Signal-android: Show when the recipient is currently typing

[eikowagenknecht]

Since I couldn't find any information regarding ths topic:

Would it be possible to add an indicator "... is typing" when the recipient is typing? This is a standard feature of modern (insecure) messengers (i.e. iMessage, XMPP, WhatsApp, Threema, ...) and currently not available in TextSecure. Should be optional of course.

[generalmanager]

I think it was mentioned on the sidelines of some other thread, but not as the main request. Would be a candidate for #838 tough.

[maulwuff]

I think it's not possible as of the nature of asynchronous communication, like TextSecure does.
With SMS - no go by design,
With PUSH, maybe through an notify push-message, but as it is async, there is no way to ensure that the receiver will get to know right now that you are typing.

[L3st3r]

Couldn't the receiving app just ignore the notification-message if it's older than some threshold (maybe 2s, 0.5s or so)? This would of course not guarantee that the notification is always useful, but it should solve this asynchronous problem. Or am I missing something here?

[maulwuff]

No, I think this would work. You have just introduced self destructing
messages ;-)

[eikowagenknecht]

@maulwuff Of course it should be for push messages only. Sendind SMS just to let the recipient know that you're typing would be way too expensive in most cases.

@L3st3r I think this could work since the information that someone is typing is only relevant within a short period. But usually when the "is typing" message reaches the recipient too late, he probably will not have that one chat open, so the App can disregard the message anyways. And of course the "is typing" message should not be displayed any more
a) when a "is not typing anymore" message is sent" or
b) after some seconds, maybe 30s or so.

[Beanow]

Definitely +1 for this. It's one of the major features that I'm missing switching from XMPP. Especially with people I chat for longer periods of time with there's a big void of social cues here.

Typing, online, auto-away, busy, etc. They answer questions like, do I have this person's attention? Is now a good time to bring up this subject? In my opinion vital components for a rich IM experience.

In their book the XMPP people devoted a chapter to this alone to explain why they made this a core feature and how they implemented it. http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596521271.do and I'm sure there's more material pointing out the importance.

That being said, I'm aware that XMPP has a different design completely security wise and in message propagation. So I'm wondering what the status is of this issue. Are we looking at security and protocol issues that need solving? Or is it a matter of backlog and this being lower priority, but reasonably straightforward to implement?

Also, how could we help with resolving whatever is blocking this issue?

[jm3]

@michaelkirk, thanks for re-opening WhisperSystems/Signal-iOS/issues/730 and for pointing me here. I use the Chrome app & iOS so I wouldn't have thought to look for related Android issues.

IMO "…is typing" feedback is a deceptively important feature. As @Beanow explained nicely above, modern messaging apps all employ some kind of "is replying" feature (Slack, Twitter, Apple's Messages, etc.) because it provides huge communication benefits. Now that users increasingly expect this feature means that every day Signal's clients lack it, new users trying the app will experience that it's more primitive, less polished, and perhaps even less stable or secure than other messaging applications they're used to. It's a mistaken perception, but it hurts present and future Signal users if they miss out on the security of the app due to the absence of an expected UX convention. Typing feedback indicators help messaging feel real-time and responsive. Feedback or back-pressure that the counterparty is typing signals that more is coming, keeps us engaged, and helps us better connect with whoever we're chatting with.

To echo what @Beanow volunteered above, I would love to help support evangelizing, implementing, reviewing, and releasing this!

[moxie0]

Thanks @jm3 I think we agree that doing something here is important. We'll be working on how to do it best and coordinate the change across clients.

[ghost]

I really DISLIKE this "feature" (just as "read" mark).
@moxie0 please consider some concerns discussed already at community forum:
Why no optional typing notifier or “read” mark?
There is a broad consensus that this must be "optional"

[moxie0]

I fully understand that not everyone wants read receipts or typing indicators or whatever. Thanks for the feedback, but let's not have the discussion here.

[yebaital]

Yes please do this

[GSPP]

It would be useful to be able to disable this feature per contact/chat. In social chats I want it on and at work I might want it off.

[AlekseyLobanov]

+1 Very useful if I need to write long messages

[automated-signal]

GitHub Issue Cleanup:
See #7598 for more information.