Websocket support #1000
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Is there any technical reason to use web technology ? why not any XMPP like ? |
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There is already support in the Server :) |
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As you said, a mobil environment is likely to break connections and thus we will be force to reimplement what already exists in session protocol like XMPP or SIP that is registration, session management, etc. I think it would be easier to develop something on top of a session protocol even though it will require some slight modification on the server side. |
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Do you have anything particular in mind? I haven't checked the code, but Nevertheless, I think the current server can handle session mobility to |
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I've created a local branch with very rudimentary support, more a PoC: https://github.com/JavaJens/TextSecure/tree/feature-1000 |
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He recently open sourced bis early version of the textsecure browser extension. Hopefully this will provide some insight: https://github.com/TheBlueMatt/textsecure-chrome |
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Yes, I looked into that. right now multiple devices can be registered on one number. For the Android version i've got to make little changes therefore. Right now the device connects and all seems well, I only have to test sending/receiving messages which doesn't work right now. Probably because I only have one device and try to work with the emulator and a modified server version. If you want you can checkout my feature branch and test yourself :) cheers |
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Thank you for your efforts! I will checkout your branch as soon as my current exams are over and maybe even contribute something. I hope that we will soon be able to (optionally) use TextSecure without GCM (and PlayStore in general!). |
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@JavaJens, thank you for opening up this issue, I can't wait for this to be implemented! ;-) |
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Feel free to test by branch and contribute. Sadly I'm pretty busy right |
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@JavaJens, is there a compiled WIP-version somewhere or do I have to compile it by myself? |
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Sadly, no! |
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Just wanted to comment after reading https://missingm.co/2014/02/fighting-dishfire-the-state-of-mobile-cross-platform-encrypted-messaging/ that XMPP and WebSockets will probably work, sort of, but will be painful on mobile devices due to frequent IP switching, sleep/wake, etc. Unfortunately this is not (yet) a library that anyone can use, or tunnel over like ssh, but have a look at http://mosh.mit.edu/ - it's a partial ssh replacement (terminal emulator only, no tunneling or forwarding yet) which has solved ssh's problems with IP switching and sleep/wake, while managing to get around many many firewalls and NATs. Their code itself probably can't be used, but the ideas may be worth reading over. |
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@JavaJens Great Work you are doing!!! Me and quiet a couple of friends are longing desperately to get their hands on a GCM free TextSecure version. I am so glad to see that you are making it happen. This means really the world to us, since installing Google Play is absolutely no option for us. We are all really excited and following your efforts day to day. Is there anything we can do to help and speed up development other than coding (since we don't have any coding experience)? Since the day TextSecure with data came out (WhisperPush for CM) we all are dreaming of the day we can enjoy this wonderful app with all our friends. Thank you already for all you have done. You are a hero :). 👍 for Websocket support for TextSecure. |
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Just in addition https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/websocket-security
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I've updated my branch. The most recent updates feature a different package name for parallel installation, increased debug output for the Wakelocking and fixed an error for a minor issue with a Wakelock not being released. However one of the main issues, severe battery drain, I could not find a reason for; my phone does not go into deep-sleep mode when WiFi is enabled. This has nothing to do with TextSecure though, Wakelocks are held for about 10s in 2h. The last issue for the high battery drain is the low timeout frequency of @TheBlueMatt's server of about 50s; that is we have to send a ping every ~50s, which is far to often. In real life, this could be decreased to 30min or so. One last thing I want to address, @Wikinaut: this build is purely for testing and uses the non secure WS for developing. I've updated the Readme to point this out more clearly. In the end certificate pinning will of course be used! Please report any issues back here or as an issue in my fork. |
With RedPhone, we've found that mobile data networks often require you to send keepalives as little as every 15 seconds. So 50s is potentially too long. |
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Ok...that comes as a surprise.... That would support your findings! |
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WiFi is unpredictable, since it depends on the NAT. So you'll have to deal with that the same way GCM does. The advantage GCM has is that Google has made agreements with mobile carriers not to timeout connections on those networks. Without those, websocket connection idle timeouts on mobile data connections will be unpredictable, and they tend to be more trigger happy (and also often just silently close without sending an RST). I think some kind of adaptive solution is probably going to be necessary. |
I am building your branch right now. I will test on WiFi and 3G and report as soon as possible (probably in around 10 hours). I am on CM10.2 so let's hope the battery drain really is just a problem of CM11. |
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@JavaJens (changed my github Name) |
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I have got the same message here. |
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Is there any progress in websocket implementation since last post / last activity at javajens fork (27 days ago)? |
