Android - Remove Notification bar logo

[Vitaliy]

In Settings you can uncheck "Ongoing Service". Then our service will not elevate its privileges to so called foreground service. The risk is that Android OS will kill Steam that is running in the background and you will not know, I will explain it in more details below.

Basically, Android platform never really frees memory of applications that users run. When you run N+1st application Android will decide which of the "background" applications to evict and free up some memory. Unless Steam has a foreground service it will be a likely candiate for getting killed. That is why we, by default, request to be a "foreground service" which displays an icon in Android Notifications Bar under "Ongoing" category. Developers used to be able to elevate their service privilege to "foreground service" without putting a notification, but starting from Android 2.2, if I remember correctly, it is required for the application to provide an icon in the Android Notifications Bar to inform user that application is actively running in the background.

If your phone has plenty of free RAM and you don't run a lot of apps you can uncheck the "Ongoing Service" in Steam settings and we will not display the "Ongoing" icon and will not run as "foreground service". Steam will still attempt to be running in the background, subject to Android OS background scheduling and other apps memory pressure. When running in the background Steam will provide brief notifications when it lost connection to Steam servers or reconnected. It will also provide new chat notifications for incoming chats. Even if Steam process gets killed by Android OS, Steam servers will switch your community user status to Away and attempt to keep your session alive for another hour. If you get an incoming chat message during that hour Steam servers will try to launch background Steam app on your mobile device via a special push notification and you should receive that chat message, but push notifications can be unreliable. If the mobile client doesn't reconnect within an hour after connection loss, then the mobile session for that device goes offline.

Hopefully that explains the tradeoffs between seeing the Ongoing notification icon giving easy shortcut to access your Steam friends and turning it off. We however made every effort for Steam app to work well even if you turn the ongoing notification off, so you are welcome to experiment and let us know.

Thanks,
-Vitaliy

[0xT1]

Ah I see, thanks for the reply!

[sishgupta]

So why wouldn't you have a background service for Steam Mobile?

This is how typical messengers work. Look at Whatsapp, facebook, twitter, skype, words with friends, etc. They run a background service that picks up the notifications and that way you don't require the constant online notice in your notifications.

I'm on ICS and I can see this very clearly by going Settings > Apps > Running Tab. You can see there is one process and one service for facebook. Steam just has once process.

The services are started at boot and don't get shut down.

Anyway I love the app but i really dislike having a constant notification in my menu.

[Racer Of All]

Originally Posted by 0xT1

Seems like I'm unable to take a pic from my notification window. Anyway:

Theres a permanent icon where the arrow is pointing here: http://www.guyzero.com/wp-content/up...hade1small.png

Another one is in the ongoing section here (similar to the USB indication):
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-b...-11-035322.png

Lastly, whenever a message comes in, another entry is shown in the notifications section of the same picture.

The first 2 are currently shown permanently and I would like for them to be optional.
=]

Here, I took pics for those wondering:
http://i.imgur.com/rn3sS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uE0Z3.jpg

Also, couldn't we rooted users have an option to keep it in the background without it being killed? Widgetlocker is able to do this.

[Cirunz]

Today, 01:17 PM #20
Cirunz

Join Date: Mar 2010
Reputation: 0
Posts: 9 It's not like you are not logged in if there isn't that notification icon: if you set background notification for chat, you are logged in anyway but you have not the static notification, only the one that appear if there is a real notification ongoing (new chat messages), that is what the notification bar is made for.
Yes Skype works thus easy too, and no: I don't like it on Skype too.

All we got is a notification bar crowded with static icons.
I think it's always better to have the choice to hide the icon.

[lavacano201014]

3G Watchdog has a permanent notification as well, complete with icon - but they can still hide the icon when I'm on wifi (Android 2.3). Steam can hide the icon as well if Valve will implement it

[Savage Alien]

Originally Posted by sishgupta

So why wouldn't you have a background service for Steam Mobile?

This is how typical messengers work. Look at Whatsapp, facebook, twitter, skype, words with friends, etc. They run a background service that picks up the notifications and that way you don't require the constant online notice in your notifications.

I'm on ICS and I can see this very clearly by going Settings > Apps > Running Tab. You can see there is one process and one service for facebook. Steam just has once process.

The services are started at boot and don't get shut down.

Anyway I love the app but i really dislike having a constant notification in my menu.

This. Facebook, gchat, g+, and others do not show, it's up to you to know what's logged in. It keeps the clutter away. Add a toggle option for those who want it, that's a fair compromise.

[Vitaliy]

You can uncheck "Ongoing Service" in settings, that is the toggle option.

[Racer Of All]

Originally Posted by Vitaliy

You can uncheck "Ongoing Service" in settings, that is the toggle option.

Yes, but this is not a permanent solution to those whose phones have low memory. It seems relatively easy to implement considering a majority of the messaging/notification apps can do it.

Considering this is just a beta, the attitude seems to be "it's already there" instead of "sure we'll listen to your suggestions and see if it's possible to implement it".

[AotThumbs]

I just lock the app so it isn't closed by Android. Might be a GO feature though and not stock.

[lemnisca]

Originally Posted by Vitaliy

Even if Steam process gets killed by Android OS, Steam servers will switch your community user status to Away and attempt to keep your session alive for another hour. If you get an incoming chat message during that hour Steam servers will try to launch background Steam app on your mobile device via a special push notification and you should receive that chat message, but push notifications can be unreliable. If the mobile client doesn't reconnect within an hour after connection loss, then the mobile session for that device goes offline.

Would it be possible to have a setting to adjust this timeout? I want to turn off ongoing service as it's draining my battery fairly quickly but I would like to always have the push notification that attempts to re-launch the Steam app when I get a message, regardless of how long it's been disconnected. So it would be nice to be able to adjust the timeout or have no timeout.

[meter1060]

Originally Posted by lemnisca

Would it be possible to have a setting to adjust this timeout? I want to turn off ongoing service as it's draining my battery fairly quickly but I would like to always have the push notification that attempts to re-launch the Steam app when I get a message, regardless of how long it's been disconnected. So it would be nice to be able to adjust the timeout or have no timeout.

This.