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.
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.
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.
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.)
Have a look at the Xtify platform. Looks like this is what they are doing,
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
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.
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.
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!
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
I cannot find where I read it at, but I believe gmail utilizes an open TCP connection to do the e-mail push.
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?
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
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.
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
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
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
Related
I am trying to use GCM service, Every thing is OK except of the long delay that GCM push notification or deliver payload... some times it take to my App 5 minutes receive notification or payload.
I need Immediate delivering...
I know about the roles of GCM, that wait until the other device got online, but in my case I hold two devices and they are online, but I got Delayed notifications!
How does WhatsApp(as example of app that uses GCM) overcome this problem.. and send Immediately?
[ i.e (message of the type: typing, online - last seen) cannot be delayed...]
the GCM Delayed Push is known problem : this issue
my question is: How other app that use GCM overcome this issue
The big players
Lets focus on WhatsApp from a scale point of view. Their scale is global and one of the largest in terms of the market share. For players like these it becomes necessary to provide a consistent and smooth user experience no matter what the circumstances are. This means that the "small fish developers" like us are left with pre-defined rules by the big fish companies. Sometimes, it is the implementation that is challenging enough that a lot of the small time developers have to do with whatever is available.
I would like to take WhatsApp's Push Notification as an example to illustrate the above.
First of all, we must stop associating Push notification with Google's services(i.e, Google Play Services) exclusively. Would a device without Google Play services won't receive Push notifications? No, of course it can -- try focusing on the core mechanism of a push notification
How do Push Notifications work - Sockets!
Contrary to a protocol like HTTP which assumes a client-server architecture and is a uni-directional protocol(server can't initiate communication by itself), a plain socket enables communication bi-directionally.
You want to implement your own File transfer protocol over socket? You can!
You want to implement your own Chatting protocol over socket? You can!
You want to implement your own Push notifications protocol over socket? You can!
A socket is the canvas of communication over a network. You can pretty much do anything. Personally we have developed a custom request-response protocol in our organization.
Multiple implementations
Don't stick with default GCM/FCM notification messages protocol or implementation. You can deploy a mechanism to maintain a persistent socket connection with the device and can listen to whatever the server wants to push.
WhatsApp uses both GCM/FCM as well as their proprietary XMPP server implementation for Push notifications
WhatsApp(and several other Apps) rely upon GCM/FCM(as option 1 - the default) as it is present as a system App on lot of devices and therefore holds a special status where it is very less likely to be killed unlike a normal App.
For devices that do not have play services, your custom socket connection is relied upon. It may be that FCM is preferred over socket when the former is available but those are upto you to manage.
From WhatsApp's latest build(2.19.203):
Notice that the relevant permission for FCM is present.
Suspected socket implementation: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/43970/how-is-whatsapp-able-to-receive-messages-when-not-in-use
XMPP based Push Notifications
From, https://www.quora.com/Does-WhatsApp-use-GCM-to-exchange-messages
No, whatsapp doesn't use GCM[NOT entirely true]. It uses a modified version of XMPP
called FunXMPP instead. It changes the XML keywords in message frames
to save bandwidth as it's users aka mostly mobile network users,
doesn't have a good internet connection. The replacements can be found
here: mgp25/Chat-API (I am not the author though)
They have even asked for whitelisting of any port(custom) in use by them.
So, WhatsApp does it. Facebook does it. Google does it. A lot of these companies do this. You can do it as well(to an extent) using Ejjaberd, Openfire or some other technology and having a proper client side implementation for the same.
Chinese ROMs
Some chinese ROMs have taken it even further and radically changed the way the memory and processes are managed in Android. As an example, in Oppo if the Application doesn't have Auto Start turned on, it will not let you do anything once your App is killed. No hopes of any experience whatsoever except hoping that the user will open the App again. In these cases, these OEMs have whitelisted WhatsApp, Facebook, Google and other players selectively. So, who suffers?
Us. Period.
When sending your notification you could set the priority-parameter to "high".
From the docs:
By default, messages are sent with normal priority. Normal priority optimizes the client app's battery consumption, and should be used unless immediate delivery is required. For messages with normal priority, the app may receive the message with unspecified delay.
When a message is sent with high priority, it is sent immediately, and the app can wake a sleeping device and open a network connection to your server.
I know this answer comes late, nevertheless if you are still facing this issue (or anyone else) please tell me if it helps.
First of all, I know GCM service and I have questions about it too.
If I want to implement a push service, is this the right way; Server waits for connections, Android client connects server and waits for data all the time. So server can send data anytime. Connection is always open with keep alive messages.
About GCM;
Is GCM uses this logic?
Is GCM works on all Android devices? I mean is it guaranteed that if a device using Android OS, it also supports this Google service?
If GCM is not a guaranteed service on Android, how should I handle the case that there is no GCM support on device. Or is this a negligible case?
Is GCM uses this logic?
Generally yes, though bear in mind that there are a lot more details.
is it guaranteed that if a device using Android OS, it also supports this Google service?
No. It is only going to be on devices that legitimately have the Play Store and the rest of Google's proprietary app suite. It will not be on the Kindle Fire, the OUYA, or other devices that are using Android purely from the open source project.
how should I handle the case that there is no GCM support on device
Amazon has a GCM equivalent for the Kindle Fire series, IIRC.
Beyond that, since GCM is not a guaranteed delivery service, you need a fallback plan even for "normal" Android devices.
For example, let's suppose that you are writing an app to show news headlines to the user. In the absence of any push notification, you poll for new headlines every four hours, or when the user presses a "refresh" button in the UI. With GCM, your server can push down headlines as they arrive, which your app can pick up. This gives users on "normal" devices fresher data, but still covers cases where you miss some GCM messages or for devices that do not support GCM.
