Notification broken when matrix.org is blocked

[nisbet-hubbard]

Steps to reproduce

Push notification on iOS is broken in geography where matrix.org is blocked.

Outcome

What did you expect?

FluffyChat’ push notification is working fine, whilst Element iOS’s is similarly broken. This is related to matrix.org getting blocked in the area.

What happened instead?

No push notification is received. And the following error message appears in homeserver log:

WARN conduit::service::pusher: Could not send request to pusher https://matrix.org: Could not send request to pusher https://matrix.org: error sending request for url (https://matrix.org/_matrix/push/v1/notify): error trying to connect: operation timed out

Your phone model

SE2

Operating system version

16.3.1

Application version

111(48)

Homeserver

Conduit next

Will you send logs?

No

[nisbet-hubbard]

Added homeserver log that shows the cause is matrix.org having been blocked.

[pixlwave]

Unfortunately the notifications backend (Sygnal) is a hard-coded end-point per client in the matrix world. If this is blocked you will need to find another client that has its own instance of Sygnal on a different URL.

[nisbet-hubbard]

Thanks for the pointer.

It is indeed an unfortunate design choice, since this makes it easy for a surveillance state to break Matrix’s push notification.

On the brighter side, it’s already possible to self-host the push server for Android, so the design flaw mainly affects the iOS apps in the ecosystem. Considering iOS apps can always be taken down by state actors, it’s probably not worth the effort to pursue an iOS-specific solution for push (matrix-org/sygnal#14).