Release 1.6.0 is very slow

[Eisfunke]

Steps to reproduce

1. Install 1.6.0
2. Use it normally

Outcome

What did you expect?

I expected the app to not be slower, I even hoped for it to get faster thanks to the new Rust SDK.

What happened instead?

The app is even more unbearably slow than it was before. Sending messages takes up to several seconds, which some friends of mine who also updated, confirmed as well. Also, for me loading the home screen now takes about 10 seconds. I'm sorry that I can't really pinpoint this any further, but it's really just slower all around and I thought you might want to know. Again, this isn't just me, friends on other devices reported the same.

Your phone model

One Plus 5T

Operating system version

LineageOS 20 (Android 13)

Application version and app store

Element 1.6.0 downloaded from the release page on GitHub

Homeserver

matrix.eisfunke.com (Synapse)

Will you send logs?

No

Are you willing to provide a PR?

No

[davidmehren]

I can confirm the unbearable slowness after upgrading to 1.6.0.

After clearing the cache and waiting for a new initial sync, the performance has significantly improved. Let's hope that it stays that way.

[noantiq]

For me it also takes 4 to 6 seconds for a room to be shown as "read" in the room list after I navigate back out of a room. (Pixel 6)

[Eisfunke]

After clearing the cache and waiting for a new initial sync, the performance has significantly improved. Let's hope that it stays that way.

Before the update I initial synced regularly and sadly the resulting performance improvements never lasted very long. If in this case it helps long-term the 1.6.0 migration process should probably trigger an initial sync.

[BillCarsonFr]

Hello, thx for trying out the new release and reporting.
There are several things:

• After the migration, the rust SDK will have to re-download the user device keys. It's a one off but the app will be a bit busy at the beginning. Should be ok after a few moments.

• If you have not yet done it, it would help to enable analytics Settings>Security & Privacy > Analytics
  I am currently looking at some ANR reports, the one I have for now are not linked to crypto. But maybe I'll get more reports with time

[davidmehren]

Hmm, unfortunately, Element already got slower :/

To be clear, these are not ANRs. The app is just randomly sluggish:

• Sending a message takes seconds: I press send, the message appears locally with an empty circle, 2–3 seconds later the circle gets a checkmark and the message is sent.
• When I pressed back while a message was still being sent, the room list showed just the heading and a black screen below for a few seconds.

This behavior is not consistent, sometimes, messages are sent immediately but then a few minutes later Element is slow again.

[BillCarsonFr]

Hello there is a new version for the app fixing some of the performance issues if you want to try it out https://github.com/vector-im/element-android/releases/tag/v1.6.1

[davidmehren]

Navigating the app is now noticeably faster than with 1.6.0. 🎉

But sending messages seems still slower than in 1.5. I also experienced the problem @noantiq mentioned: After navigating from a room back to the room list, it sometimes takes a few seconds for the room to become read in the list.

[BillCarsonFr]

Regarding sending I'll do a new update that might be the cause of additional delay.
The rust sdk is more accurate regarding the distribution of the keys, if some device didn't get the keys because there was no one time key or fallback key, the rust sdk will retry to get some when sending a new message. The previous SDK would just gave up.
I tested in the big megolm test room, and their are a bunch of dead devices or odd devices that have bad signature on their One Time Keys, so sending messages is delayed each time to try to get some working keys. These devices will now be a bit timed-out/cool-down to avoid this.

In your case can you send a rageshake when you are experiencing that so I can see where is the delay?

[noantiq]

I'm unfortunately getting ANRs in 1.6.1 that I didn't get in 1.6.0.

I think that sometimes happens when I navigate back out of a room and land in the room list of the space containing the visited room. Also, when I don't get an ANR, it frequently takes several seconds to load that spaces room list.

[davidmehren]

I sent a rageshake mentioning this issue this morning, when I had a message take about 5 seconds to send.

[BillCarsonFr]

@davidmehren Just saw your rageshake. So looks like you have a device that has no one time keys (nor fallback keys).
It's the device "IES....W".
At the moment we are trying again and again to establish session with it (causing on average ~100ms network call on each send, but there is a call at 4s)

Is there someting special with this device?

[davidmehren]

That is an instance of ElementX Android I'm playing around with.
I'll try logging out there to see if that improves things.

[davidmehren]

I just sent another rageshake after the room list took more than ten seconds to update after I read a room and navigated back.

[davidmehren]

Deleting the old Element X session does not seem to have helped, I just had a few messages again take seconds to send. Also sent a rageshake.

[Eisfunke]

Sadly I can't report any improvements with 1.6.1. :( I have never used ElementX, by the way.

The room list takes very long to load when exiting a room, and sometimes it doesn't load at all. That is, at a minute or so I normally give up an kill the app, on restart it loads faster. Faster in this case being about 5-10 seconds.

I sent a rageshake from a case where the room list wasn't loading at all.

Also messages still take very long to send as David reported as well.

[amosstevens]

I'm not having those slowdown that has been reported, but everytime that someone send me a message or a call and the application is in background for a while, the application crashes (I've already sent the logs via the app)

Element 1.6.1, Android 13, 64bit

[amosstevens]

same issues with the version 1.6.2, log sent