Hi,
I am a heavy user of WebXDC apps and have built several for my home automation system. These currently act as GUIs for bot-based services, communicating with backend bots over chat messages.
I would now like to implement a WebXDC app that provides services and responds to commands locally on my phone — effectively a bot, but running inside the app rather than on a server. Example commands:
/translate WORD/awaymessage "Matthias is not at the phone right now"
The blocker: apps are currently only activated when the user taps the app or an incoming message. There is no mechanism for an app to be activated by, or react to, incoming messages on its own.
Feature Request
Allow apps to listen for incoming messages and be activated when a matching message arrives. Matching could be done via commands, regex patterns, or a catch-all. The app would be woken from a suspended state, process the message, and (optionally) respond.
Lighter Alternative
A smaller change would be to allow apps, once manually started, to read past chat messages. I am unsure whether this delivers enough value to justify the change.
Privacy Considerations
Both variants raise privacy concerns: an app with access to messages could retain them and attempt exfiltration. This needs explicit consideration in the permission and sandboxing model before either feature is exposed.
Regards,
Matthias