Background synchronization / polling notification provider

[lriesebos]

Your use case

What would you like to do?

Currently, Element X requires the setup of a push notification provider (i.e. UnifiedPush) to get notifications. Without a notification provider set up, no notifications can be received at all. Setup for the push provider adds an extra barrier for users and requires extra setup if the user prefers not to use external services for UnifiedPush. The "old" Element app had a "background synchronization" notification method which effectively polls for new messages given a delay and battery mode parameter. The background synchronization option ensures notifications work out of the box and allows users to keep using polling if preferred for other reasons too. Could "background synchronization" (or a polling notification provider) be added to Element X?

See also #3031 (comment).

Why would you like to do it?

1. Better out of the box experience, easier setup
2. No need to setup a UnifiedPush server or connect to an external service
3. Potential battery savings for people that do not need push notifications

How would you like to achieve it?

I have no specific suggestions except that how background synchronization works in the "old" Element app is great.

Have you considered any alternatives?

No response

Additional context

No response

Are you willing to provide a PR?

No

[wshanks]

The issue is focused on notifications, but I am also interested in background synchronization more generally. With old Element, I had the background polling set up because I don't use Google Play. When I open the app, my rooms are usually all up to date. With Element X, I find that when I open the app it still shows the statuses of the rooms from the last time I opened the app hours ago. Then over the course of several seconds the rooms refresh. It takes just enough time for me to start to think that maybe there really haven't been any messages since the last time I checked. Having some background synchronization so the statuses look almost right from the start would be a better user experience ("almost" because there could still be updates since the last background sync). (For what it's worth, I do have UnifiedPush set up but that seems to capture only the events that trigger notifications and not general room updates; I generally disable "all messages" notifications for rooms).