Adding to what CommonsWare mentions about GCM, you may want to look at MQTT as another pub/sub mechanism; It works on any device that can run Java. Here is a link where I try to explain how it works.
That links applies to LAN messaging but it works over the internet as well. It is the mechanism that the Facebook chat app uses. On that link you will find another link to a git where I show MQTT in use on a simple home automation project. If you have any questions, I can try to answer them.
What's the best way to send constantly updating data from a server (over a REST API or a socket) to an iOS or Android app? Should I create a socket connection and have a socket server that pumps out data, or should I have the app periodically poll a backend resource? Thanks!
Should I create a socket connection and have a socket server that
pumps out data
This is an option. I know some top apps on the play store that use web sockets for streaming data.
Have the app periodically poll a backend resource
I would recommend against this. Polling drains the battery. The android OS will keep the CPU in idle mode at times and constant polling can wake the CPU up and cause a drain in battery. Users wont like that. You are also wasting processing power when there are no results from the server.
The easiest way to send push notifications / minor updates to the android phone is via GCM. The GCM messages are delivered in near real-time (I noticed a lag of about a second for my apps). The payload is limited to 4k and the messages are stored for up to 4 weeks. This is another option you can consider based on your use case.
The typical model I follow is to hit the server on a specified interval and download the updated data.
Polling is bad, it drains out the battery
If you want to update the screen when the application is in the foreground, it is better to go with Socket Connection. You can see the changes in realtime.
For this, you need to create a socket server and open a connection between the device and the server.
https://www.raywenderlich.com/3437391-real-time-communication-with-streams-tutorial-for-ios
I would suggest to use MQTT protocol to publish and subscribe data. Libraries for iOS(Moscapsule) and Android(Paho) for integrating MQTT protocol are available and can easily be integrated in mobile apps.
Backend needs to be configured to support MQTT also. Detail information about how MQTT works can be found here.
I am going to paste my accepted answer from a similar question that was posted a few hours ago.
It can be done using sockets or polling the server but I wouldn't recommend either for a production level app. You will eventually need security features and as a frontend developer, it would be difficult to start from scratch.
I would suggest using a third party service. Take a look at Space Cloud. It is an open source alternative to Firebase where you can use your own database and has built in security features. If you want to go deeper, it uses Apache Kafka for realtime database features.
If those don't suit you then the best option would be to go with GCM.
should I have the app periodically poll a backend resource?
this must be the last option to put in consideration. as long as the client number increases you need to scale out backend/server and this is not as simple as putting an another server next to existing one.
the perfect solution will be a push oriented design and best approach will be to register clients to events and server will push clients if that specific events occur.
you need to be more specific about your business case. you had mentioned real-time in your question but what kind of real-time is that. is it a video streaming, chat application or just ordinary rest calls?
Typically, you'll want your server to push updates to the clients because polling is expensive, may not scale well with N number of clients, and will drain your phone batteries faster. Depending on your server technology:
.NET/Core:
May want to take a look at SignalR to push notifications from the backend to your client apps.
Java:
May want to take a look at Atmosphere to push notifications from the backend to your client apps.
I have used SignalR with good results publishing to phone clients. Have not used Atmosphere, but it has good reviews.
I have already implemented a push notification system for the android. My system works as following: From my server I communicate through the Http protocol with the google servers. Then the google servers are sending the notification to the mobiles. So, I was wondering if there are any alternatives ways to implement this functionality. However, I want something which will be reliable.
P.S. I would like to hear opinions from people that they implement something similar.
Not sure why you're looking for something else, if you've already got it working through the Google servers, but a good system to send push notifications easily is Urban Airship.
I was working with some Chinese tablets that could not receive android push notifs (very annoying). I had to implement a Comet like system on android.
Basically, on the android device, I created a service which essentially polled a URL. But since polling is very battery intensive, I used a push technique called long-polling. I had the Android http client set a very long timeout. I then on the server side had the server hold the connection open also for a very long time. What would end up happening is that as soon as a message had to be passed, the connection would finish, and the android device would get the message immediately. This is just an additional method of "push" technology.
The only other option not discussed here is a persistant TCP/IP connection. This can be very dicey because Android could kill the service at will, and it can be somewhat battery intensive as well.
From my experience, GCM is the best method out there, and I wish there was something as good as it available for iOS Devices!
I installed today from Market, the Yahoo Mail application and I was reading it offers push message notification technique. Indeed it works, as I got exactly the same moment the alert on my desktop computer and my mobile mail client.
How is it accomplished?
There already is another question discussing how to implement push notification without the cloud to device messaging in older system.
There are several frameworks that give you push abillity. They all require a running a small background thread that is polling a server at a very short interval(Bad for data rate and battery) or keep an open connection to a server that is kept alive somehow and the client is notified every time a new message is waiting on the server.
Have a look at the question and maybe choose on of the mentioned frameworks, the frameworks will reuse the same service for all applications that are installed on the phone using the same framework and therefore save battery and general system usage.
Soon, you will be able to use the Cloud-to-Device Messaging (C2DM) system, though it will require Android 2.2 or higher. You might also want to watch the Google I|O 2010 conference presentation on it, which gives a few clues as to how they implemented it.
Without installing the app, setting up my router to capture packets, and doing some packet inspection I can't tell you exactly how they do it. At the lowest level it's as simple as keeping an open TCP connect to a remote server and having the server sending the client a packet when it needs to do something. My educated guess on the specific way they are doing it is either with IMAP IDLE, or XMPP.