Confirmation of Receipt not reliable

#1

Right now I only have a correspondence with just one person.
The strange thing is, that sometimes I do not receive the double tickmark “Confirmation of Receipt” while at other times I do receive it.
Confirmation of transmission is always reliably confirmed with a single tick. In these situations, I can receive answers in the very same chat, while the double tick for Confirmation of the Reception of my message remains missing.

I asked my correspondence partner, if he always has used the android app delta.chat. He reassured me, that he always uses the same procedure to open my messages with Delta.Chat.

#2

which email provider do you use?
are read recipients turned on on both sides?
which android versions is used?
what platform/version do you use?

#3

When “Mark as read” is tapped in the message popup, a read receipt is not sent probably. Unfortunately I have no setup with two Delta Chat clients to verify…

#4
  • I use DC 1.14.5 on a Android 10 system.
  • Read-confirmation is switched ON at both communication partner’s apps.
  • Email provider on both sides is GMX.
  • I’ve checked my SPAM folder, there was no confirmation intercepted by the SPAM filter

The settings on both system were not changed. Sometimes I see the double ticks after my message was read at the other side, sometimes not, and still not, even days later and after further successful communication with DC in that chat history.
Sometimes I receive an answer to my message, that wasn’t double-ticked (and remains un-ticked), then I reply to that message a few minutes later and immediately see my new message double-ticked, while my initial message, from 20 minutes before stil remains unticked.
And I see, DC-confirmation-emails are correctly reflected. So the problem is, that I just don’t receive a message of reception for some messages, while I do receive it for others. And nothing was changed on both sides of the communication inbetween.

For my own further education:
I understand, that the read-confirmation is triggered by my reception of an email from my chat partner.
What I didn’t see is: From my side I also must have sent read-confirmation messages to my chat partner. But I do not find them, neither in the Sent-Box of my emails nor in my DeltaChat folder. So, what does happen to this confirmation message, sent from my side?

And a different question: In case I received a confirmation of reception, it contains a line “Reporting-UA: Delta Chat 1.50.0”.
What is the Reporting-UA and was does the version mean? Obviously it is not the DC-version from my chat-partner, as we are not progressed to that version number yet.

#5

Please reread my post that I sent before:

So my question is: Does anyone of you two mark the message as read with the function displayed in the Android popup message notification? (Not within the client UX!)

This is the core of Delta Chat. There are at least three different clients (Desktop, Android, and iOS), maybe even more. Communication and database are running in the core, so that version you reported (1.50.0) is the one of this centered module, while your Android client is version 1.14.5.

#6

Hi @gerryfrancis
thank You for looking into my problem.

Unfortunately I do not know, where in the client I even could select “Mark as read”. Is it available in the Android client? In which view should I find it? In the list of chats or within a special chat?
I have it installed with german language. But I don’t see any menu point, I would translate as Mark as read
What is the “message pop up”, where as You write I should be able to set the message to “Mark as read” ? I guess I have not enough traffic with DC up to now, so I am not that experienced.

#7

As I wrote, in the Android message popup notification. There are two buttons available, “Reply”, and “Mark as read” (in German: “Antworten”, and “Als gelesen markieren”).

#8

Hi @gerryfrancis

I feel, we have a different appreciation of the way to receive the message:

  • I see a little note in the Android messages from DC.
  • I open the DC-App
  • check the list of chats and
  • touch the chat, with the new message.

It seems, You expect another way: In Your DC-world there should be some pop-up-window, offering options, like “Reply” or “Mark as Read”
Maybe I don’t remember right, as right now, I’m still testing and use this App only with one communication partner. So there is no frequent exchange and I might have forgotten some detail in the series of steps.

But it seems, that I haven’t pressed any “Mark as Read”-button, as it wasn’t offered to me.

#9

I mean this message popup:

grafik
grafik1080×409 20.7 KB

#10

Hi @gerryfrancis ,I’ve never seen this pop-up-window popping up on my smart phone’s display.

So: No I haven’t made at tick at “Als gelesen markieren”

#11

But maybe your chat partner did it, which might be your cause of not getting double-checkmarks.

