[Discussion] Android Push Notification Alternatives Without FCM/Google Services Dependency

[productdevbook]

Background

NitroPing currently relies on Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for Android push notifications. However, this creates a dependency on Google Mobile Services (GMS), which:

• Prevents distribution through F-Droid
• Excludes users on de-Googled Android ROMs (GrapheneOS, LineageOS, etc.)
• Raises privacy concerns for users who prefer to avoid Google services
• Limits self-hosting capabilities for truly independent infrastructure

Question for the Community

We're exploring alternatives to FCM for Android push notifications. We'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on the following:

Potential Solutions We're Considering:

1. UnifiedPush Protocol

   • Open standard for decentralized push notifications
   • WebPush compatible (as of 2024)
   • Supports multiple distributors (ntfy, Gotify, etc.)
   • Questions: Has anyone successfully implemented this in production? What are the battery life implications?

2. Gotify

   • Self-hosted push notification server
   • Simple REST API
   • Native Android client
   • Questions: How reliable is it for production use? Any scaling concerns?

3. MQTT/WebSocket Persistent Connections

   • Direct connection approach
   • Full control over the implementation
   • Questions: Battery drain? Connection reliability on different Android versions?

4. Polling/Pull-based Approach

   • Simple to implement
   • No persistent connections needed
   • Questions: Obviously not ideal for real-time, but viable as a fallback?

What We Need From You

• Your Experience: Have you implemented FCM-free push notifications? What worked? What didn't?
• Battery Life: What's the real-world battery impact of these alternatives?
• Reliability: How do these solutions perform across different Android versions and device manufacturers?
• User Adoption: Would your users accept installing a separate app (like UnifiedPush distributor)?
• Other Solutions: Are there alternatives we haven't considered?

Goals

• Maintain FCM as the default for users who prefer it
• Add support for at least one privacy-respecting alternative
• Enable F-Droid distribution
• Support de-Googled Android devices

Looking forward to your insights! 🚀

Related Resources

• UnifiedPush Specification
• Gotify Documentation
• F-Droid Inclusion Policy