Does Android support near real time push notification

Posted by j pimmel on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by j pimmel
Published on 2009-08-07T05:42:02Z Indexed on 2010/04/16 11:13 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 298

Filed under:

android

|

push-notification

I recently learned about the ability of iPhone apps to receive nearly instantaneous 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 - ie: 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 to be polling that heavily just to check for notification .. besides which it's like drip draining the data plan.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about android

Please verify my layout: bottom button keeps coming up over keyboard

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi everyone, I have a layout which does almost what I want. There's just one bug regarding the button at the bottom. I should stay at the bottom at all times. But whenever I bring up the soft-keyboard the button will be displayed above the keyboard. This is not what I want but it should become covered… >>> More
Android programming. Application stopped unexpectedly.

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I've just created a prototype of interface for my android app and tried to run it. Unfortunately I get an error that my app has stopped unexpectedly (my reputation doesn't allow me to post images so follow my links): screenshot of error message This is layout mode of editing. Everything looks as… >>> More
Listview Row Overlap Problem

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I just updated my app and I am getting some odd complaints from people who update it. I am only getting complaints from people with non-stock android phones (phones that manufacturers have modified...HTC phones, cliq, pulse, etc), other phones like the Droid, Nexus work fine. My app (Photo Frame Deluxe)… >>> More
Why are some of my view not aligned correctly at the bottom of my relative layout?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have problems getting some of my views aligned in a relative layout that I use inside a row of my listview. Here is a screenshot from the layout builder in Eclipse, this is what I think it should look like: The next image is from the emulator. Now the TestTestTest View is at the top and covers… >>> More
Android RatingBar weirdness: Whenever I add a RatingBar to my layout, a bunch of the generated tags,

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Whenever I use a RatingBar view in my layout, I suddenly get all kinds of compile errors. I'm using Android 2.0, but I've also tried 2.0.1, and 2.1, without joy. I also get a message: Shader 'android.graphics.BitmapShader' is not supported in Layout Editor, and an odd warning which may or maynot be… >>> More

Related posts about push-notification

Reset push notification settings for app

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am developing an app with push notifications. To check all possible ways of user interaction, I'd like to test my app when a user declines to have push notifications enabled for my app during the first start. The dialog (initiated by registerForRemoteNotificationTypes), however, appears only once… >>> More
Push Notification in non english languages

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, I have implemented successfully this code: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1020762/does-anyone-know-how-to-write-an-apple-push-notification-provider-in-c It works great. But I have a question, can anybody help me how to send non english messages like Hebrew Or Arabic? If the string contains… >>> More
Push Notification (duplicate?)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I've seen other questions here about PNS, in terms of code, but how does the concept work?do I need to tell my client that they need a server? What goes in the server in terms of configuration/cron or whatever? Please explain the process. Thanks a ton. EDIT: Please explain: Do I need to purchase… >>> More
when is a push notification old?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have noted that when the iPhone OS receives a push notification, it considers that a user action to click on the action button as a "response" to the push notification for some indefinite period of time. If the user lets the push notification sit on screen for a number of seconds, or lets the phone… >>> More
Exchange 2010 - No Push notification when when deleting emails from Outlook

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi I'm setting up a Exchange 2010 server for our test environment. I'm running Windows 2008R2 enterprise on this machine. Iv'e also installed all updates available for windows and exchange 2010 including rollup 1 and 2 for exchange that include bugfixes regarding push notifications. My problem is… >>> More