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How to make a chat application in android? [closed]
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Closed 9 years ago.
I am developing an Android app in which I have to implement chat messaging. I would like one to one chat or a group chat.
But I have no idea how to start. Please help me with this stuff. Any help will be appreciated.
A simple chat mechanism will have 2 basic functionalities
Send the message to server (with info about the recipient)
Receive the message from server (designated for my user name)
First step is simple, we can create a web service which will accept the message with additional information about recipient(s). We can create it using any server side language.
Step 2, that is fetching the message from server can be done using 2 techniques, Pull the message (using polling) from server, or Push the message from server to android phone
Polling: In this, the android device will keep accessing server after a few seconds to check if there is a message available for user. This again can be implemented using a simple async task at the client side which will keep calling a web service after say 2-3 seconds. This is fine to use if we are planning to enable chatting only when user is accessing the app (no notifications like gmail or facebook), so that we can kill the polling service when not in use (otherwise it will eat up resources).
Push notifications: a better option is to use push notifications. Android provide Google cloud messaging or GCM (http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html) which will help achieve push from server easily. Otherwise you can try a third party API like urbanairship or pushwoosh depending on your requirement. Push notifications will help the user to receive messages even when he is not using the app.
So in nutshell, a webservice to receive the messages and a push notification mechanism should be sufficient to implement a chat service in android.
Little bit about UrbanAirship
I used UA in one of my projects for push notifications as I needed to support both iOS and Android. If you just want to support Android GCM might also be a good option.
Coming back to UA, check this for sample code and usage: https://docs.urbanairship.com/display/DOCS/Home
The way it works is simple, when someone installs the app and is connected to internet, app registers itself to the UA service. A unique code is specified for each installed app (this is the time when you can capture the user name and unique code and store somewhere in your DB). Next UA provides an API using which you can push a message to designated recipient(s), using the unique codes which are available with UA. These messages can be received by android app and used as per the requirement. Even if the app is not running we can show a notification just like when we receive an email or a message
You can use an existing platform like Scringo. It gives you a one-on-one chat as well as group chat (both the client and the server) as well as the push notification service.
Related
I am building my first Android app and need to know how I could use push notification.
My project is a home alarm system and also I have built my own local web server. Now I want to push a notification from my server to my Android app when an alarm appears in my server.
Currently my garage doors use the MyQ app and when the garage door opens or closes I get a notification on my phone, I want to implement the same thing in my app.
I've been reading about the Google Firebase Cloud Messaging but it seems exceeding my need.
If you need push notification on your cell phone then you definitely need to integrate your app with Google Firebase. (or at least that's the right way of doing it).
Alternatively, there is something called as local notifications & background process in Android you could do long polling to check if the garage door is open (probably every 2 mins or something). However, I don't recommend that as it can drain your mobile battery.
Also I recommend using Flutter as oppose to using Native Android. As there are some pre-built libraries for android and Google Firebase integration.
Take a look at this Youtube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TSm2YGBT1s
Ouh, maybe thats a little bit too much for starting with android - nevertheless I want to help you.
You need a communication protocol between your server and your phone (i.e. Firebase as you mentioned or Websockets).
If your server sends a message to you client (your phone) you have to create a notification. (Android Developer Guide). That's the theoretical part. You will also stumble across a lot of
challenges with
asynchronous programming.
Firebase might actually be the simplest option. You could build your own web socket service too, but that would probably be more than you need. See this previous question for more options: Android push notification without firebase
Android has some services that communicate with firebase to receive notifications.
You'll need to implement a service on top of your web server (using backend languages such as Python, Node.js, PHP,...) so it can send notifications when an event happened (like the door closed) witch isn't a simple way for a beginner.
then your web server sends a message to firebase and tells it to send a notification to my client.
so I highly recommend using firebase because of the simplicity of usage. otherwise, you should implement a separate service on your android phone to get the notification (if you want to run it locally) also as explained do the backend side.
I want to create a notification system provider that is not based on Google services or similar. In fact, I want to get information about its overall architecture and needed Android sdk functionality.
The most weird point for me is to understand how to send a notification to an Android device.
I mean, how can I identify the Android device on which my application is installed from millions and millions of other Android devices on the Internet?
And how do I send information to him?
