Push notification is the ability of a mobile device to receive messages that are pushed from a server. Notifications are received regardless of whether the application is currently running.
The IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Foundation unified push notification mechanism enables sending of mobile notifications to mobile devices. Notifications are sent through the vendor infrastructure. For example, iPhone notifications are sent from the MobileFirst Server to specialized Apple servers, and from there to the relevant phones. The unified push notification mechanism makes the entire process of communicating with the users and devices completely transparent to the developer.
Push notification currently works for SMS, WNS, iOS and Android. iOS apps use the Apple Push Notification Service (APNs), Android apps use Google Cloud Messaging (GCM), and Windows apps use Windows Push Notification Services (WNS). For more information about setting up push notification for each platform, see Setting up push notifications.
Unlike other IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation services, the push server requires outbound connections to Apple and Google servers using ports that are defined by these companies.