Android Question Will push notifications work on Wifi-Only Tablets?

[JohnC]

My operating theory of push notifications is that they are just hidden SMS messages that "send" a message to an android device. However, SMS messages need a fixed ID (cell number) to send something to the device because the IP address of an android devices can constantly change, so the message can not be simply sent to an "IP" address - there needs to be a non-changing ID to "push" a message. to a device.

But wifi-only tablets don't have cell phone numbers, so SMS messages can not normally be sent to them.

The only other solution to send to a device (in which it's IP address can change) is for the device to *constantly* "poll" a known server to see if there are any new messages for that device. If firebase push messages are based on this "polling" method, then it could "push" messages to a wifi-only tablet.

So, can firebase notifications push a message to a wifi-only tablet?

 

[JordiCP]

The functional model, to the user, could be similar to "hidden SMS messages", but this does not mean that they use their cell-based technology.
Don't worry about IPs, there's a socket mechanism between the device and the service provider (gcm or Apple APN) that makes the whole process transparent to the user, and is not dependant on the radio connection technology. So you are not sending a push notification to an IP address, but to Firebase or APNs and they take care of the rest.

From HERE
"Contrary to a polling mechanism, where devices periodically connect to a backend server to fetch new updates, which takes up battery power, CPU cycles, and network bandwidth, devices can instead receive push notifications by instantiating and maintaining an idle background socket connection to a remote server."

 

[KMatle]

Proof: Remove the SIM card of your device and try or use a tablet which has WiFi only. Or set your phone into airplane mode (keep WiFi on). WhatsApp needs a phone number to identify (because they decided to do so) when registering. Facebook uses FCM (or a own solution) too but decided to be good with a login.