Threema Web: losing connection all the time
schittli opened this issue · comments
Bug Description
If I activate the Threema Web Browser Tab or while I'm working in Threema Web, it looses the conneciton the time (several times per hour).
Interesting facts:
- I have WhatsApp open in the adjacent browser tab. WhatsApp Web never loses connection, or maybe once a month. » This means that my Internet connection is fine.
- When Threema Web loses connection, I don't have to wake up the phone, it's "enough" to reconnect Threema Web over and over again. Therefore it's not an Smartphone App issue but a Threema Web issue.
- When we ask our employees how satisfied they are with Threema and ask why they still use WhatsApp, the answers are almost always the same:
- "Threema Web is annoying because Threema does not fix bugs"
- "the never ending timeouts - all the time - are not worth to spend time"
- "The Threema Web 'Editor' is in an early alpha phase: it kills manual line breaks (single line breaks are sometimes doubled, sometimes removed), pasting content from e.g. web pages tears up the entire formatting, bold and italic formatting does not work reliably."
It would be great if Threema could dedicate itself to stability and usability.
If the connection were stable, Threema could at least be used for chatting short texts.
Steps to Reproduce (for bugs)
- Start using Threema Web
- And send longer, formatted Texts, too
Potential Solution
Keep an eye on how WhatsApp is doing: their usability is quite professional.
Your Environment
- Threema Web version: The version from today, 4 october 2021
- Threema App version: Android, 4.57
- Browser name and version: Chrome 94.0.4606.61 (Offizieller Build) (64-Bit)
- Computer operating system and version: Windows 10, x64, 21H1
- Smartphone operating system and version: Not relevant
The first note should be that Threema Web is in maintenance mode and we're working on a replacement which intends to fix all of you're mentioned issues. One of the reasons why we'll replace Threema Web with a new solution is that there are artificial limitations introduced by Android and iOS that can result in connectivity issues that may lead to bad user experience even if there is a stable network connection. Importantly however, the FAQ provides a couple of hints that can be done to improve this situation significantly in many scenarios. If these do not work for your or your employees, *SUPPORT will try to investigate and help you with individual cases.
While the frustration is legitimate, we hope you'll understand that blanket statements aren't going to cut it. We're happy to look at each and every case since we want to provide a great user experience. If there are bugs that can be clearly identified as bugs solely related to Threema Web (like the compose area), feel free to create issues for them here. In all other cases, it's best to go through *SUPPORT. If your company is a Threema Work customer, you can also provide general feedback related to your user experience and get support via the Threema Work Dashboard.
Side note: Why flaky connectivity (as well as delayed messages) in some cases doesn't hit WhatsApp nearly as hard as it hits Threema has been discussed in one of our blog posts and we're hence openly criticising those vendors for following that practice.
The one mentioned issue solely related to Threema Web is the one that the compose area apparently kills manual line breaks for you. Can you provide us a small concrete example for that, so we can try to reproduce it?
Thank you for your detailed answer, the links and the offer of support!
But when we read your answer and the linked posts, we realise that Threema has fundamental problems wit its Web-"Solution":
- On the one hand, Threema has known about the problem for far longer than 1 year and has not even offered a workaround. For example, it should be quite easy to set Threema Web to check the connection to the smartphone only every 2,4,6 or 8 hours. This would massively alleviate the problem because then the users would only have a timeout once a day.
- On the other hand, Threema probably has several fundamental problems because they are related to the used Smartphone.
Therefore, we assume that a working solution will probably take much longer than 1 more year and we recommend our employees to choose another product. With several hundred employees, it is not worth analysing individual cases.
Thanks a lot for your support!,
kind regards,
Thomas
For example, it should be quite easy to set Threema Web to check the connection to the smartphone only every 2,4,6 or 8 hours. This would massively alleviate the problem because then the users would only have a timeout once a day.
No, unfortunately that's not how things work. If it were that simple, we would have employed this "fix" a long time ago.
But when we read your answer and the linked posts, we realise that Threema has fundamental problems wit its Web-"Solution"
Yes, that's why we have been working on a new multi-device protocol that should solve these problems for a while now. Once this is released, a permanent connection between the device and the desktop application will not be required anymore.
(However, I also want to make clear that in many configurations - mostly dependent on the smartphone manufacturer - the Threema Web connection works flawlessly and does not disconnect even after hours of use. Of course, a requirement for this is excluding Threema from the battery optimization, but the app will guide you through the process. I use a Google Pixel 3a, and do not experience any connectivity issues. On Android, the list of problematic devices correlates closely with the list of manufacturers on dontkillmyapp.com.)
If you experience further problems, please contact the Threema support. If you are a Threema Work customer, please do so through the Threema Work management cockpit, in order for your request to be properly prioritized. If you are not a Threema Work customer, you can contact the support directly through your app by sending a message to the https://threema.id/*SUPPORT user.
On the one hand, Threema has known about the problem for far longer than 1 year and has not even offered a workaround.
I've pointed to what's mentioned in the FAQ which already includes several workarounds that cannot be automated.
For example, it should be quite easy to set Threema Web to check the connection to the smartphone only every 2,4,6 or 8 hours.
That's #498 and it's definitely not easy. We dropped that because we'd rather replace Threema Web than create a workaround that only barely works because it does not and cannot resolve artificially created background restrictions of OS vendors (i.e. the OS killing the app for no reason and/or ignoring push messages to wake up the app).
On the other hand, Threema probably has several fundamental problems because they are related to the used Smartphone.
And so does everyone else who isn't WhatsApp (who are almost always excluded from the mentioned artificial restrictions). I'd say that the vendor's OS artificially create (market-distorting) fundamental problems. But it's not our fault that they exist.
Hello @lgrahl
Thank you very much for your answer!
… I'd say that the vendor's OS artificially create (market-distorting) fundamental problems.
This is very interesting because as a user, we cannot recognise this issues 😞. Maybe that's why Signal has developed a Windows application to avoid these problems. So I hope that Threema will actually find a stable solution.
I've pointed to what's mentioned in the FAQ which already includes several workarounds that cannot be automated.
Yes, thank you, you did! But we're not able to struggle with workarounds every day with several hundred users, because there are two stable alternatives.
That's #498 and it's definitely not easy.
Soooo sad!, would have been a simple and useful workaround.
But here we have it again: Threema knows #498 for 3.5 years and has not yet a useful solution.
Because there is no ETA estimate for #498, we have to assume that it will take a long time. I'm very sorry, but that's why it makes sense for our use cases to stop supporting Threema and recommend a switch.
All the best!,
kind regards, Thomas