Signal-desktop: "Update is available" alert hijacks focus, forces fullscreen game to minimize

[pureandclear]

• [X] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug description

When I get the alert that says "Update is available" etc, it takes focus no matter what I'm doing. So for example if I'm playing a fullscreen game (Rainbow 6 Siege), it forces the game to abruptly minimize, which is very frustrating. I have to exit Signal before I start gaming.

Steps to reproduce

1. Have Signal running
2. Be the last defender alive, camping the objective room with a perfect angle on a trapped enemy
3. !@#$ing update alert forces you to minimize
4. Die

Actual result:

Obtrusive alert demands my attention with "BREAKING NEWS! HOLY SHIT THERE'S AN UPDATE AVAILABLE, YOU WANNA GET IT NOW, RIGHT?!" forcing me to look at it

Expected result:

There shouldn't be an update alert at all. Most people don't care that much about updates for messenger apps. Look at how other desktop apps like Discord, Telegram, etc do it, literally no messenger app I have ever used has such an obtrusive update notification system. It would be much better to either silently download it in the background or have a banner at the top of the app with a download link or something. Basically anything other than the current system. Basically anything that other apps do.

Platform info

Signal version:

1.15.3

Operating System:

Windows 10 x64

[Dyras]

I'm also using Windows 10 and it's not closing down games for me since they changed it. Was playing Fallout: New Vegas when I heard Signal pling for an update in the background about a month ago.

It makes me wonder why it's not happening for me.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

We attempt to parent the upgrade dialog box when it pops, which in theory prevents it from stealing OS-level focus: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/blob/816228fde01b73bba1ba7fbf9f86778c29d5da73/app/auto_update.js#L45

I wonder if there was no current mainWindow when the update came in, AKA the app was minimized to tray or something.

[Dyras]

@scottnonnenberg-signal I think that might be it. I always keep the window open in the background which might be why this doesn't affect me, but if it's minimized then maybe it will take focus anyway?

[badanka]

This happened to me an update or so ago as well. I keep the main Signal window open on one of my secondary monitors and the update notification hijacked focus from my game as well. And it happened to be the same game that @pureandclear was playing. I'm on Windows 10 x64.

[pureandclear]

@scottnonnenberg-signal I do indeed use the minimize-to-tray feature, I think it was minimized to tray last time this happened

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Thanks for the additional information everyone. I'll plan to update our logic so we only show the upgrade dialog if mainWindow is present.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

v1.15.5 was just released with this change. It won't take effect this release, sadly, because we're changing the code that pulls down the new update. So for the next release this shouldn't happen anymore.

[burads]

Just had this happen to me. Was on latest update. But starting Darksouls will now include closing down Signal app. Since the authors *4. Die. Is very much what happens.
Now running 1.16.1
Full screen application was Dark Souls 2 through steam.
OS Windows 10

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@burads Did you have Signal minimized to the task bar? Or are you using the command-line option to minimize to the tray? Or was the window showing as usual, not minimized at all?

[burads]

@scottnonnenberg-signal Running open, not minimized. Just run normally from shortcut, no command-line option.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@Dyras You had said that you can play full-screen video games and not run into this? Do you also have the window open? Maybe it's a difference in the game?

[burads]

@scottnonnenberg-signal Personally I think it should never hijack focus from other programs. It might be okay it was the main window that had focus and then the update window trumps that.

But if I was writing in a word document I would be equally annoyed if the update window took focus. Especially if it reacts to key presses. I have accepted one to many Microsoft Windows things that have just suddenly popped up and reacted to "Y" "N" or "space" while writing a message.

[Dyras]

@scottnonnenberg-signal I virtually always have the window open in the back and this hasn't happened for me yet.

Don't know if it's a game difference, but it would honestly surprise me if it was. I've played games for eternities and no other program has ever closed a fullscreen game for me, ever.

My personal suggestion is to bake the update message into the application itself, without a popup window. I'd say popups are pretty meh in general. It's not really something I want to see in a program. Hell, the only program on my computer that I can think of that uses popups for updates is... well... Signal.

[burads]

Just had this issue again. Impresively enough it was when ever a window was opened.
1: The dialog Update available.
2: The dialog Installing the update.
3: The dialog with the newly installed Signal app.
All stole focus. away from Skyrim Special Edition running full screen.

[lostcolony]

I'll echo this. I've had it pretty commonly with Signal, but had it happen just last night when playing Overwatch fullscreen. Mid-game, dropped to desktop to be alerted that Signal had an update; restart now or later. The app really should never steal focus like that.

[Dyras]

@scottnonnenberg-signal This happened just now. Signal-Desktop was minimized and I was playing Fallout 4.

https://debuglogs.org/a2830fed915f8a01f29e794886777c21f480e452e0bd852b7c8294d35b5a21ba

Almost gave me a heart attack. Please consider giving this a higher priority, thanks.

Edit: Happened again. Another heart attack in the bank!

https://debuglogs.org/9e4cf2453c407f563eb8c913f7d5e5d50e5de7b40348d32a7c4bf07c41833d15

[hdpinto]

This is still happening to me, with _every update_. I no longer keep signal open on my machine because of this.

