googlecloudmessaging
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Boomerang gets pushy with Gmail notifications, multi-message selection
Boomerang's latest update adds tweaked functionality, moving it from one-trick unicorn territory to a possible Gmail app-replacement. Developer Baydin's improvements include Google Cloud Messaging-based push notifications, the ability to "send from" and multi-message selection for bulk mailbox organizing. If you're a fan of the email giant's new tabbed inbox, you're out of luck for now -- everything here is still lumped into one list. If you ask politely enough though, we're sure the dev will consider supporting it; version 0.8's shiny features were community suggested, after all.
Google Cloud Messaging now part of Google Play Services
More goodies for devs here at I/O: Google just announced that Google Cloud Messaging -- the push-notification system that debuted last year -- is now a part of its Google Play Services, and it will get three new features, to boot. These include "persistent connections," which should help push out messages quickly, upstream messaging for sending data from your app to your servers and -- most importantly -- synced notifications across devices. This means that if you dismiss an alert on your phone, it will similarly hit the dust on your slate. Mountain View recently announced that Cloud Messaging will now integrate with all versions of Chrome and Chrome OS, so today's news is a (very big) cherry on top. %Gallery-188425%
There have been 900 million Android activations, 48 billion app installs to date
What would a Google liveblog be without some updates on Android activations? Well, in case you're curious, the newest figure is 900 million -- a big jump from the 400 million activations reported last year. What's more, Google says there have been 48 billion app installations to date, including 2.8 billion in the last month alone, with revenue per user 2.5 times what it was a year ago. To put that in context, that's not far off Apple's latest numbers: the company has logged just under 50 billion downloads of its own. Moving on to Chrome, meanwhile, Google is touting 750 million active users, and that includes not just the desktop, but phones and tablets too. That's up from 450 million users at this time last year, with 300 million switching over in the past 12 months. Finally, if you want to get really granular, Google also gave an update on its Google Cloud Messaging service, which was announced last year. Apparently, 60 percent of apps are now using GCM, and 17 billion messages are pushed through the service per day. We'll let you chew on that for a moment while you follow the liveblog, but it seems to us now would be a good time to start placing bets on when we hit the 1-billion-activations mark.%Gallery-188420%
Push notifications come to Chrome and Chrome OS with battery life as a focus
The push notifications on our mobile devices aren't just for convenience's sake -- they let apps stay idle and conserve precious battery life. That would explain why Google Cloud Messaging is now integrated with all versions of Chrome and Chrome OS, then. While both platforms are usually online as a matter of course, GCM lets developers refresh a web app or extension only when there are noteworthy changes, such as new chats. All end users have to do is sign in. Developers will have to build the feature into their apps before anyone sees the benefits, but we wouldn't be surprised if our Chromebooks last for just a little bit longer in the near future.