Should I use sockets for this or similar stuff?
simple answer: YOU CAN NOT
before everything else i should correct your question, pusher and FCM are not in the same group at all! you can build somthing like pusher or oneSignal or etc but you can not build something like FCM/APNS
you should understand three simple yet important sentences below:
when you want to pull anything from place_1(e.g. api) to place_2(e.g. browser_client) you most have an identifier of the place_1_resource (which commonly is the uniform-resource-locator of api)
when you want to push anything from place_1(e.g. notification_central_server) to place_2(cellphone_client) you most have an identifier of the place_2_resource
you must know the differences between a real server push with server-push-like technologies like long-pulling or ... and you should be aware that what is intended in this concept is a real server push not any kind of pulling with a push jacket!
if you don't have any identifier for a cellphone which you want to send it a notification, your server dont know where to send that notification so we need a resource_identifier_like for cellphones which is actually a device_token_like and you have just one approach to get this device_token_like and that is the FCM/APNS
FCM is like a dns server containing all identifiers of every android device that google supports (almost every android device) and APNS is just the same but for apple devices
note1: even if your app can obtain it's corresponding device device_token_like it can not be used for push notification if its not registered on FCM/APNS
so when you get that device_token_like identifier of your desired clinet_device now you can use different approaches for sending sth to that clinet_device. there are several approaches like SSE, Webpush, HTTP_server_push, Pushlet and etc but none of these approaches supported by mother_companies of these devices, the only approach that is completely supported and standard is the same approach that FCM/APNS official websites suggests
for example an iranian Incorporation named najva uses webpush to send notifications because of USA sanctions but webPush method works good on browsers and android devices but they didn't even apear on an apple devices
finally i should say that i admire your curiosity to less using anything from a benefit_based Inc. like FCM/APNS in your developing but i strongly recommend these articles and books for you cause i think you didn't learn enough:
wikipedia of push technology
story of some guy who tries to make his own push notification service
Push Technology A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition
Data Push Apps with HTML5 SSE
Short, direct answer
You can't (At least till you create your own ROM)
TL;DR, Reason why?
Before you build your own push notification server, you first need to know how it works internally in android.
Whenever you/your server sends a push notification message to the android client, the SDK processes it and shows you the notification. But when your app is not running (or being killed), your app cannot respond to it since it was not running. In such a case, your notification message is sent to a system service which is known as Google play service. For this even to work, you will first need to bind your app with Google play service and that is what FCM does. FCM SDK registers your app to the operating system service on the first initialization. That FCM service is opened to a port which listened to the incoming message from the server and when it receives the message, it publishes a notification on behalf of your app with a PendingIntent containing the data. Then the PendingIntent is delivered to your app when the user clicks it and then finally your app process the data (or the push message)
So basically, for your server to communicate with the client, It first needs to communicate with the FCM service and for that, FCM gives you a token which identifies the application to register with the internal Google play service.
Simplified furthermore, the workflow is as follows:-
Server send push message ---> FCM ---> Google play service,
If your app is running, it is directly handled by the client SDK So, Google play service --> Your app
If not, then it is delivered by the service itself using PendingIntent So, Google play service --> PendingIntent --->| Publish notification
Totally impossible, Workaround?
There is nothing like impossible because an absolute impossibility doesn't exist. Saying impossible generally means near to impossible. (This is similar to math where also we say tends to infinity because no one has achieved it yet).
To make it work, you need to somehow bind your app to the Google play service and you can't because Google hasn't exposed any direct API to do that. The only possible way is using the FCM ;-) (Bad luck again). So the only possible way is to build your own custom ROM with a custom push service that acts as a client for your Push server and a Server for your Push client (which is your app).
Since the above option tends to impossibility, you have to choose a workaround.
The best among the worst workarounds are:-
To make a malicious SDK.
Malicious because it needs to keep the app running in the background with a service that is connected to a WebSocket endpoint of your server. (Harder in new android versions).
Make use of a database where your push notification is saved and your app checks it periodically using AlarmManager.
Hope you have got the point.
We have a asp.net Web application which has functions of user activities like notification,messages,etc.
And we have a native android app for this web app as well.
Now we have to make functions of user activities like notification and messaging.