#12

@gerryfrancis : As I never saw this window, could You please pose to me, the process sequence of the pop-up-message box, to whom it is offered at which state and what are the consequences of ticking “Mark as read” on both sides of the communication?

(to me it doesn’t make sense, why this pop-up-window might appear at the sender’s display, offering the option “Mark as read”)

#13

It works as follows:

  • You send a message to your contact in Delta Chat.
  • The contact currently either
    ** works with another Android app or
    ** has the device on standby (black screen).
  • When the message is received on the device of your Delta Chat contact, the popup appears on the screen.
  • Your contact taps on “Mark as read” (“Als gelesen markieren”). Delta Chat should send a read receipt back to your mail address, which should be the confirmation for your Delta Chat client that your contact read the message. (However, there might be an issue with this function.)
#14

@gerryfrancis

While I’ve never see this window on receiving a message, it might be possible, that my communication partner gets this kind of window, I don’t know.

Is the precondition for sending a receipt for having read a message, that this tick becomes activated? I had the assumption, that just opening DC or may be opening a special chat would initate this confirmation of having read the message.

#15

When both (sender and receiver) use a Delta Chat client, read receipts are sent for every message that is read.

A chat often consists of more than one message. Imagine you sent ten messages to your contact, then he/she might have to scroll up to read all the messages. So, in this case, just opening the chat does not automatically send ten read receipts back to you.

#16

@gerryfrancis

Thank You for the patience, but I have to ask again:

Could You please rewrite this more precisely? … What exactly initiates the confirmation message? Is it generated automaticely? Is it selecting and opening the communication-chat with this user?

And again, could You please rewrite this more precisely? … What does opening of the chat initiate in case of multiple messages received ? Sending no receipt? Sending of a single receipt? To which message, the latest one? the first one?

Would You confirm, that ticking the pop-up-window offering “Mark as read” is not required, to release a receipt to the sender, as it is generated automaticely latest at the moment, when the chat is opened?

#17

It is as simple as that: When you and your contact use a Delta Chat client, as soon as your contact receives a message from you and reads it, a read receipt is sent to you automatically. (Read receipts must be enabled in the settings before, of course, but that is a default anyway.)

For all messages that are displayed on the screen of your contact (who is the receiver), a read receipt per message is sent to you (who is the sender). Example: If six messages out of ten are read by your contact, you will get six read receipts back.

The popup is no longer offered as soon as the respective chat in Delta Chat is opened. Should there be another unread message(s) in another chat, too, the popup alerts as long as the respective chat has not been opened. Example: You are a member of two different groups, let’s name them “Adam” and “Eva”, and you receive messages in both groups. You receive two alerts that group “Adam” and group “Eva” have new unread messages. You switch to Delta Chat and open group chat “Adam” to read the new messages, so the alert for group “Adam” will vanish at this point. You do the same with group “Eva”, and … You already know the answer…

#18

Ah, OK.
I had been confused by You point:

But from Your last answer, it sounds like I will get ten receipts.

OK thanks a lot for clarification.

Finally nothing of this seems to be able to explain, why I receive a confirmation of having read the message only sometimes, but sometimes not. I would say, only half of the messages gets confirmed for having been read.
What works always is the single tick, telling the message was transmitted. Double tick doesn’t work in about 50% of the messages.

#19

If the respective chat view has been opened before many new messages were received, it might be possible that the receiver must scroll up to read all messages. If he/she does not, read receipts will be sent back only for those messages that are displayed (and read), but not for the other (older) ones. That (also) could explain why you do not get double-checkmarks for every message you sent.

#20

Impressing: Does DC really recognize, which of all the messages within one chat where partly or fully displayed (by scrolling up and down) on the smart phone’s screen?

Nevertheless: There were short communications like, all happened within a time span of an hour

  1. me: I am at that place and will give You a note, when I leave and arrive at some hour at some place (single tick)
  2. he: Thank’s, yes let me know
  3. me: I leave now (double tick)
  4. he: see You soon

I cannot imagine, that the partner didn’t read my message Nr.1, for he answered with Nr. 2. But minutes later, with the next message, I got the double tick.

In other situations, I miss double ticks for several of my messages in a row. In a telephone call to him, I found out he definitely had read my messages using the DC app.