Signal-android: Should a swiped-away notification reappear when new messages arrive?

[nagromc]

I have:

• [x] searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x] read https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports

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Bug description

A swiped away notification of a received SMS is displayed back after some time.

Steps to reproduce

• Receive an SMS
• Without opening Signal, swipe away the new notification from the Android notification drawer

Actual result: After some time the same notification is displayed back. I cannot tell exactly when. Maybe it is event related.
Expected result: The notification should not be displayed, once it is swiped away. If another message is received from the same contact/number, a new notification should display the new message (or possibly the swiped away message and the new message).

Device info

Device: LGE Nexus 5X (bullhead)
Android: 7.0 (3141966, NRD90R)
Memory: 15M (1.73% free, 192M max)
Memclass: 192
OS Host: vped5.mtv.corp.google.com
App: Signal 3.19.1

Link to debug log

https://gist.github.com/nagromc/c2a3a151ba09ed2f38265d3a723b8a52#file-issue-5751-comment-181395245-txt

[nagromc]

I think I identified a case when the bug occurs: the swiped away notification is displayed back when a message from another sender is received.

But, the initial bug still occurs. Not sure if I should open another issue though.

Steps to reproduce

• Text sent to my own number for test purposes (at 13:40:02 in debug log)
• Received message from another number (at 13:51 in debug log)

Actual result: A notification appears showing the new message (13:51) and the swiped away message (13:40:02).
Expected result: Only the notification of the new notification should appear (13:51).

Link to debug log

https://gist.github.com/nagromc/c2a3a151ba09ed2f38265d3a723b8a52#file-issue-5751-comment-252898105-txt

[askvictor]

Same on Nexus 6P; this is a major UI issue for me.

[kvh]

Also a major UX issue for me -- no other app on my phone re-displays notifications once swiped away, violates basic contract of notifications.

[moxie0]

When you swipe away a notification, do you want the messages to be "read" at that point, or still "unread" but without further notification? When you open the app, do you want the notifications to disappear, or to remain?

[askvictor]

Other messaging and email apps tend to keep the message unread after swiping the notification; I think this makes sense, and there is also the 'mark read' option in the notification. I would say that notifications disappear when the app is opened.

[2-4601]

Edit:

So I tested this with GMail and WhatsApp:

• Gmail does not resurface the swiped away message notifications when new message notifications show up
• WhatsApp does resurface the swiped away message notifications when new message notifications show up

https://justflipacoin.com/

Related #5720.

[snaggen]

I believe the Gmail behaviour is the most intuitive: A swiped away notification leaves the message unread, but there are no further notifications about it.

The user has clearly seen the notification, since the user swiped it away. So no further notifications should be needed. However, the message may contain more information than what is displayed in the notification, so it should clearly not be automatically marked read.

[kvh]

To be clear, Signal resurfaces messages at what appears to be a random time in the future even when no additional messages are received, as per the original issue report above (in addition to resurfacing when a new message arrives). This behavior (randomly resurfacing unread notifications at arbitrary times) is the buggy part for me; showing all unread messages when a new message arrives is less of an issue (though I still dislike the behavior personally).

[kvh]

My ideal UX:

• Notification dismissal does not mark message as read
• Dismissed notification (of an unread message) does not reappear without trigger (i.e. new message arriving)
• Under any circumstance, dismissed notification of unread message only reappears if less than 24 hours old

[2-4601]

Sorry, I missed the random resurfacing part earlier.

Let's keep these separate:

• #5720: should messages be marked read when notification is swiped away?
• #5751: should a swiped away notification appear again when new messages arrive?
• #6218: swiped away notification reappears randomly (bug)

[natekoechley]

Still seeing dismissed notifications reappear periodically in v3.29.6. Swipped/dismissed notifications should never reappear. Dismissing should not modify underlying read/unread state of message. I'm on a stock pixel phone running Android release.

[moxie0]

fixed in 3.32.0

[an0n7mous3]

I am still having this issue in Android 9. Another user on Reddit has reported the same, as well as one having the issue on Android 10.