Does firebase handle push notifications?

I am investigating whether firebase and angularfire are a good fit for my upcoming project.

One of the requirements are for users to be notified when the app is closed on new private messages sent to user, ie. push notifications.

Does firebase handle this?

Solution 1:

Yes. This was not the case until recently, though.

Thanks to @libik for providing relevant documentation link:

https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/server#http-request

Update 5/2016 :

on Google io 16 , Google announced FCM - Firebase cloud messaging service.

With the announced expansion of Firebase at Google I/O recently, we also introduced Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) and Firebase Notifications (FN). As a developer, there are lots of updates that you might be able to take advantage of.

see more at : https://developers.googleblog.com/2016/05/google-cloud-messaging-and-firebase.html

documentation : https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/#key_functions

Solution 2:

As of today, the Google I/O has announced the new Firebase Cloud Messaging Service does now support sending push notifications. It integrates with Google Cloud Messaging to deliver messages upstream and downstream!

You can read more about it here:

• Firebase Cloud Messaging

And the Firebase Cloud Messaging reference is here:

• Firebase Cloud Messaging reference

Solution 3:

firebase is a storage. You wouldn't expect storage to do any actions.

For local notification generated by app when it is in the background you can constantly listen to changes in firebase and when the change occurs you can generate your push notification. In order to save the connection time since you are charged by concurrent connections, you can go offline and go online every 5 min for 20s. During this time firebase sdk connects to server, collects all the changes and runs all callbacks. You decide within your app what to do.

If you would like to enjoy remote push notification. You would need to setup a server listening to changes on firebase and talking to APNS which will push the notification to client's device.

Solution 4:

Batch.com is offering a Push Notification service for Firebase

https://batch.com/parse-replacement-with-firebase