Google Cloud Messaging for Android – Understanding the Basics

Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM) is a service that allows you to send data from your server to your users’ Android-powered device. This could be a lightweight message telling your app there is new data to be fetched from the server (for instance, a movie uploaded by a friend), or it could be a message containing up to 4kb of payload data (so apps like instant messaging can consume the message directly).

The GCM service handles all aspects of queuing of messages and delivery to the target Android application running on the target device. GCM is completely free no matter how big your messaging needs are, and there are no quotas.

Here are the primary characteristics of Google Cloud Messaging (GCM):

•  It allows 3rd-party application servers to send messages to their Android applications.
• An Android application on an Android device doesn’t need to be running to receive messages. The system will wake up the Android application via Intent broadcast when the message arrives, as long as the application is set up with the proper broadcast receiver and permissions.
• It does not provide any built-in user interface or other handling for message data. GCM simply passes raw message data received straight to the Android application, which has full control of how to handle it. For example, the application might post a notification, display a custom user interface, or silently sync data.
• It requires devices running Android 2.2 or higher that also have the Google Play Store application installed, or an emulator running Android 2.2 with Google APIs. However, you are not limited to deploying your Android applications through Google Play Store.
• It uses an existing connection for Google services. For pre-3.0 devices, this requires users to set up their Google account on their mobile devices. A Google account is not a requirement on devices running Android 4.0.4 or higher.