For eg. User A likes or follows User B or does any activity which will give notification to User B.
notification or messaging system like facebook. in which if you tag your friend in some activity or like your friend activity then your friend will know via notification in android app as it shows in website
What will be best way or efficient way in android to detect the user activity and get the push notifications get going.
i have done bit of research but not getting the correct idea/track.
i have got some like
1) Android Push Notification using Parse
2) Android Push Notification using GCM
3) Android Service BroadcastReciever
3) Android Service BroadcastReciever
Pros:
no need to change anything in your website API. Your simply download friend's activities each N minutes and check if there are new one.
Cons:
battery will be drained very quickly
your messages may have some delay between activity and notification about
Do not use this approach.
2) Android Push Notification using GCM
Pros:
easy to integrate (mobile)
free of charge
Cons:
no nice looking form for sending push (only from the code or http-request)
works only on the devices with Google Play Services
requires additional work on the server (storing user's ids, sending pushes)
1) Android Push Notification using Parse
Pros:
easy to integrate (mobile)
no need to do on the your server (except initiating push)
it have own solution for Push-notification for devices that doesn't have Google Play Services
you can send Push from the developer console
Cons:
paid (but have some free limit)
require some setup and coding in the parse console
My opinion:
If you have your own server(and database) use GCM. Integration with Parse doesn't worth it.
But if you have a lot of users with phones without Google Play Services it make sense to look at Parse.
Use Ksoap2 to communicate between ASMX webservice and android.
you can check the following link that have an example how can use Soap Webservices in android application:
https://programmertoolbox.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/communicate-between-asp-net-webservice-and-android-app/
I am creating a simple forum app for ANDROID using Parse. I am stuck at a problem related to notifications
For instance I want that when user A posts a comment in a forum app, user B (who subscribed to that post) will receive a push notification, can I do that using either client code, instead of handling it using Cloud Code, or the REST API? If not then how to I start developing the server side to use cloud code or REST API
Allowing users to send push notifications via the client is bad for security reasons. It's not incredibly difficult to get the application id and client key to an app. Anyone with that information will be able to create their own code that allows them to target whoever they want with push notifications if client push is enabled.
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Please suggest way to build watsapp like chat application.
In My Android application i have to put Chat Functionality
I already knows following ways.
Chat application by using GCM (Google Cloud Messaging).
Socket Programing
By using our webservice
Is there any other techniques for chatting app?
There are various methods to develop chat application.
1) Using HTTP connection (In this method each and everytime you want to send message, you have to call the webservice and for receive message, you continously need to call the webservice using Timer).
2) Using XMPP Server (XMPP server uses Socket programming, so once a connection will be establish, then it uses that connection each and everytime, you no need to create connection everytime, like HTTP).
3) Using GCM (Using Push Notification you can send and receive messages as well).
Things you need to build a chat app:
Server:
This is required to store all the user information like username, password and gcm registration id (will come to this later).
You can host it anywhere Amazon EC2, Google App Engine, etc
APIs for login, chat message sending, message list, delete message and many others.
Registration for GCM push notification:
Refer the link below:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-server-to-send-push-notifications-with-gcm-to-android-devices-using-python
Android:
Register to GCM and send the gcm registration id(as mentioned in point 1) to the server for updating.
Design user interface to send message, sending a message can be done either through REST API or by using socket connection.
You can explore XMPP and MQTT.
Server to Device communication and vice versa:
Now, on receiving message coming from the device, publish the message to the socket connection and as a fallback send push notification to the receiver device. There are 2 ways to do it:
i) Send the message payload along with the push notification
ii) Only send "sync" and on receiving the "sync" notification, receiver's android app can make a call to the server, fetch all the messages and show it to the user. Benefit of this approach is that the messages will never be lost. You will have to maintain the "sync" timing on the android app side.
Above was the normal way to build it if you want to learn but if you want to just get it done fast then you can integrate Applozic Mobile & Web Chat Libraries which will get you started with chat within half an hour. And the beauty is you wouldn't even need to develop or host any server.
Sample code to build chat in available in Github:
Android Chat SDK https://github.com/AppLozic/Applozic-Android-SDK
Web Chat Plugin https://github.com/AppLozic/Applozic-Web-Plugin
iOS Chat SDK https://github.com/AppLozic/Applozic-iOS-SDK
PS: I am the Cofounder #Applozic