MSC3881: Remotely toggle push notifications for another client

proposals/3881-remote-push-notification-toggling.md

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+# MSC3881: Remotely toggling push notifications for another client
+
+The [push notification API](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#push-notifications) allows clients to
+register HTTP pushers so that they can receive notifications. An HTTP pusher is always tied to a specific Matrix device
+due to its `pushkey` property which is issued by the particular platform (e.g. an APNS token). As a client is aware of
+its `pushkey`s, it can identify its own pushers and remove or read them as needed. There is, however, no way to modify a
+client's pushers from another client logged into the same account because the latter isn't aware of the former's
+`pushkey`s.
+
+This is limiting because it means that push notifications can only be en- or disabled on the device that is receiving
+them. When the latter isn't currently at hand, this can become a point of frustration.
+
+The current proposal solves this problem by making the connection between HTTP pushers and Matrix devices explicit and
+assigning an enabled state to every pusher. This enables clients to remotely silence (and un-silence) notifications for
+other devices. For users with multiple active devices, this means they can avoid unwanted interruptions or duplicate
+pings without having to switch context and physically retrieve each device to change settings. A common example is
+silencing a mobile device once you sit down at your desktop.
+
+## Proposal
+
+### Pusher-dependent clients
+
+#### Disabling pushers
+A new optional field `enabled` is added to the `Pusher` model.
+
+| Name | Type | Description |
+|------|------|-------------|
+| `enabled` | boolean | **Optional** Whether the pusher should actively create push notifications
+
+In [POST /_matrix/client/v3/pushers/set](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#post_matrixclientv3pushersset)
+the value is optional and if omitted, defaults to `true`.
+
+In [GET /_matrix/client/v3/pushers](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#get_matrixclientv3pushers) the value
+is always returned.
+
+Pushers that are not enabled do not produce push notifications of any kind, either by sending
+[`/notify`](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/push-gateway-api/#post_matrixpushv1notify) requests to push providers for
+`http` pushers or otherwise.
+
+#### Explicitly linking device and pusher
+A new optional field `device_id` is added to the `Pusher` model as returned from [GET
+/_matrix/client/v3/pushers](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#get_matrixclientv3pushers).
+
+| Name | Type | Description |
+|------|------|-------------|
+| `device_id` | string | **Optional** The device_id of the session that registered the pusher
+
+
+To be able to remove Pushers when sessions are deleted some homeservers have some existing way to link a session to
+pusher, so exposing the `device_id` on http pushers should be trivial. (Synapse, for instance, stores the [access
+token](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/3d201151152ca8ba9b9aae8da5b76a26044cc85f/synapse/storage/databases/main/pusher.py#L487)
+when adding a pusher, which is usually associated with a device)
+
+In [GET /_matrix/client/v3/pushers](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#get_matrixclientv3pushers) the value
+is optional.
+
+### Pusher-less clients
+
+Pausing notifications for clients that create notifications outside of the Push Gateway will not be addressed in this
+MSC.
+
+## Potential issues
+
+Adding an enabled state to pushers increases the complexity of the push notification API. In addition to a pusher
+existing or not existing, implementations now have to also evaluate the pusher's `enabled` field.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+
+#### Profile tags
+The spec allows for pushers to be assigned a
+[`profile_tag`](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#post_matrixclientv3pushersset) which can be used to
+define per-device push rule sets. In combination with the `notify_in_app` action proposed in
+[MSC3768](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/pull/3768) this would allow to toggle a pusher between the
+`global` push rule set and a push rule set where all rules with `notify` actions were overridden to use `notify_in_app`.
+Furthermore, the overrides could be simplified through cascading profile tags as proposed in
+[MSC3837](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/pull/3837). Keeping the two sets in sync would, however,
+not be trivial. Additionally, profile tags are only partially spec'ed and there is active interest in
+[removing](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/637) them entirely.
+
+#### Client side notification filtering
+Another alternative is client-side notification filtering at the time of delivery which is supported on many platforms.
+This feature could be (ab)used to create the _impression_ of paused push notifications. The downside, however, is that
+this is not a true deactivation and the wasteful overhead of sending and processing push notifications still exists.
+
+#### Caching pusher-client relationships in account_data
+Finally, when registering a pusher, a client could store the request body for
+[/_matrix/client/v3/pushers/set](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#post_matrixclientv3pushersset) in a
+per-device account data event. Other clients of the same user could then issue network request on the client's behalf
+using the body of said event. This appears somewhat kludgey though and would also conflict with existing home server
+logic to store access tokens when adding or modifying pushers.
+
+## Security considerations
+
+None.
+
+## Unstable prefix
+
+Until this proposal lands
+
+- `enabled` should be referred to as `org.matrix.msc3881.enabled`
+- `device_id` should be referred to as `org.matrix.msc3881.device_id`
+
+### Migration
+
+Home servers should indicate their support of this MSC by adding `org.matrix.msc3881` and `org.matrix.msc3881.stable` in
+the response of `/_matrix/client/versions`.
+
+Clients that connect to a home server that doesn't yet support this proposal should interpret a missing `enabled` value
+as `true`.
+
+Home servers should migrate pushers that were registered before this proposal so that `enabled` is `true`
+
+## Dependencies
+
+None.
+