Push Notifications in Android Platform

Question

I am looking to write an app that receives pushed alerts from a server. I found a couple of methods to do this.

1. SMS - Intercept the incoming SMS and initiate

Answer 1

I recommend using GCM - Google Cloud Messaging for Android It's free, and for simple uses it's should be very easy.

However it requires to maintain a 3rd side server to send the notifications on your behalf. If you want to avoid that there are some very good industrial solutions for Android push notifications service:

• Urban Airship - free up to 1M notifications per month, afterwards you are charged per 1000 notifications
• PushApps - free for 1M notifications per month, and unlimited notifications for 19.99 per month
• PushWoosh - free for 1M devices, premium plans are from 39 EURO

Diclaimer - I work in PushApps and also use their product in my applications for over a year now.