Does Android support near real time push notification

Question

I recently learned about the ability of iPhone apps to receive nearly instantaneous notifications to apps notifications to apps   This is provided in the form of push notifications  a bespoke protocol which keeps an always on data connection to the iPhone and messages binary packets to the app  which pops up alerts incredibly quickly  between 0 5 - 5 seconds from server app send to phone app response time  This is sent as data - rather than SMS - in very very small packets charged as part of the data plan not as incoming messages    I would like to know if  using Android  there is either a similar facility  or whether it s possible to implement something close to this using Android APIs  To clarify  I define similar as     Not an SMS message  but some data driven solution As real time as is possible Is scalable  i e   as the server part of a mobile app  I could notify thousands of app instances in seconds   I appreciate the app could be pull based  HTTP request response style  but ideally I don t want to be polling that heavily just to check for notification  besides which it s like drip draining the data plan

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I have been looking into this and PubSubHubBub recommended by jamesh is not an option. PubSubHubBub is intended for server to server communications

"I'm behind a NAT. Can I subscribe to a Hub? The hub can't connect to me."

/Anonymous

No, PSHB is a server-to-server protocol. If you're behind NAT, you're not really a server. While we've kicked around ideas for optional PSHB extensions to do hanging gets ("long polling") and/or messagebox polling for such clients, it's not in the core spec. The core spec is server-to-server only.

/Brad Fitzpatrick, San Francisco, CA

Source: http://moderator.appspot.com/#15/e=43e1a&t=426ac&f=b0c2d (direct link not possible)

I've come to the conclusion that the simplest method is to use Comet HTTP push. This is both a simple and well understood solution but it can also be re-used for web applications.

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I have recently developed http   pushdroid org its a single application that should be installed on the phone just like google has implemented it in 2 2 this works from 1 5 and is broadcasting via intent

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XMPP is a good solution  I have used it for a push enabled  realtime  Android application  XMPP is powerful  highly extensible and easy to integrate and use    There are loads of free XMPP servers  though out of courtesy you shouldn t abuse them  and there are open source servers you can run on one of your own boxes  OpenFire is an excellent choice   The library you want isn t Smack as noted above  it s aSmack  But note  this is a build environment - you will have to build the library   This is a calculation I did on battery life impact of an XMPP solution      The Android client must maintain a persistent TCP connection by waking up periodically   to send a heartbeat to the XMPP server    This clearly imposes a cost in terms of power usage  An estimate of this cost is   provided below          Using a 1400mAh battery  as supplied in the Nexus One and HTC Desire    An idle device  connected to an 3G network  uses approximately 5mA   The wake-up  heartbeat  sleep cycle occurs every 5 minutes  takes three seconds   to complete and uses 300mA   The cost in battery usage per hour is therefore       36 seconds  300mA   3mAh sending heartbeat   3600 seconds  5mA   5mAh at idle   4 95   3   7 95mAh combined      A 1400mAh battery lasts approximately 11 6 days at idle and 7 3 days when   running the application  which represents an approximate 37  reduction in   battery life    However  a reduction in battery life of 37  represents the absolute worst case   in practice given that devices are rarely completely idle

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If you can depend on the Google libraries being there for you target market  then you may want to piggy back on GTalk functionality  registering a resource on the existing username - the intercepting it the messages as they come in with a BroadcastReceiver    If not  and I expect you can t  then you re into bundling your own versions of XMPP  This is a pain  but may be made easier if XMPP is bundled separately as a standalone library   You may also consider PubSubHubub  but I have no idea the network usage of it  I believe it is built atop of XMPP

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They have their listeners which has to be used by you by using their library classes in your code  You need not to bother about pushing  You have to send the message to server server will push the message to the device  They use OAuth  Regarding Protocols  there are two methods using CCS and XMPP  CCS just uses XMPP as an authenticated transport layer  so you can use most XMPP libraries to manage the connection  To send notifications to device you can write code in android app to send as well as your server code  the message sending will be done only by your code  Rest will be taken care by Google Server in GCM case  You can check detail at this link  http   developer android com google gcm server html  Also  for security issues  google cloud messaging security https   groups google com forum   topic android-gcm M-EevBitbhQ  In case your app is not running then also devices can recieve notification because you have to write code for broadcast listeners  In background it will be listening to server and whenever any message packet will be there it will recieve the message as notification  Android has service you need to not to bother about it  You have only to use those resources using the library class that makes your work easier and let them write if your app is not running then also it recieve notification  Obviously  there would be some listener whick make the app to recieve Check  Recieve the message  section in this link  http   developer android com google gcm client html  It will acccept request from users also  For GCM it will do  Please check  Send a message   http   developer android com google gcm client html

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Google is depreciating C2DM  but in its place their introducing GCM  Google Cloud Messaging  I dont think theirs any quota and its free  It does require Android 2 2  though  http   developer android com guide google gcm index html

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I recently started playing with MQTT http   mqtt org for Android as a way of doing what you re asking for  i e  not SMS but data driven  almost immediate message delivery  scalable  not polling  etc    I have a blog post with background information on this in case it s helpful http   dalelane co uk blog  p 938    Note  MQTT is an IBM technology  and I should point out that I work for IBM

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Google recently 18May2016  announced that Firebase is now it s unified platform for mobile developers including near real time push notifications It is also multi-platform       The company now offers all Firebase users free and unlimited   notifications with support for iOS  Android and the Web    source

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As GTalk is gone from the SDK  it might be a good idea to make a  standard  push messaging system  That way  only one service has to run  only one extra tcp connection needs to be open  Applications should talk to this service using Intents and should first request permission to send and receive notification from the service  The service should then notify the user a new application wants to send and receive messages  The user will then grant or deny permission  so he stays in control  The application will then register an action   category to the service  so the service knows how to deliver the pushed message   Would the a good idea or not

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I cannot find where I read it at  but I believe gmail utilizes an open TCP connection to do the e-mail push

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There is a new open-source effort to develop a Java library for push notifications on Android  using the Meteor comet server as a backend  You can check it out at the Deacon Project Blog  We need developers  so please spread the word

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The problem with GCM is that there is a lot of configuration involved in the process    You have to add a lot of boilerplate to you Android app You need to configure an external server to comunicate with the GCM server You will have to write tests   If you like simple things  like me  you should try UrbanAirship  It is  IMHO  the easiest way to use GCM in your app without doing a lot of configuration  It also gives you a pretty GUI to test that your GCM messages are being delivered correctly    You can find the docs and getting started guide here  You can find a sample application here   Note  I am not afiliated with UrbanAirship in any way

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Firebase Cloud Messaging FCM FAQ is the new version of GCM  It inherits GCM   s core infrastructure to deliver messages reliably on Android  iOS and Chrome  However they ll continue to support GCM because lot of developers are using GCM SDKs today to handle notifications  and client app upgrade takes time   As of June 26  2012  Google Cloud Messaging is the preferred way of sending messages to applications running on devices   Previously  and now deprecated   the service was called Cloud To Device Messaging

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Have a look at the Xtify platform   Looks like this is what they are doing

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Why dont you go with the XMPP implementation  right now there are so many public servers available including gtalk  jabber  citadel etc  For Android there is one SDK is also available named as SMACK  This we cant say a push notification but using the XMPP you can keep a connection open between client and server which will allow a two way communication  Means Android client and server both can communicate to each other  At present this will fulfill the need of Push in android  I have implemented a sample code and it really works great

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https   github com Guti Google-Cloud-Messaging--Titanium- blob master src com google android gcm GCMRegistrar java  Its reaily good and working solution for push   Please try it

[android] Does Android support near real time push notification?

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