Bad sides of C2dM

Question

We all know that with Android 2.2 there is a push notification system (C2dM). However, I do not see many developers use it. In my next project, I plan (hopefully) to use this system. Therefore, before I delve into this, I would like to know what are the bad sides of this? Why don't people use it?

This cannot be simply due to incompatibility with systems older than 2.2.

Answer 1

Good question. Here are my 2 cents:

• C2DM is still in beta
• There is a limit to the number of messages you can send. If you need to send a large number of messages, you need to explain it to Google and get approval.
• The device must have an Android market with one google account.
• The documentation is a little flaky [My personal opinion]. for example, the Registration Form asks for the application package name and ROLE account ID on the same page, which leads to an incorrect display that was once registered, the package name is tied to the ROLE account ID and can only receive messages from it.

I do not think that people do not use it. Rather, I find that most developers are very interested in this and are implementing it. My Message C2DM has the most visitors to all of my posts.

However, there may be a problem for individual developers who develop stand-alone applications. They may be reluctant to use it, as they will need to support the server-side component to send messages.

[My ans will be updated. if I find anything else.]

Answer 2

I think many do not use it because

• They do not need this.
• So far this is not very straightforward.
• Above, it is in beta.

With Apple Push, it's pretty straight forward (on the device side), you just make a call and it gives you the device token. With C2DM you need (although you can dig into google account) to invite a user for google account, then you need to hope that they do not have too many applications already registered for C2DM (now the limit is 100).

On the server side, I would say that C2DM is much simpler than push, you just call the service, with APNS you need to configure the channels, use certificates, etc. This is not easy for most. C2DM just calls an HTTP call. The server aspect adds a bit of cost, and hosting services are not always cheap.

I do not see many applications that need this, so now Twitter and Facebook (although they can use something else, I'm not sure).

And this is a beta version. Do developers want to invest a lot of time in beta service? Not so, some are at risk.

I used it, and I like it, I have it in combination with APNS and still had great success.