In-App messaging vs Push Messages: Pros and Cons

Question

I am finding difficulty to know about in-App messaging.

And how to do it.

I have the following things in my mind,

in-App messaging:

1. Is an idea to receive contents from a server only the app is alive on screen.

2. This is possible only the app is active.

3. App should make a call to server and needs to receive contents.

Push messages

1. Is an idea to receive contents from a server even though the app is not active.

2. This is possible at any time, we can notify users while our app is closed and running also.

3. App do not need to make a call.

4. But the app should have code implemented to receive push notifications.

5. We can use GCM for Android and Push Notification for iOS.

Am i right with my understandings ?

If i am not and i missed something , please give your hand to take me out of this confusion.

Thanks,

Answer 1

When I think of in-app messaging, to me it means that you're sending a message from one part of your app to another. "Sending a message" is a very generic term that can be accomplished in a number of different ways. Among others:

• Sending a broadcast to a message receiver. You'll need to call sendBroadcast to a BroadcastReceiver.
• You can pass a Handler to another component and it can post messages to your handler where they're processed
• You can use a third party library such as the open source "otto" library
• You can build your own version using the observer pattern.

For push messages, your understanding seems about right. However, look at this post for details on the last item, "We can use GCM for Android and Push Notification for iOS".

Answer 2

You are right, though I would change the term in-App Messaging to Pull Messages, since you are referring to the app pulling messages from the server, while in-App Messaging implies that the application is sending the messages.

You points are mostly correct, though Pull Messages does not require the app to be in the foreground (on screen) - a part of your app can run in the background and fetch messages from the server. This is more doable on Android, since iOS limits the operation an app can do in the background.

Another point that should be added to your list is that Push messages also have the advantage of conserving battery life.

Answer 3

In-App Messaging can also be viewed from another standpoint. AT&T has an API for In-App messaging that allows you to send SMS cross carrier. The API can be found here. along with others. From this you can imagine the ability to message from within an app, say a game or a social app and retrieve responses. There are examples for all the platforms you have added as tags. It might be good for you to look this over as it can expand your understanding of the concept in a different direction than the other answers, Somewhere in all of these you will find what you are looking for.