Signal-Android
Signal-Android copied to clipboard
signalapp
Voice/Videocall - Mobile data used even if WiFi is available
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
- connect to wifi (and try some checks to be sure Wifi-data is working)
- open an Voice/Video call with Signal
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
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
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.
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)_/¯ )
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
@Zomono root your device and install a firewall like AfWall+. With that firewall you can block data and wifi connections separately.
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.
Just suggesting it's not a solution for the average signal user, e.g. my dad ;)
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.
@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.
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.)
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.
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
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.
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.
Yes this would be amazing.
On Sun, Feb 21, 2021, 3:53 PM montdor [email protected] 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.
— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/8529#issuecomment-782924686, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ANRZDG6MLLF5HTNZPFZACJLTAFXF5ANCNFSM4GPX5MWQ .
I have opened a pull request to fix this issue. See https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/pull/11056
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.
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?
@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.
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
- mobile data for (video) calls
- ask before mobile data will be used
- never use mobile data
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.