G+_T. J. Sexton Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 Question for Gina Trapani and/or any developers in this community, as I can't seem to find a good answer anywhere: If I understand correctly, the reason I don't see a performance hit on my iPhone from all the notifications I receive is because iOS apps (mostly) push notifications through Apple and thus don't hog any background resources, while on my Nexus 7 each app that I subscribe to notifications for runs constantly in the background in order to provide them. First off, is that something like correct? Second, is this what the new "Play Services" notification service is designed to improve? (And do you think it will?) I'm kind of a notification junkie, so it makes a big difference to me in deciding whether to stick with iPhone for another 2-year contract or jump ship now for an HTC One, Xperia, Moto X, etc. Thanks, anyone, for any help you can provide! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Joseph Cappellino Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Most apps should be using GCM (Google Cloud Messaging). This provides push notifications, similar to Apple. But, it is they're choice to implement this, their own push service, or worse polling (check for a message every x time interval). So, it depends on the app and the developer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_T. J. Sexton Posted July 31, 2013 Author Share Posted July 31, 2013 Thank you, Joseph Cappellino . That is very helpful. At the least, then, one would imagine apps will be moving more in that direction. That is promising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Matt Bonnett Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I guess it would really depend on what the nature of the notifications are. Although everything is moving to the 'cloud' these days, some things are device-centric and would not work well using GCM. Pocket Casts for example does 99% of its work on the device including polling regularly for new podcasts and then downloading them. There's not much for push messaging to do there if anything. Though an advancement they could make is a Google Reader-esque server polling of podcasts, frequency based on popularity, and then push message the clients to trigger a download. But this is purely an example. I do agree though apps need to start moving away from relying on staying running in the background constantly for things and let Google and/or the core OS handle things a little more. I am an avid Android fan but this is a point I will give iOS for being forward thinking on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Joseph Cappellino Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Matt Bonnett - this is true, but could PocketCasts do the same on iOS? It would probably have to have some cloud service or a timer (if allowed on iOS). I'm an avid Android fan and developer, but I have yet to develop for iOS (nor plan to ;-) ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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