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signalapp / Signal-Android

A private messenger for Android.
https://signal.org
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Voice/Videocall - Mobile data used even if WiFi is available #8529

Open nextgen-networks opened 5 years ago

nextgen-networks commented 5 years ago

Bug description

Voice & Videocalls are using 3G/4G connection instead of the connected Wifi. This reduced mobile data budget by 11 GB within 2 days :-/

Steps to reproduce

Actual result: mobile data is beeing used instead of Wifi

Expected result: Wifi-data is beeing used and your mobile budget is'nt harmed ;-)

Screenshots

screenshot_2019-01-14-11-16-24-678_com miui securitycenter

Device info

Device: Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 Android version: 8.0.0 Build-Version: xiaomi.eu_multi_MIMix2_9.1.10_v10-8.0 Signal version: 4.31.8

johanw666 commented 5 years ago

Yes, WebRTC uses the best available connection and that is in many countries more often mobile data than wifi. Often I deactivate wifi entirely when I really need a stable connection.

nextgen-networks commented 5 years ago

mmmh VDSL 100 MBit/s with an delay of 3-12 ms on a AVM FritzBox 7590 on 5GHz WiFi in a range of less than 10m should win over an 3G/4G connection with a higher delay ... (i thought ¯_(ツ)_/¯ )

nextgen-networks commented 5 years ago

Maybe it's also a good idea to let the user choose to have it's mobile data budget got decreased if mobile data will provide a better connection or to stay on low/medium quality but save your mobile data budget.

ghost commented 5 years ago

I'm having the same issue as well, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Android 8.0.0 (N950U1UEU5CRL2,) Signal v4.32.8. Signal will use mobile data 100% of the time, regardless of the quality/speed of the Wi-Fi connection. The only way I can get it to use Wi-Fi for calls is to turn the mobile data off.

meus commented 5 years ago

I just realized the same behavior on two devices (wifi switched on and good connectivity - but still the signal-app used mobile data for the call). This is really annoying because it uses the "expensive" mobile data instead of the wifi-connection without any warning.

greyson-signal commented 5 years ago

FYI there's a discussion going on in the forum about this. Seems like there may be some phone-specific settings you can tweak.

https://community.signalusers.org/t/high-mobile-data-use-since-update/6152

AuspeXeu commented 5 years ago

Same problem on my Google Pixel. This is absolutely ridiculous. The app sucked up a month worth of mobile data within two days twice now. What changed? This has not been the case in the past!

Zomono commented 5 years ago

My Signal also uses mobile data while sitting at home with a very good wifi connection. The result is that my mobile data limit exceeds and I am not able to use mobile data for the rest of the month.

I am hoping for an option to choose if mobile data

  • cannot be used at all
  • can be used for chat and general networking
  • can be used for audio calls
  • can be used for video calls

There is already an option to avoid the download of videos and pictures without wifi and I really need this to be configurable for audio and video calls. Thanks in advanced.

johanw666 commented 5 years ago

@Zomono root your device and install a firewall like AfWall+. With that firewall you can block data and wifi connections separately.

AuspeXeu commented 5 years ago

@johanw666 this cannot be a real solution for normal people, right?

johanw666 commented 5 years ago

Are you suggesting I'm not a real person? Although personally I don't have a problem with the data usage of Signal. But I do use AfWall+ and used this method for some apps when mobile roaming was expensive.

AuspeXeu commented 5 years ago

Just suggesting it's not a solution for the average signal user, e.g. my dad ;)

markwdickson commented 5 years ago

I would like to see an option in the settings like, "Only send video when connected to WiFi." Specifically to avoid eating all the mobile data. I've also found that if I go out of WiFi range on a video call, it will switch to mobile data, but never switches back to WiFi for the duration of that call.

Zomono commented 5 years ago

@johanw666 Disallowing mobile data connections in general for a specific app is already possible by the android options (no extra firewall needed). But I use Signal also as my default chat app. So I don't want to disallow mobile data completely. It is up to Signal, to offer an option to disallow mobile data only for some data intensive features like video chats. Other apps already have options like this or at least inform the user by spawning a popup or a notification.

rrthomas commented 4 years ago

This basically makes Signal calling unusable for me. I deliberately avoid using it on mobile data. I have tried disabling auto-handover from WiFi to mobile in Android settings, as suggested in the discussion referred to earlier, and that doesn't help. Other popular apps such as WhatsApp seem to have no trouble using only WiFi as long as a usable WiFi connection is available; meanwhile, recent updates to Signal have been using my mobile data even when I'm in the same room as my WiFi AP, with a good signal. (Also, I have a fairly poor 3G/4G signal in my house.)

andrewfenn commented 4 years ago

This is a bug that is affecting me too. It's the only app that I have with this problem. As soon as I make a call it instantly turns mobile usage on along with wifi. When I hang up it goes back to wifi only. I do not have the aforementioned features turned on that makes Android or Samsung phones do this. It seems specifically to be only an issue with this app as well. Please let me know if I can offer any debugging to help identify the cause of this issue.

