There are a huge number of Android mobile phone users, and some people joke that domestic Android and Android are different. Domestic mobile phones are generally equipped with deeply customized Android systems, and the ecology is chaotic and cannot be unified, without the pure and smooth feeling of native Android. In addition to the inability to use the Google Store and the incomplete application review mechanism, the lack of a unified push mechanism is also an important reason.
Push mechanism, the current situation is full of chaos
We all know that mobile applications need to send notification messages to users’ mobile devices in some way, such as instant messaging applications. New news, event information on e-commerce applications, push notifications of major breaking news, etc.
Among several major smart device operating systems, iOS provides a unified message push service. All messages must be initiated through Apple servers and pushed to designated devices. Regardless of whether the app is active or not, notifications can be delivered to the user's device in a timely manner.
Android also has a native push machine GCM (Google Cloud Messaging), but due to some well-known reasons, the GCM server is almost unavailable in China, and this mechanism is not mandatory. This has led to developers generally developing their own push services for the Android platform or using push services developed by third parties to meet the push needs of applications.
To put it simply, when we use an iOS device to browse Weibo, we receive a WeChat message. At this time, the system will notify you that you have received a WeChat message. However, WeChat is not started in the background at this time. The notification is Through Apple's server push, WeChat will only be launched in your background when you click on this notification. But on Android devices, when we receive a WeChat message, WeChat will start itself in the background and deliver the message through the resident push service. Each Android application that adopts this method must stay in the background and wake up frequently.
In order to solve this situation, domestic manufacturers have also made some positive attempts in the past. Xiaomi's Mi Push is the pioneer of unified Android push in China. As early as 2013, MIUI V5 adopted an aligned wake-up mechanism. It limits the frequent wake-up of background push services and wakes them up uniformly within a certain period of time to achieve power saving.
Alignment wake-up mechanism diagram
However, this is a simple and crude solution. Although it limits the wake-up of background services, it also causes some problems. Push notifications cannot be delivered in time, which is especially fatal for applications such as alarm clocks and instant messaging. So Xiaomi later launched Mi Push, a system-level solution, to achieve an iOS-like push experience. Applications that support Mi Push do not need to have a permanent push service in the background. They only need to integrate the SDK in the application to implement push through the MIUI server.
Later, manufacturers such as Huawei also launched their own push platforms, and third-party technology providers such as Getui also emerged.
Oasis Feng, an independent Android developer who developed Quick Picture Browsing and Greenify, once took the lead in launching the "Android Green Application Convention" in an attempt to change the domestic Android ecosystem from the bottom up. Although the Convention has made some gratifying progress, it still seems a bit weak for the vast number of applications and models.
The general environment is that many domestic developers have used this function as a weapon, staying in the background without restrictions, and pushing crazily for the sake of activity and retention, resulting in today's chaotic situation in the domestic Android ecosystem. .
We need change from the top down.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology took action and unified push was put on the agenda.
Finally, after rectifying the operators, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology swung its sword at the App developers who competed maliciously.
As early as July this year, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology's Tier Terminal Laboratory, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, announced that it would establish the "Android Unified Push Alliance" to combat the chaos of Android system and application message push. Thiel Labs stated that it will work with multiple manufacturers in China to formulate technical standards for Android Unified Push Service (UPS), aiming to establish a unified standard for domestic Android message push services and provide better end users. user experience, and at the same time better solve the message push needs for application developers.
And this afternoon, October 16, 2017, the founding meeting of the Unified Push Alliance was successfully held in Beijing. From China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (hereinafter referred to as "CAICT"), Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Gionee, Meizu, Nubia, Lenovo, Qihoo 360, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, Meituan, Ping An Representatives from 75 companies including Technology, Personal Tweet, Aurora, Spreadtrum, Google, and Samsung attended the alliance conference to seek to promote the development of China's mobile Internet industry.
The formal establishment of the Unified Push Alliance marks that the mobile Internet industry will work together to end the chaotic state of the domestic Android ecosystem. In the future, Android phones will not need to frequently wake up applications to receive push messages, thereby greatly reducing harassment to users, saving phone memory, traffic, and power, and providing users with a better user experience.
At the founding meeting of the alliance, 19 units including China Academy of Information and Communications Technology were elected as governing units. China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Gitui were elected as directors. The chairman unit and vice chairman unit elected Dr. Wang Jingyao of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology as the secretary-general of the alliance. At the subsequent alliance work meeting, three working groups, namely the collaborative promotion group, the technical standards group, and the evaluation and certification group, were established to be responsible for promoting the specific work of the alliance.
From this list of participating manufacturers, we can see many interesting things.
First of all, Xiaomi and Huawei already have their own mature push solutions, and third-party push solution providers such as Personal Push and Jiguang also already occupy a considerable market share. There is no doubt that the establishment of the Unified Push Alliance will separate Their cake. It is still unknown whether this joining is a last resort in response to the call, or whether there are other cooperation agreements.
In addition, Google is unexpectedly included. What does Google think of setting up its own business outside of Android's original mechanisms? Surprisingly, Google's attitude is very friendly, and it recognizes and congratulates the establishment of the Unified Push Alliance. According to Thiel Labs, technical experts from Google have already joined in the service workshop organized as early as March 6. They believe that unified push will play a positive role in promoting the development of China's Android industry and will continue to pay attention to relevant developments. Google does this on the one hand to improve the domestic Android experience and thereby increase market share. After all, even without Google services, patent fees alone are a large amount of revenue every year. On the other hand, it also shows goodwill to the domestic market and paves the way for future return.
However, this inaugural meeting only marks that system-level unified push is officially on the agenda. It is still unknown when it will be put into use. Although people always say not to reinvent the wheel, when GCM cannot be used and manufacturers work independently, having a unified domestic solution is the best outcome at present.