Detect if user is idle, and don't mark messages read

[unhammer]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug description

I got a message-noise on my cell phone while away from my computer, but when I checked my phone, there was no notification nor number on the Signal app icon, but on opening it I found a new message.

Steps to reproduce

• keep Signal Desktop open on computer
• go away from computer, bringing along your phone
• wait a bit
• receive message on phone from someone

Actual result: no notification apart from sound on phone
Expected result: desktop Signal would notice no mouse/keyboard movement in the last N seconds, and not mark the message read

Platform info

Operating System: Xubuntu 16.04 / 15.10
Browser: Chromium
Signal version: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Ubuntu Chromium/49.0.2623.108 Chrome/49.0.2623.108 Safari/537.36 Signal-Desktop/0.7.0

[deutrino]

I've observed this behavior for quite a long time - through multiple installs with different phone numbers etc - but for me it doesn't start happening until my phone has been booted up for some length of time. The length of time seems variable, often hours, sometimes a day or more?

When the bug occurs, the notification sound plays, but no notification appears in the status bar or notifications screen.

I've found that closing the desktop app causes notifications to start appearing properly again, but haven't tested it regularly.

I will do some deliberate testing when I have time and add debug logs.

[deutrino]

Is this still a problem?

If so, could it be easier to solve now that the "unread messages" indicator (implying the app knows what is and isn't read) is now live in Desktop?

[scottnonnenberg]

This behavior should indeed be resolved. When the the app is not in focus we don't mark anything as read. Please check in v0.41.0, released last Thursday.

[unhammer]

I haven't noticed this in a while, at least. I'll test a bit, but I'm guessing this can be closed.

[deutrino]

Yeah, I asked because I pulled up this ticket and realized I'd seen this behavior much less. I thought it happened a couple times yesterday but I'm not positive. Regardless, it seems better - I leave my desktop instance running much of the time so I will pay closer attention.

[deutrino]

I can confirm this is still happening at least some of the time. If the Signal Desktop window is focused and left active but my laptop (Linux Mint 18.3, Cinnamon 3.6.7+silvia) is idle, notifications will not arrive on Android for the currently focused chat contact on the desktop app. This is a significant annoyance with daily usage for me as I move between desktop and mobile often.

I'm not sure how much this does or doesn't happen if the Signal window is not the active window. I'll try to look out for that.

[scottnonnenberg]

We will only mark messages as read if we're in focus, so we have to be the active window. But as the original poster requests, we could detect whether the system is idle and behave differently in that case.

[deutrino]

It would be a really nice UX fit and finish thing to fix up if it's easy. I wander away from the desktop app with it in focus often enough that the current behavior is bothersome pretty often.

[EvanHahn-Signal]

I believe this has been fixed and I'm no longer able to reproduce it. I'm going to close this issue, but let me know if that's wrong and I'll reopen.