Issues with message state

[bkraul]

Installed the Beta app 0.029 due to constant issues with messages not being delivered on the mobile one (legacy).

There seem to still be issues with message status, where the app says "Message isn't sent" but it actually does deliver the message, also there is the progress bar almost all the time at the top. Is there any logging information we could check from either the app or the server that could help with this?

Also, on the device affected by the issues described, the messages do not show up on the chat until tapping on the received push notification.

[gnprice]

Thanks for the report.

It sounds like the app is getting into a state where it's not receiving events from the server: that's what drives the progress indicator at the top, and it would mean that new messages don't arrive.

On the other hand when you navigate to a given conversation, the app makes a request to the server to fetch the messages for that conversation. So those requests are succeeding, which is why you do see the new messages when you do that.

It's possible this is an instance of an issue we've seen just a couple of times before, described at #514 (comment).

(The symptom where the message you sent is marked with "message isn't sent", when in reality it was successfully sent, is a bug in v0.0.29 which has been fixed; the fix will be in the next beta release next week. Details at #1453 (comment) . The new version's behavior is that it would show a progress indicator on that message, given the broader issue that the app isn't getting events.)

[gnprice]

The symptom where the message you sent is marked with "message isn't sent", when in reality it was successfully sent, is a bug in v0.0.29 which has been fixed […]

That fix is out in today's beta release v0.0.30.

[bkraul]

I have downloaded the new version, will be testing this today and report back.

[bkraul]

OK so far, the following behaviors are observed:

• "Message Isn't sent" message does not show up anymore (as stated by dev team)
• User status remains showing as Offline during the conversation, but you can see the "[User] is typing..." during the conversation.
• An individual bar now shows up for every message, and the immediate behavior is that the messages are being shown out of order, but even though the bars remain, the messages are still delivered.
• New messages at times do not show up unless the notification is tapped to see new messages.
• A constant button bar shows up at the bottom saying "Mark messages as read" even though the application is open and the messages are showing up.
• When coming back to the application from another application, the blue progress bar shows up at top and it remains moving, but all the messages are loaded.
• Sometimes all messages disappear and and a circle animation shows on middle.

I got a couple screens.

1	2	3	4

[gnprice]

Thanks for the follow-up. (I've taken the liberty of editing the formatting around those screenshots so that it's easier to read the thread before and after them.)

• An individual bar now shows up for every message, and the immediate behavior is that the messages are being shown out of order, but even though the bars remain, the messages are still delivered.
• New messages at times do not show up unless the notification is tapped to see new messages.

These indicate the app is getting into a state where it's not receiving events from the server: that's what drives the progress indicator at the top, and it would mean that new messages don't arrive.

I'd be interested in digging into that further to try to get to the bottom of it. If you'd like to make a Zulip account on chat.zulip.org and start a thread in the #mobile channel, that would be the best place to ask questions interactively and go into detail.

(I'll be OOO tomorrow through next week, but other members of the team might have questions to help debug in the meantime.)

• Sometimes all messages disappear and and a circle animation shows on middle.

This is expected immediately after the app has re-established an event queue (effectively its connection to get data from the server). It's normally very quick, though — I'd have to be very quick on the trigger finger to manage to capture a screenshot of it. It sounds like for you it's sticking around much longer, which isn't expected.

This would also be something to dig into in a Zulip thread. It might be related to whatever's causing the other symptoms above for you.

[gnprice]

The other points are each independent issues:

• User status remains showing as Offline during the conversation, but you can see the "[User] is typing..." during the conversation.

I believe you're saying that when another looks using the web/desktop app at the user who's using the (new) mobile app, the latter is shown as offline (even though those "is typing…" notices, and the messages themselves, come through just fine). That's currently expected behavior, a feature we haven't yet implemented: #196.

• A constant button bar shows up at the bottom saying "Mark messages as read" even though the application is open and the messages are showing up.

This is because the messages are still marked as unread for you. That's reflected also in the blue unread marker at the left edge of the message, just like in the web app.

At the moment the app doesn't yet automatically mark messages as read when you're reading a conversation. That's #81 and is one of the handful of remaining issues we intend to resolve before the launch. (It only works after #80, which requires #82, which was a lot of work but is now just about done.)

• When coming back to the application from another application, the blue progress bar shows up at top and it remains moving, but all the messages are loaded.

Yeah, this is a known issue: #979. It bugs me too sometimes, even though I know exactly why it's happening. I'll make a note there for when we next prioritize issues in a few weeks.

[bkraul]

@gnprice excellent. Thank you for being extremely thorough in reviewing and commenting on the feedback. I will seek to join the mobile chat and see if I can be of further help. As mentioned, being a developer myself I understand the importance of data from logs, hence I have been looking to figure out how I can get more of those to document what is happening.