Wire-android: [FeatureRequest] [Android] Ability to hide message content in notification

[sonofagl1tch]

The problem

There currently is not a feature to hide the content of a notification on android. Signal, telegram, and whatsapp all provide this feature.

Environment

• Wire version that exhibits the issue: All
• Last Wire version that did not exhibit the issue (if applicable): N/A
• Android OS version used to run Wire: Oreo (note9)
• Is this a custom firmware or a stock one: stock
• Mobile phone model/manufacturer: Note9
• Mobile network type (EDGE/LTE/Wi-Fi/Offline): ALL

Details

• go into settings
• search notifications page for option to hide notifiction content - not found
• search privacy page for option to hide notifiction content - not found

Link to Debug logs

n/a

How to send detailed debug report from Wire:

n/a

Screenshots

this screenshot is how signal hides notification content like I want in wire

[ruxandra-valcu]

Agreed. Ideally this would be separate from the desktop settings

[marcoconti83]

Hi @sonofagl1tch ,
thanks for bringing this up. We have this feature on iOS but we did not have a chance to implement it on Android yet. We are aware that this is not optimal and we will address it at some point, but I don't have any timeline to share.

If anyone in the community feels like trying to solve this before we have a chance to look at it ourselves, I believe this could be a good self-contained topic to make a contribution to the app. In that case, let me know and I can give some hints on where to start with the code.

[sonofagl1tch]

@mgmacias95 are you interested in helping me with this?

[mgmacias95]

@sonofagl1tch Yes! I'm very interested in this feature too 😄. @marcoconti83 can you please give us some hints to do it? Thanks!

[marcoconti83]

Hi @sonofagl1tch and @mgmacias95,

That's great to hear! The way I see this, I would split into the following step, and we can go into the details of each step later:

1. Modify the layout of the "Options" screen to add a "message preview" toggle. You can use iOS as a reference (I'll attach a screenshot)
2. Read/store the value of the setting in the persistent store for user settings
3. Create the new strings to display a generic "New Message" text instead of the actual text. This string will be localized by us in different languages, so it can't be hardcoded. We have a copywriter on our side that will tweak it.
4. When scheduling a notification, read the setting and pick the proper text/generic message according to the setting

I would start with 0, set up and compile the project locally :) then 1, try to find the layout XML for the options screen and add the proper text and switch there. You can copy-paste from other similar element in the XML, to make sure that it uses the proper classes and IDs structure.

This is the iOS version, for reference:

I would suggest to open a PR already with this first change, and then we can continue the discussion on that PR about the next steps.

[mgmacias95]

Hi @marcoconti83,

Thank you so much for the hints! We'll reach back when do some progress on the issue 😄.

Best regards,
Marta

[marcoconti83]

FYI @jennifergoertzen

[harishvishwakarma]

@marcoconti83 @mgmacias95 Are you guys still working on it or is it open to be taken up?

[mgmacias95]

Hi @harishvishwakarma,

We're working on it 😄.

Thanks!

[marcoconti83]

@mgmacias95 let me know if you need any additional pointer

[Akkuma]

Is this being worked on? @mgmacias95 @sonofagl1tch Asking because I started searching for a solution, came across this issue, and saw this 7 month old issue with no updates after 4 months.

[mgmacias95]

Hi @Akkuma,

Yes it is! :) I'm already testing it! It's available here and here.

The PR will be available soon.

Best regards,
Marta

[marcoconti83]

Thanks to @mgmacias95 ,
this has now be addressed in the latest public release. Many thanks @mgmacias95 for the effort and dedication to push this through!

[mgmacias95]

Thank you so much for all your help and support @marcoconti83! It's been a pleasure!