Dear community,
I am using Nextcloud Talk installed from the /e/ store and I get absolutely no notifications when someone writes or calls. Is this something which could/should work with /e/ (MicroG)? Is it working for anyone here?
I opened a bug report upstream, without response:
https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/issues/875
best regards,
Markus
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services
This feature is not installed in ecloud.global. Could be that it will be implemented some day in future
Thank you for the reply! I know it is not on ecloud.global, I use a different server for Nextcloud Talk. Nextcloud talk is generally working well, âonlyâ the notifications are missing. (Which are, unfortunately, quite essential for a calling/chatting application.)
Sorry, Iâm a little confused. So you arenât talking about calls of edrive ? I donât know the Nextcloud Talk Android client. But if it is a âmessenger appâ as whatsapp it must registered in microG. could you pls check microG if the app is registered for push messages ?
no he means Nextcloud Talk, but he is using a separate Nextcloud instance to host talk on , in addition to /e/. This is possible, I also have /e/ and another nextcloud instance on my phone.
Re your original question @markus23 , i doubt this is a problem that lies with /e/. Nextcloud is still a project in development, so I think it lies with them. I have been wondering the same with regards to email notifications. I would advise to look up
nextcloud talk notifications
it gives a a lot of hits
Thank you for your answers!
Yes, I mean âNextcloud Talkâ Android, which is installable via FDroid (https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.nextcloud.talk2/) or also /e/ store. I used the one from /e/ store.
it must registered in microG
Thank you for the hint. Is it possible to register an application for push notification without google account? (My tab âGoogle Cloud Messagingâ simply says âNot connectedâ.) If not, do you plan to make a replacement service?
Nextcloud is still a project in development
Yes, good that it is still maintained 
so I think it lies with them
I installed Nextcloud talk also on my friends phones (via Google Play). For them notifications work perfectly.
it gives a a lot of hits
Yes, a lot. But most of it is garbage and totally unrelated problems. (STUN Server, Battery Optimizations, âŚ). Is there some knowledge base for /e/ other than this forum? I have a strong feeling I am not the first person who wants to use Nextcloud Talk on /e/ and wants to avoid that Google gets information on every message.
Sure. you donât need an google account for it.
Do you have running a firewall or tracker blocker ? It could be that this will block the internet connection of microG to the push messages server.
And there is a workaround for push Messages issue. You can try (on my side it never has worked) https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/issues/631#issuecomment-441500958
Sure. you donât need an google account for it.
Ok, good. But Google services will be used nevertheless? (mtalk.google.com)
And according to your GitHub thread you linked âgoogle device registrationâ is needed. I did not do that. But somehow push notification seem to work in the rest of /e/, doesnât it?
Do you have running a firewall or tracker blocker ?
Nothing additionally, only what /e/ provides per default.
And there is a workaround for push Messages issue. You can try (on my
side it never has worked)
âConfirm new appsâ is disabled, so all apps are allowed?
What does typing in this number do?
Is there any other way to test if push messages work? Which default
applications from /e/ rely on this service?
(btw. it seems like I cannot add the link in this thread here, even though I am only quoting the same link, weirdâŚ)
This is needed, because the push notification server is a goolag server !!!
MircroG is removing much personal information. Only that what needed is reported to goolag server. With device registration your device get a unique number which is needed for push notifications. If you have this all disabled you canât get push messages from goolag server.
About this workaround, I donât have any knowledge. Sorry. And as I have written, on my side it was never working.
No default app is using this goolag server for push messages. default email app is using his on âpoll serviceâ. Messages (SMS) is working complete different.
Most FOSS apps using his own âpoll serviceâ. Signal is using the goolag server but when there is no working connection it is using his own push notificataion service.
As you can see, on my device all settings in MicroG are disabled but I sill get push messages from Mail, Telegram, Whatsapp (in shelter), Signal. Onyl from ProtonMail I get no push messages. But thatâs a known issue and Proton is working on it.
I can confirm those experiences above, push notifications mostly work. What did NOT work for me was Wire. Hopefully Nextcloud Talk will sort it out in the future (like Tutanota, which company implemented their own way of notifications).
Thank you for these clarifications! I actually had a wrong picture of what applications are doing. I thought the push notification is the âone-and-only-wayâ for notification and MicroG gives an replacement for that. At least discussions by Signal and âNextcloud Talkâ developers gave this impression to me. Having only one service also makes somewhat sense, as obviously some battery can be saved if there would be a single service reacting to notifications.
But if this is not reality anyway, then it is already as @Rik said: Nextcloud Talk should find an alternative way of notifications (obviously with the help of your own Nextcloud server). Then this problem actually has nothing to do with /e/. With such a fix, Nextcloud Talk would work for everyone, even when installed via FDroid on non-/e/. It might use some more battery, thoughâŚ
I have used Talk for a while and in the F-Droid version the push notifications donât work at all.
I switched to the Matrix/Element (old Riot.im) solution hosted on my own server and all works well. Of course, the push notification server is not on my server but in Matrixâs.
Thereâs always someone in between to traverse the notifications being WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Element, Talk, whatever.
The solution, for my point of view, would be p2p but there are few options out there. The best Iâve tested is Jami but it has so many flaws that couldnât make it work properly. Still, itâs a work in progress and I would keep following their development.
Thank you for your reply!
Yes, unfortunately, see github talk-android issue 257
[My post gets rejected when I add the link here ;(]
I switched to the Matrix/Element (old Riot.im) solution hosted on my own
server and all works well. Of course, the push notification server is
not on my server but in Matrixâs.
Why of course? Doesnât the matrix client only connect to the server you
tell him?
Thereâs always someone in between to traverse the notifications being
WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Element, Talk, whatever.
The solution, for my point of view, would be p2p but there are few
options out there. The best Iâve tested is Jami but it has so many flaws
that couldnât make it work properly. Still, itâs a work in progress and
I would keep following their development.
I do not see how p2p helps in push notifications. If anything, it makes
the development more complicated, as you cannot rely on any peer to keep
sending you notifications. This problem you do not have on (self-)hosted
solutions, as there you can assume that the server keeps sending you
notifications as long as you have a connection. (If the server is down,
the complete service is down anyway.)
Nevertheless, thank you for the hint, always good to have alternatives.
No. Their documentation says they use Google Firebase to send push notifications to Android so they just traverse it from my home server to Google.
But Iâm no expert. Maybe Iâm wrong and someone could shed some light on this.