Quicksand10 commented 4 years ago

Me and the person I was calling both experienced the same issue yesterday and today using Signal video call. Both LTE and Wifi symbols appeared. My phone measures my WiFi as 232 Mbps Download and 55.7 Mbps Upload (12ms ping, 5ms jitter, using the speedtest.net app).

Huawei Mate 10 Pro Android 9, January 2020 security patch Signal (beta) version 4.58.5

cbrownstein commented 4 years ago

FWIW, I'm experiencing this issue as well.

On 2 different video calls, I was connected to both Wi-Fi and and T-Mobile LTE. Both calls used my T-Mobile LTE instead of Wi-Fi, even though my Wi-Fi is a better connection (~220Mbps down/~10Mbps up).

Google Pixel 3a Android version 10 Build number QQ2A.200405.005

Signal version 4.58.5

Edit: Adding that video calls work fine if T-Mobile LTE is disabled and I have only a Wi-Fi connection.

montdor commented 3 years ago

What would it take to have a switch implimented in the back end to allow or disallow LTE for voice and calls?

I agree that this could be a deal breaker for some with limited network, especially if they don't know it's happening and they get slapped with overages.

3E3ent commented 3 years ago

Yes this would be amazing.

On Sun, Feb 21, 2021, 3:53 PM montdor notifications@github.com wrote:

What would it take to have a switch implimented in the back end to allow or disallow LTE for voice and calls?

I agree that this could be a deal breaker for some with limited network, especially if they don't know it's happening and they get slapped with overages.

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MichaelMcDonnell commented 3 years ago

I have opened a pull request to fix this issue. See https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/pull/11056

hyakujon commented 3 years ago

Well, this is STILL an issue. Happened to us yesterday. Sitting opposite the WiFi hub, 2m away, with a full strength connection. Signal is set up to NOT use video on mobile data. Data saver also on. Signal used up our whole month's data on one video call and we had no idea. Not happy! Complaints about this began a long time ago and it hasn't been fixed.

Altonss commented 3 years ago

It is still an issue for me too (and for friends of mine also).

andrewfenn commented 3 years ago

I have opened a pull request to fix this issue. See #11056

@MichaelMcDonnell As I understand it this doesn't resolve the issue. Your pull request is for turning off mobile data altogether. The issue is that it uses mobile data regardless of the fact that a good strong wifi connection is available. I applaud the efforts to try and move forward with a solution to this issue, but this is more of a workaround than a fix.

@alex-signal Is there any recognition that this is a problem that's being worked on? Is there any current status on this issue or how people reading here can help to resolve it?

MichaelMcDonnell commented 3 years ago

@andrewfenn correct my pull request adds a switch to turn off mobile data for voice and video calls. I don't want it to ever switch to mobile data since I pay per MB. This is a deal breaker for people in low income countries.

Zomono commented 3 years ago

Most of the people having this issue (and do care about it) - have a small amount of mobile data traffic per month and would normally never want to do a video call or even any call using mobile data. So a very simple solution would be to add an option to disable (video) calls over mobile data. (I think this is what @MichaelMcDonnell has done)

To be more flexible the option should allow to choose between

This option should be made to set different values for normal calls and video calls. It would be pretty much the same as Signal already provides for picture and video files.

Altonss commented 3 years ago

But the first thing would be to resolve the issue that signal switches to mobile data when calling, even if we were using wifi and the wifi was working well.

Zomono commented 3 years ago

But the first thing would be to resolve the issue that signal switches to mobile data when calling, even if we were using wifi and the wifi was working well.

Your right, but @MichaelMcDonnell PR has a real benefit, even if the "bad wifi switiching behaviour" would be solved, because it would still do the switch on bad wifi connections.

Nevertheless, the "bad wifi switiching behaviour" should be solved either. And my guess is that we need some sort of adjustable sensitivity for the algorithm that decides that the wifi connection has become unstable and the mobile data should be used instead. Wifi connections will always dither more or less and the user should be able to decide when sticking on the wifi connection is no more acceptable and switching to mobile data is preferred. I think about a sensitivity slider to adjust the greediness of switching.

Having said that, the algorithm should also switch back to wifi using the same estimations.

alex-signal commented 3 years ago

Hi!

Last I knew, there was some work that would need to be done on the RingRTC side to support something like this. I can follow up this week with that team to see if this is something in their pipeline, and why or why not. In the meantime, it should suffice to just turn off mobile data in your quick settings while on a call. I realize it's inconvenient to do so.

From the looks of the pull request, it simply disallows you from calling if mobile data is connected. This isn't really a solution, and seems no better than making the user explicitly turn off mobile data in their system settings. You can be connected to multiple networks at the same time.

