What SecurityNet Is Doing Every Fifteen Seconds
One of the things that surprised me while developing SecurityNet was how much work the software performs when the user isn't doing anything at all.
Most people think a secure messaging application only does something when they press Send.
The reality is rather different.
Even while you're reading a document or making a cup of tea, SecurityNet is quietly looking after itself.
Every fifteen seconds it wakes up and asks a series of simple questions.
Has anything changed?
Has someone come online?
Is there a file waiting to be received?
Has a transfer completed?
Does anything need my attention?
If the answer is no, it simply goes back to sleep for another fifteen seconds.
That cycle continues throughout the day.
The user rarely notices it.
Nor should they.
One of my design goals was that SecurityNet should quietly do its work without constantly demanding the user's attention.
Of course, not everything happens every fifteen seconds.
Some tasks occur less frequently.
The SecurityNet ID token, for example, is refreshed approximately once every hour.
That isn't because users need to think about it.
It's because software occasionally has housekeeping to do.
Like tidying a workshop at the end of the day, these jobs keep everything running smoothly.
The user sees almost none of this.
They simply see whether a contact is online.
Whether a file has arrived.
Whether a transfer is complete.
Behind those simple indicators is a steady rhythm of background activity.
I spent a surprising amount of time thinking about something users would probably never notice.
How often should the software check?
Too frequently, and it wastes resources.
Too slowly, and the software begins to feel unresponsive.
Eventually I settled on fifteen seconds.
It felt like the right balance between responsiveness and efficiency.
This is another example of a design decision that most users will never think about.
And that's perfectly fine.
Good infrastructure is often invisible.
People only notice it when it stops working.
Perhaps that's true of good software generally.
The more reliable it becomes, the less attention it attracts.
That's exactly how I wanted SecurityNet to feel.
Quietly working in the background.
Ready whenever you need it.
