Push notifications / C2DM for Kindle Fire?

Question

AFAIK, push notifications require a Google account to work (they piggyback on GTalk), so does that mean for apps for the Kindle Fire are doomed if they use the standard C2DM approach?

I couldn't find any info on push in the Kindle Fire FAQ or anywhere on the web.

Ira

Answer 1

As far as I know yes. Everything I have read indicates that Amazon stripped C2DM support out of the Fire. I know right? If you or your users are willing to root it, installing Google services is an option.

Urban Airship has a push service named Helium which purportedly works with Kindle Fire. I have yet to be able to try it though.

Update 8/13/2013

There is also Amazon SNS. There is a great blog on the topic.

See this code snippet for how to implement a receiver ( from the Amazon Web Services blog):

public class ExternalReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        Log.i("ExternalReceiver","onReceive");
        Bundle extras = intent.getExtras();
        StringBuilder payload = new StringBuilder();

        for(String key : extras.keySet()){
            payload.append(String.format("%s=%s", key, extras.getString(key)) + '\n');
        }

        Intent newIntent = new Intent();
        newIntent.setClass(context, AndroidMobilePushApp.class);
        newIntent.putExtra(context.getString(R.string.msg_field), payload.toString());
            newIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
        context.startActivity(newIntent);
    }
}

Panga

Do you know if GCM is also unavailable on Kindle Fire? GCM is Google's replacement for C2DM. – Crumpler

@Crumpler No, Kindle Fire still does not support GMS (Google Mobile Services), which contains GCM – Panga

@Panga is it possible that still today Kindle Fire does not support GMS? :S – Antonetta

Answer 2

In addition to Urban Airship (mentioned by stevebot), there are similar alternatives:

Parse.com - I've successfully pushed a notification to the Kindle Fire following their quick start guide. Very straight-forward. It's a tiered freemium model, i.e., free depending the volume. Pricing seems very reasonable, comparatively to Urban Airship and Xtify.

Xtify - Should also work, but I have yet to try it. It uses an XMPP connection to send messages. Also appears to be freemium, depending on the number of devices (currently says under 10K devices is free as a "developer special").

Alternatively, ralight gives some good information and resources for implementing your own push using MQTT in a related thread: Android device needs to be connected to server - C2DM, polling or something third?

Providential

Answer 3

I think you can do push using SNS through Amazon Web Services for Kindle Fire.

http://aws.amazon.com/sns/

Folder

+1 helpful answer, another way which you could do notifications. – Panga

While it seems like an obvious use of SNS, my own research seems to indicate that this is not actually possible at the moment. You can hook SNS up to SMS, email, SQS, or HTTP(S), but you can't directly subscribe and receive the messages on the mobile device without polling. – Galicia

Answer 4

It looks like the Kindle Fire is missing EVERYTHING from Google. Our best guess is that Amazon didn't want to sign a contract with Google to get access to their proprietary software (Market, Maps, and other Google services including C2DM). Which helps explain why there are two distinct market apps now (Amazon and Google) as well as all the issues people are discovering with their existing apps.

Paperback

Answer 5

Note that Urban Airship ended support for Helium for Google Android - their custom technology that allowed push notifications to Kindle and NOOK devices (Helium For Google Android Sunset FAQ).

Here (Google Cloud Messaging Support FAQ) they do state:

"We plan to support Kindle via Amazon's Amazon Device Messaging (ADM) service at some point in the future."

Snaffle

Answer 6

I'm just reseaching for the Amazon's way to push on kindel devices. The AWS service for that is the Simple Queue Service (SQS). I did no use it yet, but it seems to be nice since it allows you to send and schedule push messages also for Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and even the Apple guys.

Amazon calls his service Amazon Device Messaging (ADM), on that page you can download the SDK and integrate the API.

Even if this answer is late (four years later), I hope this will help other developers for their research.

Lineate

Answer 7

You can't use C2DM to Kindle. I don't know why Dule's answer above says he could use Parse to push to Kindle - their service is C2DM and there is no mention of a Kindle client in their docs.

Urban Airship works only because they have their own client, which is fine, but it's not standard.

Misquote

Parse is not using C2DM, source: blog.parse.com/2011/07/25/android-push-notifications . – Zingaro

I've actually successfully pushed to a Kindle Fire using Parse, so I can certainly confirm it works and your information about Parse using C2DM is incorrect. Does it not work when you attempted it? – Providential