Family switching from Skype: Issues with mixed connection methods and ntfy/UnifiedPush

Support in English
1

Hi All,

As a family we looking for a Skype alternative and I would like to get everyone switched over the Jami.

The primary use case is 2 little girls (cousins) that live on opposite ends of the world staying in touch.

Starting Setup

  • Android Tablet (LineageOS) 20250331-01
  • Android Phone (LineageOS) 20250410-01
  • No registered accounts on public directory/blockchain

Experience

  1. Using ntfy app on any of the devices, nothing works. I can add the contacts they appear online but no messages appear on the opposite devices, only the device you typed it on. Calls never ring on the receiver side.
  2. Both devices on the same network with local peer discovery turned on using Local DHT, worked the best without any notable issues.
  3. Using Local DHT on both sides using different wifi networks seems to mostly work. After switching the setting messages did not work straight away and did not appear on ether device until one of the devices was restarted. Calls mostly worked except for denying a call on the phone once got stuck requiring a force stop to make the incoming call notification go away.
  4. If one device was on Local DHT and the other on UnifiedPush using ntfy, status indicated as online and typing indicators worked but nothing else messages would not appear on ether device and calls would just ring on the initiators side but never on the receiver side.

Questions

I am very confused and dont know how to interpret my experience. Before recommending it to the rest of the family and rolling it out to other Android and Apple devices I want to try and understand what is going on here and figure out the most reliable option and guide the setup of the rest of the families devices.

  1. Is mixing connection methods (UnifiedPush and Local DHT) officially supported?
  2. What’s the recommended setup for families across different networks and device types?
  3. Are there known issues with ntfy as a UnifiedPush distributor?
  4. Do I need to do some additional steps to get ntfy working?

Thank you

2

It’s expected. :expressionless_face: The default DHT proxy serves hundreds of clients, so it reaches the limit of ntfy.sh quickly. ntfy app may be useful when it’s used with a self-hosted server.(Based on my experience in 2023, I haven’t used jami android for 12 months.)