Unreliable Push notifications with Android App

[Rob_in]

Is it just me, or are push notifications on Android very unreliable?

Today I connected a doorbell and setup push notifications. I also made our KNX switches flash 'alarm' for good measure, and that part works like a charm :)

However, notifications on my Android devices seem very temperamental.

If I happen to have a web browser open on my PC connected to the Miniserver then the notification instantly appears in the browser. All good.

I have two Android devices: a phone and tablet. Both with the Loxone app installed. If the app is open then notifications work fine. At any other times they may or may not work, and mostly do not. Sometimes there is also a bit of a delay. Please don't tell me these notifications are going off into the Loxone cloud somewhere before coming back (or not), our Internet connection is not very reliable and I don't want the doorbell not to work just because the house is offline!

I think this is probably just a bug in the Loxone app that makes it stop 'listening' when running in the background.

Has anyone else noticed this too or am I doing something wrong?

Cheers,

Robin

[David]

Hi Rob_in,

I have the push notification on my doorbell (and audio alert via Sonos). 

The push notification always appears to come through but is sometimes delayed. 

When on 4G (away from the house)  it always seems to occur at the time, when local on WiFi it can get delayed. 

I am guessing it is more to do with Android sleeping WiFi to save power, hence the push notification only occurs when you wake up the WiFi. 

This is just an observed  theory, but may be worth investigating.

Would be interested in what you find. 

Regards David

[Rob_in]

I'm not sure it's anything to do with WiFi sleep. All our devices are configured not to turn off WiFi during sleep. My phone is sitting there for example and bleeps instantly someone sends an IM via Facebook/Hangouts/etc.

I also put the Loxone app on my wife's phone, so that's 3 Android devices in total and pressed the doorbell. There was no notification on any of the devices!

Take my phone and start the Loxone app. I see the splash screen and 'signing in' message. Then I press the doorbell and voila! notification on my phone (but still not on the other two devices).

The Loxone app simply doesn't run in the background as it should. Or it signs out of the Miniserver for some reason. Or if you've been away from home WiFi and return it doesn't sign in automatically when connecting to local WiFi. Or if you update the Miniserver config (I did this morning) and the Miniserver reboots the apps don't automatically re-connect. Or something like that. Doh! :(

Robin

[smartbusinesstools.be]

Robin,

you seem to misunderstand the functioning of push notifications:

the Loxone app does not have to be active/connected to receive push notifications. It's the native Android OS that keeps one connection to Google servers open all the time to receive any (Google and 3rd party apps) push notifications. 

The Miniserver sends the notification request to the Google server. The Google server sends the notifation to registered Android devices.

You only need the Loxone app in this to register your devices for those notifications. (and clicking the notification starts or opens the app). 

We use many custom notifications for all sorts of alarms at multiple sites and on many Android devices (about 20 notifications per day) and this works well (notification in less than 0.5 second) for about 90% of the time. About 5% come in with a delay up to 10 seconds and the rest even later, so you can not really rely on this for critical alarms, or even your front door if you don't want to miss any deliveries. So then, you should add additional 'notification' mechanisms, e.g. calling a VoIP SIP phone.

I'm guessing something went wrong in your Miniserver connecting to the Google server, or in the registration of your devices to the notifications.

[Rob_in]

On Tuesday, 14 March 2017 15:23:50 UTC+1, smartbusinesstools.be wrote:

you seem to misunderstand the functioning of push notifications:

Well, given there is absolutely no technical description for this, it could have been done any number of ways. Nothing about misunderstanding and everything about lack of information.

I have a reply from Loxone confirming what you said. Push notifications go to the cloud and back. Good for when you're not at home, hopeless for when you have a rubbish internet connection.

IMHO this is an absolute fail. We have a home network to which the Miniserver and a number of Android devices are connected but rather than talk amongst themselves they cannot communicate at all if there's no internet connection.

Sure, use the cloud for when your devices are on different networks, but if they are on the same LAN they should communicate directly. Durh!

