bisq mobile notifications should NOT rely on "google play services"

[userzer0x]

The fact that this app relies on google play notifications is a big no for privacy.
Users using lineage without GAPPS or users not using GAPPS period causes bisq notifications to not work correctly or/and is unusable.

This app needs its own push notifications socket as a fallback if user does not have GAPPS on the phone.
Please consider for the privacy of users.

[ManfredKarrer]

I think push notifications are not possible without the Google or Apple services. Data is encrypted, but of course those companies learn about the fact that you use Bisq. As it is an optional tool I don't consider it that critical. But if you have ideas how to implement that without those companies would be good!
@joachimneumann is the developer of the notifications.

[marcosdsanchez]

How tutanota replaced GCM: https://f-droid.org/en/2018/09/03/replacing-gcm-in-tutanota.html . Not sure if it's useful here.

[joachimneumann]

Thanks @marcosdsanchez

Replacing Firebase Cloud Messaging with a different notification mechanism would indeed be very nice and could provide much better privacy.

However, the Bisq nodes communicate exclusively over the Tor hidden services and the Server-Sent Events which are mentioned in the Tutanota blog post would not work over Tor - at least as far as I could see. We could build our own notification mechanism (over Tor), but this is quite difficult in iOS. In Android, it is possible but it would still be a lot of work.

We should probably add a warning message to the App users about the privacy compromise they are making when using the iOS or Android App, would you agree?

[userzer0x]

@joachimneumann, Signal messaging app has also made their own push notifications as fallback if user does not have GCM/google play services

More info here: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/commit/1669731329bcc32c84e33035a67a2fc22444c24b
I hope that link is of some help.