Happens on macOS too, not just Windows @scottnonnenberg-signal

macOS v10.14.3
Signal v1.22.0

[andreas-ateles]

This is really annoying. And it has been happening sporadically for many months. The alert seems to pop up with every update until I actually update. (The Signal desktop window is mostly minimized.)

Running the update does not feel appropriate when it pops up in the middle of a tense online gaming session causing you to lose ranked competitive games. I tend to skip it at such times, which causes it to happen again later repeatedly.

Can't you use the same type of notification for the update notice as you do for messages? It doesn't seem to steal focus from fullscreen games.

OS: Windows 7 Pro x64
Signal Desktop: all recent versions so far, now running 1.27.2.

[al-cadd9]

just happened again now, fullscreen online game was minimized for an update request. as hdpinto said, I'm seriously considering stopping using signal on the desktop altogether because of this. please for the love of god fix this issue, no program should be able to steal focus like this

[andreas-ateles]

Same issue with today's update notification. Some relevant observations from two different computers.

Windows 7 Pro x64: Signal minimized, update notification showing and in focus (without Signal window showing).

Windows 10 Pro x64: Signal not minimized, but in background (other window had focus and is covering the Signal window), but the update notification has focus and is on top of all windows (and thus stole focus). Clicking "Later" to cancel the update and minimizing the Signal window, later the update dialog pops up and steals focus again, while the main Signal window is still minimized. (This repeated a few times till it was updated.)

It seems that the issue is occurring no matter the main Signal window minimized state, and thus should be easily to reproduce (as long as you have access to a Windows machine). So should be easy to test (and hopefully fix).

[andreas-ateles]

Same issue with today's update. No matter the Signal window state, minimized or not.

[vlow]

I would prefer a more subtle update notification, to begin with. On macOS, the update notification always brings a minimized Signal window to front. Even if this wouldn't steal the focus, randomly putting the Signal window on top to inform about an update somewhat defeats the purpose of a messing app focused on privacy. It might pop up while someone stands next to me, or I'm sharing my screen, showing all my recent contacts and messages. A better solution could be showing a notification and keeping the window minimized until I actively bring it to front.

Since this can actually leak classified information if it is happening at the wrong moment, I think this is a major bug.

[vlow]

I'd like to bump this again. This is going in a totally wrong direction, IMHO: if I read this issue correctly, there has been a pull request which solved the problem in a satisfying manner but was not merged due to design issues that have never been addressed. As a result, this pull request has slowly outdated and therefore recently been closed. For those interested, I have recently written a blog post about why I think this is a serious security problem.

In the meantime, people have started to mess around with their host file in order to prevent the modal update dialog from popping up and users are asking for options to disable auto-update completely.

Please take another look at this issue. It keeps me from using the Signal desktop app and if I'm being honest, it shakes my confidence in the product to see design being prioritized over security to a point where people disable updates on OS level.

I'd really like to hear a maintainers view on this issue. Am I missing something here?

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

What version of the app are you running? Signal Desktop v1.32.0 uses an inline left-pane dialog to alert you of new updates. There should be no popup. https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/releases/tag/v1.32.0

[vlow]

Thanks for the update. I can confirm that the update I installed on February 4th was the last time I have seen this issue. The newer updates have a new dialog which does not raise the window on top. Thank you very much for taking this seriously and fixing it. :)

[darule0]

this bug has been in signal for a long time, still an issue 10/21/2020

It looks like every time a change is made to github, signal desktop clients update. This can be multiple updates a day. In general, software updates should be every 3 months unless there is an emergency.

[darule0]

The fix to prevent the update from interrupting applications is a partial fix, not a complete fix. There is a difference between publishing a software release and making a code update.

[RiverRhine]

this bug has been in signal for a long time, still an issue 10/21/2020

It looks like every time a change is made to github, signal desktop clients update. This can be multiple updates a day. In general, software updates should be every 3 months unless there is an emergency.

Couldn't agree more . It's an update mess.
There are sometimes several updates for signal (Desktop W64) a day. This is a severe issue for me as well, because I don't want to be FORCED to run an instant update everytime. There are lots of legimit reasons to postpone an update. To be honest: This drives me more and more crazy and I donn't know how to communicate this SW-behaviour to my peers, where I promote using "Signal instead of FB" etc. .
If it wouldn't be "Signal", I just would delete the application from my system.

I HAVE to block now on OS level, which is a mess.

Pls
1) Check version at app start or may be once a day.
2) Inform the user (UI). Let him make an educated decision and let him configure uptade behaviour himself
3) ONLY force (or nag nag) for an update if core functionality, or security is affected. Warn the user about upcoming "incompatibility"

As a dev I prefer to stay on second last compatible version for several reasons.

If a software breaks at minor updates, imho the software is broken already ... Just my 2ct.

PLEASE, I'm begging here. I guess I'm not the onlyone here ...

And BIG THANKS: I love to use Signal.
I'm thankfull for its existence.

Thanks people for the hard work!