Robin

[James Mitchelmore]

Hello David,

Sorry to go off topic but I am intrigued by your audio alert via sonos.  Could you explain the mechanics?

Regards
James

[Tomáš B]

Well there have to be said that push notifications in general (Android or iOS) are based on websockets and that goes beyond Loxone Miniserver capabilities in term of its hardware or software.

[Rob_in]

Type "loxone sonos doorbell" into Google ;)

http://www.loxoneforum.com/2015/07/loxone-and-sonos-as-a-doorbell/

I'm not sold on Sonos. The Play 1 is almost reasonable, but Sonos is gets really, really expensive when you look at bigger options or want to connect your TV (because it requires a PlayBase & Sub for around 1800EUR)!

[David]

Hi James,

from Loxone you can use virtual outputs to send web commands. 

Sonos follows UPNP web commands (plus some extensions) so you can send commands to a specific sonos device from a Loxone virtual output. Loxone has some examples of this. 

For example the volume up and volume down commands for one room are sent to that Sonos unit when a (Loxone wired) switch on the wall is pressed to triggers a Loxone virtual output. 

With things like a doorbell it gets more complex. Typically you want to pause what is playing (if anything), maybe group multiple Sonos units into one group, turn volume to a certain level, un-mute any muted zones, play the doorbell sound, then revert all Sonos units to how they were and what they were playing. To do this well would get very complex on Loxone alone, so I use a Raspberry Pi to make this all happen. The raspberry Pi is running a simple web server (Flask) that is triggered by a Loxone virtual output. The raspberry Pi then sends commands to the multiple Sonos units. 

On the Raspberry Pi I use Python and an excellent Sonos interface utility for Python called SoCo - available on GitHub https://github.com/SoCo/SoCo.( I contribute in a small way to SoCo's support)

If you want more details or help in doing this just drop me an email

Regards Daivd

[Paulo Matos]

On 15/03/17 09:04, Rob_in wrote:
> Type "loxone sonos doorbell" into Google ;)
>
> http://www.loxoneforum.com/2015/07/loxone-and-sonos-as-a-doorbell/
>

Hello,

I have setup a slightly different solution because it gives me a lot
more flexibility. When someone presses the doorbell MS sends a post
request to an RPi which is running a Python script that's controlling
the sonos system using the soco library.

This in turn depending on the post request type, triggers the doorbell
after saving sonos context (groups, volumes, playlists) and reinstates
the state afterwards. This allows me to perform other types of tasks
like a panic mode for my children. They know if they say something
specific to alexa or press the wall switches in a specific way I will be
warned about it because this will again trigger a post request to the
sonos bridge (the RPi I mentioned above) and a mobile phone notification.

Kind regards,

--
Paulo Matos

[Rob_in]

On Monday, 13 March 2017 at 10:21:12 UTC+1 Rob_in wrote:

Is it just me, or are push notifications on Android very unreliable?

I'm returning to this topic because testing a new intercom and need reliable notifications on my phone. I have noticed that android push notifications do appear more reliably now (maybe something changed since my original post - who knows?) but they (the notifications) never trigger any sound or anything which is pretty pointless if your phone is locked or in your pocket.

To get round this you need to override the default 'silent' notification and add sound and/or vibration: On your phone, open up the settings for the Loxone app, you should see that notifications are on for this app (again - silent notifications aren't much good!). Long press the 'Notification' setting (right where you turn the button on/off) and there is another screen where one can enable sounds (don't leave it as 'default' as default for this is silent!), turn on vibration, etc. I added a custom sound and enabled vibration and it works great now. Phew!

Hope this helps others who might be stuck with this too.

[Simon Still]

Push notifications aren't reliable on iOS either, whether on local wifi or away from home.  Sometimes they take a while to come through.

We have one wall mounted iPad that's running the Loxone app in the foreground by default and that gets an intercom call immediately (but that part isn't a push notification).