Reading messages on linked device doesn't cause notifications to go away on Android when message bubbling is enabled

[Kladki]

Guidelines

• I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

Bug description

When I get a notification for a message on Android, but then read the message on Signal Desktop, the notification doesn't go away on Android until I open the Signal app.

Probably relevant, but I installed the app from https://signal.org/android/apk

Screenshots

No response

Device

Redmi Note 9 Pro

Android version

12

Signal version

8.4.2

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/android/8.4.2/a244de170908c052a8e8c8330faf948ea44512ef1743ca17091f0275747d1df2

[scueZ]

Tested on Signal 8.4.1 with Signal Desktop on Mac + Samsung S23 (Android 12) and could not reproduce. The notification was dismissed correctly when reading on Desktop

[Kladki]

Did you install Signal from https://signal.org/android/apk? I'd be surprised if the issue wasn't specific to that version.

[scueZ]

No mine is currently installed via playstore.

[Kladki]

Yeah, that's probably why you don't have the issue then. This issue is likely with the non-FCM push notification service.

[scueZ]

@Kladki since you're on the APK build (non-FCM), the battery optimization settings from Signal's Xiaomi support page are still worth trying — they can reduce how often the OS kills the Signal process, which is what triggers the delay.

That said, they may not fully resolve it. On non-FCM builds there's no push notification fallback, so when the process is killed, the app relies on a periodic background alarm to reconnect and fetch pending messages (including the read receipt from Desktop that would dismiss the notification). If that alarm interval is long, the notification stays visible until the next fetch cycle completes.

[tlaporte]

I have the same problem using Signal from play store, however only when I have chosen for the chat to be bubbled. If I don't allow that, marking as read works fine from desktop to phone. Not sure if it is the same for the original poster or not.

[Kladki]

Oh, I do use bubbled messages, so maybe that's why.

[tlaporte]

Yeah, I like using them, but I've turned them off while they behave this way with Signal.

[Kladki]

Yeah seems you're right, it's only an issue when message bubbling is enabled, turning it off made the issue go away.