alt Hacker NewsWait... why does Signal need to send notification content to Firebase to trigger a push notification on device? I would instead expect that Signal would send a push to my Android saying nothing more than "wake up, you've got a message in convo XYZ", then the app would take over and handle the rest of it locally.
I also didn't realize that Android stores message history even after I've replied or swiped them away. That's nuts - why!?
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If your app needs to send a notification while it's not currently a running process, it must go through Firebase on Google's side and APNS on Apple's side. There is no way for a non running app to send a notification entirely locally, this is by design of both companies.
Android doesn't store message history unless you explicitly enable that feature and neither does Signal send message content to Firebase.
You're angry about a huge amount of outright misinformation here.
Signal does NOT send notification content througth APN/Firebase, their push notification is literaly a ping as you expected.
Source: https://mastodon.world@Mer__edith/111563866152334347 (Meredith Whittaker is the current CEO of Signal)
I can't link you rigth now to the actual code on their repo but it is verifiable.