This is pretty darned incorrect on a number of fronts. Skipping for the moment that a random histronic Reddit post is being considered "news"...
> "Google started leveraging its de-facto monopoly on Android distributions by forcing all apps to use its proprietary service Firebase for push notifications."
A number of logical leaps of faith need to be made before the word "force" carries any truth, but no one's "forcing" anyone to do anything. A developer can still use the FCM or not, it's up to them. If a developer simply refuses to interface with any sort of proprietary code then it's a wonder they'll touch any commercial product at all (iOS included).
..and since Telegram-FOSS were cited as a source for this mess, here's the very first part of [i]their[/i] statement, which is also not true:
> Since Android 8.0 Oreo, Google doesn't allow apps to run in the background anymore, requiring all apps which were previously keeping background connection to exclusively use its Firebase push messaging service.
Sooo very not true. Android [i]does[/i] still allow apps to run in the background. The developer docs caution against doing so without good reason because so many developers try very hard to ignore the lifecycle methods, resulting in many wasted clockcycles and reduced battery life.
But the Telegram team didn't stop there, so let's unpack the rest:
> Sadly, if the app would set the notification to lower priority (to hide it a bit in the lower part of the notification screen), you would immediately get a system notification about Telegram "using battery", which is confusing and is the reason for this not being the default. Despite Google's misleading warnings, there is no difference in battery usage between v4.6 in "true background" and v4.9+ with notification.
First, it's not a "warning". It's simply a statement. ...and yes, if you're going to maintain a separate push notification service of your own (I'm looking at [i]you[/i], Facebook.) you [i]are[/i] going to be using at least a few clockcycles. There's no way around this.
The backgrounded apps notification is also as "judgement free" as any notification can possibly get. On my phone right now, running Android 8.0... "3 apps are using battery". One of these is my own app (which happens to be a homescreen widget), another is Life360, and another is GSam Battery Monitor. Tap that notification and a list appears, headed up with "Apps running in background" with "Tap for details on battery and data usage" and lists the apps with their icons. Tap one and it shows what resources the app [i]is[/i] actually using. GSAM... 52Mb of RAM, and ~55kB of data in the last month. 0% battery used since last full charge. My app, 0% battery (probably not enough to count as a whole percent) use since last full charge, 5.84MB of internal memory, no data usage. I don't know how other people might view them, but to me these seem like vindications. None of that information is being presented in any way that that should be construed as condemning or accusatory, let alone "misleading".
If Telegram-FOSS doesn't want users throwing a fit about their resource usage, perhaps they should spend a little time grooming user expectations to be more reasonable.
The reddit user who posted this mess, on the other hand... A five-year old account that only occasionally posts anything that doesn't smell of astroturf, and this one post is nearly 80% of their karma. Seems like they've decided to make a foray into outrage-farming.
> "Google started leveraging its de-facto monopoly on Android distributions by forcing all apps to use its proprietary service Firebase for push notifications."
A number of logical leaps of faith need to be made before the word "force" carries any truth, but no one's "forcing" anyone to do anything. A developer can still use the FCM or not, it's up to them. If a developer simply refuses to interface with any sort of proprietary code then it's a wonder they'll touch any commercial product at all (iOS included).
..and since Telegram-FOSS were cited as a source for this mess, here's the very first part of [i]their[/i] statement, which is also not true:
> Since Android 8.0 Oreo, Google doesn't allow apps to run in the background anymore, requiring all apps which were previously keeping background connection to exclusively use its Firebase push messaging service.
Sooo very not true. Android [i]does[/i] still allow apps to run in the background. The developer docs caution against doing so without good reason because so many developers try very hard to ignore the lifecycle methods, resulting in many wasted clockcycles and reduced battery life.
But the Telegram team didn't stop there, so let's unpack the rest:
> Sadly, if the app would set the notification to lower priority (to hide it a bit in the lower part of the notification screen), you would immediately get a system notification about Telegram "using battery", which is confusing and is the reason for this not being the default. Despite Google's misleading warnings, there is no difference in battery usage between v4.6 in "true background" and v4.9+ with notification.
First, it's not a "warning". It's simply a statement. ...and yes, if you're going to maintain a separate push notification service of your own (I'm looking at [i]you[/i], Facebook.) you [i]are[/i] going to be using at least a few clockcycles. There's no way around this.
The backgrounded apps notification is also as "judgement free" as any notification can possibly get. On my phone right now, running Android 8.0... "3 apps are using battery". One of these is my own app (which happens to be a homescreen widget), another is Life360, and another is GSam Battery Monitor. Tap that notification and a list appears, headed up with "Apps running in background" with "Tap for details on battery and data usage" and lists the apps with their icons. Tap one and it shows what resources the app [i]is[/i] actually using. GSAM... 52Mb of RAM, and ~55kB of data in the last month. 0% battery used since last full charge. My app, 0% battery (probably not enough to count as a whole percent) use since last full charge, 5.84MB of internal memory, no data usage. I don't know how other people might view them, but to me these seem like vindications. None of that information is being presented in any way that that should be construed as condemning or accusatory, let alone "misleading".
If Telegram-FOSS doesn't want users throwing a fit about their resource usage, perhaps they should spend a little time grooming user expectations to be more reasonable.
The reddit user who posted this mess, on the other hand... A five-year old account that only occasionally posts anything that doesn't smell of astroturf, and this one post is nearly 80% of their karma. Seems like they've decided to make a foray into outrage-farming.