SMS display in Messages conversation unclear. Easy to miss latest message

Bug Reports
,
#1

REPRODUCIBILITY: at least 1 case
BUILD ID = OS VERSION : Sailfish OS 4.0.1.48 (Koli)
HARDWARE (XA2, Xperia 10…): Xperia 10 Dual SIM
UI LANGUAGE: en_GB
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?): YES

DESCRIPTION:

SMS Message from an non-Contact, with a string as the sender, does not show up in Messages conversation view is hard spot /easy to miss

PRECONDITIONS:

Unknown

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. get an SMS message
  2. notice the Popup, and the message preview in Notifications area
  3. open Messages, new SMS message does not show up
  4. Note that old messages received from the same sender, but received under SFOS 3.4, do show up in the conversation with dates/“fuzzy dates”.
  5. current message shows up at the bottom, but is visually grouped with older ones so it’s hard to spot/easy to miss.

EXPECTED RESULT:

Well, I expect all SMS to be listed in the conversation.
Or at least get an error message if one cannot be displayed.

Current message should be visually distinct from older messages.

This is rather critical, as messages from these kinds of senders are usually things like online banking TANs, or in the shown case Corona-related messages.

ACTUAL RESULT:

Message not shown
Group header not shown/unclear. See screenshot in SMS display in Messages conversation unclear. Easy to miss latest message - #4 by nephros

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The SMS information can be listed using sqlite:

sqlite> select subject,freetext from events where remoteUid not like "+%";

This is the full listing from commhistory.db:

echo "select * from events where remoteUid like 'OE-%';" | sqlite3 ~/.local/share/commhistory/commhistory.db

2718|2|1617370691|1617370701|1|0|1|0|0|0|0|/org/freedesktop/Telepathy/Account/ring/tel/ril_0|OE-testet|||Das Protokoll für P. G., geb. 1976 ist jetzt zum Aufruf verfügbar: https://www.gesundheit.gv.at/p/ems/--REDACTED--|120|2d26921f-0642-49fe-ae07-2ec0a157acee|0||||0|0||||0|0|0||0|1|0
2968|2|1620457811|1620457819|1|0|1|0|0|0|0|/org/freedesktop/Telepathy/Account/ring/tel/ril_0|OE-testet|||Das Protokoll für P. G., geb. 1976 ist jetzt zum Aufruf verfügbar: https://www.gesundheit.gv.at/p/ems/--REDACTED--|120|51e28cc7-0495-46dd-a3f0-67818a84d4c1|0||||0|0||||0|0|0||0|1|0
3011|2|1620819480|1620819488|1|0|1|0|0|0|0|/org/freedesktop/Telepathy/Account/ring/tel/ril_0|OE-testet|||Das Protokoll für P. G., geb. 1976 ist jetzt zum Aufruf verfügbar: https://www.gesundheit.gv.at/p/ems/--REDACTED--|120|0a797b5d-d5f9-40f7-9838-8ce52d827350|0||||0|0||||0|0|0||0|1|0
3065|2|1621604338|1621604346|1|0|1|0|0|0|0|/org/freedesktop/Telepathy/Account/ring/tel/ril_0|OE-testet|||Das Protokoll für P. G., geb. 1976 ist jetzt zum Aufruf verfügbar: https://www.gesundheit.gv.at/p/ems/--REDACTED--|120|50edc33c-3031-440d-b860-d9a0d98819fe|0||||0|0||||0|0|0||0|1|0

As noted, this is from a recently updated device (3.4 → 4.0), and messages received under 3.4 do show up, so maybe something changed in the storage format?

3 Likes
#2

Correction:

Looking again, the message is actually displayed, listed at the bottom, see screenshot below.

When the message is “new”, so newer than “Yesterday”, its group header is empty.

#4

It appears that there is a group section header, but it is empty instead of showing “Today” or “Just Now” or similar. This is consistent with the observations that the meassage “appears” a day later, when the header changes to “Yesterday”

Screenshot_20210525_001
Screenshot_20210525_001720×1680 237 KB

1 Like
#5

Latest message is and has always been at the bottom, and I believe it’s the same for 99% of the messaging apps, no? It’s missing a “Today” header indeed, but that’s it.

This is rather critical, as messages from these kinds of senders are usually things like online banking TANs

But in those case you know that a message will arrive, I don’t get how you can miss it. It’s the bottom message of the first conversation. Actually I don’t even use the Messages app for them, only the Events view. If I look in my Messages app, it’s full of unread conversation of non-Contact senders with OTP numbers.

#6

I agree part of it is PEKAC (PEBSAC??).

But it has happened to me twice after updating to Koli, and to at least another user who has since deleted their report.

And yes the thread above is a bit verbose for a simple core issue which you summarized so well. The notification screen is not useful for accessing the message itself as it doesn’t show the full text, and the text can not be interacted with (copying, clicking links etc.).

Still, other users might find it in case they come across this and panic a bit like I did. I have removed the superfluous information above, and marked this solved even though it isn’t really.

1 Like