MichaelMcDonnell commented 3 years ago

From the looks of the pull request, it simply disallows you from calling if mobile data is connected. This isn't really a solution, and seems no better than making the user explicitly turn off mobile data in their system settings. You can be connected to multiple networks at the same time.

@alex-signal, it's more complicated than that. I am fine Signal with using mobile data for sending and receiving messages. I also want to be able to use mobile data for other apps. I just don't want it to ever use mobile data for voice or video calls. I wouldn't have spent weeks writing the code if turning off mobile data in the system settings would have solved it (that was how I was temporarily working around it). I don't want to have to remember to toggle mobile data on and off in the system settings.

alex-signal commented 3 years ago

@MichaelMcDonnell My mistake, I didn't realize there was a ringrtc change as well. I'll ping the team today and see where they're at.

stale[bot] commented 2 years ago

Is this still relevant? If so, what is blocking it? Is there anything you can do to help move it forward?

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

Altonss commented 2 years ago

Is this still relevant?

It is still happening on 5.28.10!

fabiannagel commented 2 years ago

Still an issue in 2022. It's been three years, what's the blocker here?

greyson-signal commented 2 years ago

There have been updates to our calling library that should make it more aggressive about using wifi when available. If you have a call where you think it used mobile data incorrectly, please post a log.

hindicc71 commented 2 years ago

Still an issue in 2022. It's been three years, what's the blocker here?

This "feature" is so annoying that I am seriously considering not making calls through Signal at all. Every other app gets it right and Signal says "WebRTC". Telegram, Threema & WhatsApp do not have these problems. How do I know that? Tested especially for you Signal guys. Leave out this hybrid mode and do it like the others. Not every country has free mobile data available.

hindicc71 commented 2 years ago

There have been updates to our calling library that should make it more aggressive about using wifi when available. If you have a call where you think it used mobile data incorrectly, please post a log.

No change noticeable.

greyson-signal commented 2 years ago

If you have a call where you think it used mobile data incorrectly, please post a log.

hindicc71 commented 2 years ago

If you have a call where you think it used mobile data incorrectly, please post a log.

Unfortunately, I won't, because I don't know exactly what data such a log contains. I can describe things in detail and say whether there have been changes or not but unfortunately I will not upload a log. Should I maybe describe things in detail or create a log for myself and describe to you what is where without handing over the whole log? I know, sounds crazy but as described above I don't know what such a log contains and therefore my caution.

stale[bot] commented 2 years ago

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

hdavidzhu commented 2 years ago

(re-open)

pcipriano commented 2 years ago

Another issue created related to this #12262, I still think many simply want to not use mobile data for video/audio calls, in my country many have only 500MB or 1GB per month for example.

stale[bot] commented 2 years ago

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

Altonss commented 2 years ago

Reopen

Bloo-dev commented 2 years ago

Installing a firewall to forcefully restrict signal's mobile data can't be a solution for the common end user -- not to say that most people won't even know how to do that. Right now I'm hastily hanging up once signal automatically switches to cellular data, which makes the Signal-Call experience questionable. A simple switch to chose between

would resolve these issues.

adsche commented 7 months ago

Please add an option for this! I've always been annoyed getting Signal voice calls because they were often so bad, garbled sound, constant reconnections. Then I discovered this. Now when I get a Signal call and have the above issues, I just deactivate mobile data and all is well.

For me, to summarize:

I thought for a while that it was only while travelling in trains, maybe due to the switching of mobile base stations. But I have the same problem in my home wifi now. Mobile data is just bad here, but Signal seems to prefer it over wifi.

cody-signal commented 7 months ago

@adsche can you provide a debuglog for the situations you describe and let us know when each occurred? We can't do much to understand the details of the problem without one unfortunately.

adsche commented 7 months ago

@cody-signal sure, will (try to) do!

But: to have the option would still be great for the other use case of saving data (eg. I also have a very low limit data plan because data is quite bad here anyway... )

Bloo-dev commented 2 months ago

Two years later, this is still preventing me an friends from switching over to signal 100%, as we don't want our limited data drained by calls.

Where is this on the internal priority list? Would you be interested in a community PR to introduce this? What are the difficulties? I'd love to help out, just don't want to work on somthing if it's already being worked on by signal staff // if signal staff knows this is next to impossible to incorperate with the current calling backend.

adsche commented 1 month ago

@cody-signal Here's a debug log from just now where call quality was bad with many out-of-order chunks of audio, distortions and noticeable delay. According to the top notification bar, mobile data was used even though Wifi was available and strong. Deactivating mobile data fixed the issue immediately, clear sound and no delay. Both, Wifi and mobile data reception were 5/5.

https://debuglogs.org/android/7.15.4/9bfa3e829eacf91aa386f90066d7eb0c111a1ead9d180aef8ef646ef90724f67

I've got a few more debug logs from the past months but they are less clear because receptions were less good and I wasn't certain about the other end.