Governments can access records related to push notifications from mobile apps by requesting that data from Apple and Google, according to details in court re...
  • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
    9·
    11 months ago

    I don’t think I can really fault any Android developer for wanting to use Firebase and be done with it, because it’s just so simple to implement, and generally easy to work with.

    But some things should be more important than comfort, shouldn’t they.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      11·
      11 months ago

      If you’re developing apps for Android or iOS, there are exactly two push notification frameworks: Firebase and APN. There are wrappers around it, but they all end up going through the same servers, because polling for notifications drains the battery like crazy; that’s why push message sync has basically been reduced to a single, OS managed system, that integrates with power management.

      There are alternatives (i.e. unified push) you can use, but they’ll require a broker (your app or another one) to be running in the background. Very few people use compatible clients, I’d only expect these protocols to work for either alternative vendors with their own private push message system, of the tiny market of open source enthusiasts.

      You can try blocking Apple’s and Google’s servers and see how they behave. I expect some, if not most, of them to stop receiving timely notifications, and the rest to only receive notifications for a while after they’ve been used, or prompting you for additional permissions to be exempt from your phone’s power saving features.

      If you need push notifications on mobile phones, the best you can do is implement some kind of encryption before transmitting the notifications, but to gain any decent chunk of customers, you’ll never be free of vendor servers.

      • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
        3·
        11 months ago

        I mean, it was kinda expected and inevitable that one big service was going to reign supreme. Lots of things make push notification a real hassle, like you describe. Speaking for Android as I don’t know much about iOS, Firebase works incredibly well, it’s a super elegant solution, and if Google wasn’t such a shitshow, I’d love it.

        But it is a shitshow, in so many ways. So some services encrypt the contents, some don’t send them over those servers in the first place, but the remaining metadata is still shockingly useful for surveillance purposes.

        I don’t really know where I’m going with this comment, but as an EU resident, I’d just like to see alternative systems getting more attention.

        Idk, it’s just that so many people hear news like this and go: „It is what it is, can’t change it“

        Well not with that attitude, that’s for sure