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Sorry, there has been so much silence. I didn't have the time to further work on this. @jensMF As far as I know, it is possible to communicate with the official GCM client, but you are not supposed to run this code against the production server, staging only. At least that is what I read from moxies comment some while back. |
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@jensMF I'd say just install the official app, re-register, and then unregister for push notifications using the standard advice: |
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@JavaJens Thanks for your answer, but how can I check the server where I'm running textsecure on? And how can I change it? (I tried to unregister with websocket version 2.2.0 because I registered with that one, that should run on the same server cause I used the same apk) For the last try i used the latest version of your fork (I checked out the repository, installed everything needed via android-studio and did ./gradlew build). I can send masseges, but don't receive messages… @patcon I don't have gapps and I don't want to install them… |
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@jensMF You can unregister from TextSecure on this website: https://whispersystems.org/textsecure/unregister/ |
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@jensMF If you haven't changed anything then you are using the Staging (aka correct) server. You can check the server in the Release.java file. If you need more help, open a ticket on my fork or send me a mail. |
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@jensMF As fas as I know, the two servers are not federated. That is if you In order to communicate with them, you would need to change the |
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+1 for textsecure without google services. can't use it currently due to that. |
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I recently tried the last version in @grote 's repository. It still drains a lot of battery. If there is any testing and reporting that I could do to help, please let me know. All Jabber-Clients I know, Kontalk, Telegram ... all have some mechanism that has only a slight influence on the battery life... |
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I don't know which version you were using, but I do know that the server has a connection timeout of 15s. This, in my opinion, is the only reason why there is such an enormous battery drain. Compare it to GCM which is said to have a timeout of 15m [1](however I don't know if this is outdated info). The server side of things will most likely not be updated, due to limited server resources: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure-Server/issues/27. About the progress of integrating WebSocket in TextSecure; I know that my initial PR was not very good and required lots of refactoring, furthermore there were some changes planned that would break the communication again. Now I've lost most interest in it as I don't know if/when it will break again and if it would ever be accepted. I don't know how the crew at Signal deals with battery issues, maybe they have a completely different way (like only establish the connection on APN or if the app is focus), but it might be worth to check that out. So again, feel free to pick up my work, I'd be more that happy to assist :) [1] https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/nexus/fslYqYrULto/lU2D3Qe1mugJ |
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If I see it right there is support for WebSocket on the roadmap for milestone 2.6 https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure/milestones/v2.6.0 See PR #2423 |
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This sounds awesome! Is there any estimation when 2.6 will be released? |
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Sometime after 2.5.3, sometime before 2.6.1. :) |
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That is not "websocket support" in the sense you want, which is still a ways off. |
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I believe it is to receive messages but triggered by gcm. This would prevent messages from being lost. Haven't checked thoroughly though. |
Thanks for your work thus far, JavaJens. But to be honest, judging from this thread and other conversations, I feel like the overall climate here is not very friendy towards suggestions or even pull requests, so for now I will spend what free time I have on other Free Software projects like Kontalk [no offence to anyone here, its of course their choice where to put priorities]. |
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Would it be a possible alternative to implement polling (e.g. every 15 minutes) until websocket support is available? I use this on Threema and it's almost as good as push and there is no heavy battery drainage. The load on the server shouldn't be too heavy as only few people are not using GCM. I really would like to switch to TextSecure, but as many others won't install Google Services for it. edit: Issue has just been closed (#2530) |
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@jensschulz maybe open a separate ticket for that and link to it from here? would also like such a feature! |
This is now possible with beta calling, so non-GCM users are a part of beta calling by default. // FREEBIE
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in 3.30.0 |
and others
As #127 is a little overloaded and goes beyond the technical, I thought to open up this issue to gather implementation details and coordinate efforts for this.
Support for WebSockets is already present on the server, so the idea is to use WebSockets on Android as well (for now instead of a possible more suited protocol like MQTT)
@geileszeuch mentioned a guide on how to use websockets in native apps: http://www.elabs.se/blog/66-using-websockets-in-native-ios-and-android-apps
However I don't think this would be a good guide as it doesn't talk about Wake/Sleep and connection loss.
This article list several issues one has to deal with in a mobile enviroment: http://dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=1599
I believe the approach mentioned here http://stackoverflow.com/a/16602970 to be reasonable, if I find the time I will give it a try.
I guess for developing this one has to run an own server, as WS is disabled per default.
So please, if you have a question, concern or are already working on this: comment!
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