around 1%.

trilogy6202

2dognight

On which battery profile do you have Signal on? And just to get it into perspective, what have the total battery drain been while Signal drained 1 %?

My Signal app is also installed directly from their website, not that I think it matters in relation to the battery drain issue.

2dognight

trilogy6202
I have it set to unrestricted. I must have read to set it that way somewhere. I'm not sure how to answer the 2nd question since I had the phone on the charger for a bit earlier today. It had been down to about 40%, and I probably charged it up to about 75% when I received a call, and is now at 68%. But my recollection is that Signal's battery usage is always fairly low. It's always phone idle, mobile network, screen etc at the top of the battery usage list, and Signal way down near the bottom. I noticed this because there is always a persistent Signal notification "Background connection enabled" hanging around, and so I really expected it to be higher usage.

trilogy6202

2dognight

Would you mind testing for a longer period, say something like from 100 % to something like 20 to 30 % and report back how much battery Signal drained and what it's screen time was?

I've tried all battery modes and optimized and unrestricted didn't seem to do any difference battery wise. Only restricted was able to stop the battery drain but with the notifications as a trade off.

2dognight

trilogy6202
Surely. I'm not sure where to find the "screen time" but I'll have a look. Also I should note that I don't actually use Signal much so maybe that's the whole enchilada right there. I'll charge to 100%, wait till the batt is low, and let you know what it says.

[deleted]

2dognight another factor affecting battery drain is network performance. Also, regardless of existence of Play services, if you use your messenger for video calling a lot (and that happens with any messenger), it will be right there at the top of your battery usage... so please do not over analyse things, as long as you are happy with battery performance and reliability or you might find yourself switching messengers and not be satisfied with any of them.

DeletedUser316

I got rid of the official Signal app and switched to Molly-FOSS and this issue seems to be solved for me. It has been several weeks and all is good.

You can read about Molly here:
https://github.com/mollyim/mollyim-android

W1zardK1ng

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, i settled with unrestricted battery for signal as all of my communication is through signal i cant live without the notifications.
Also i cant find the ideal battery drain as i use signal for long voice and video calls, ill wait for @2dognight for his findings.
At this moment i don't want to extend my trust to one more party by using Molly, but ill have a look on it later.

W1zardK1ng

Still would like to know if anyone is using Signal with google play services installed but NOT LOGGED IN and managed to get the notifications work properly.

DeletedUser622

W1zardK1ng BTW, there is a degoogled fork of Signal called Langis: https://langis.cloudfrancois.fr

trilogy6202

2dognight

Thanks a lot that will be a great help. Regarding screen time I just mend your rough estimation of how much you actually used the app in that period.

I don't use Signal all that much either and only for messaging which is why 25-35 % battery drain over one charge cycle is completely unacceptable to me.

2dognight

trilogy6202
Test is underway. I'll make an effort to use Signal a bit. Battery is down from 100% to 71% over the last 18 hours so will be a bit.

dazinism

W1zardK1ng
Pretty certain if you have the Play apps installed, and maybe start Play Services, before you set Signal up (first run after install or clearing its storage from its app info screen) then it will use Googles push notifications whether you are logged into Google or not.

Need to grant Play Services battery optimisation exemption for it to provide reliable/quick push notifications.

trilogy6202

2dognight
Great thanks. You don't need to go out of the way to actively use the app. The interesting part to me is the battery usage while in background.

pdagenius

W1zardK1ng I use Signal with GPS installed and not logged in. Works a treat.