Push Notifications

• Offline messages. Send a chat message when a recipient is offline. In this case, a push notification will be sent automatically if the user is offline.
• Offline calls. Make a video/audio call with offline opponents. In this case, a push notification will be sent manually.
• Requests to contact list. Send requests to add a user to the contact list. In this case, a push notification will be sent manually).
• User tags. Send notifications to specific user groups defined by tags.

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Before you begin

1. Register a QuickBlox account. This is a matter of a few minutes and you will be able to use this account to build your apps.
2. Configure QuickBlox SDK for your app. Check out Setup page for more details.
3. Create a user session to be able to use QuickBlox functionality. See Authentication page to learn how to do it.

HTTP v1 API

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1. Generate a new service account key

To generate a new service account key, you need to:

1. Open the Firebase console and select your project.
2. Go to Project settings > Service Accounts.
3. Click on Generate new private key and confirm by clicking Generate key.
4. Securely store the JSON file containing the private key that will be downloaded

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2. Navigate to the push notifications section on QuickBlox dashboard

To navigate to the push notifications section:

1. Head over to QuickBlox dashboard, and choose your application.
2. Select the push notifications tab and navigate to the settings page.
3. Select the Service account key tab

Note: we will remove the Server key tab when it will be discontinued by FCM, you will by default only have the service account key section on the dashboard.

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3. Upload the service account key on QuickBlox dashboard

To upload your service account key:

1. Choose the environment for your service account key. (Development/Production)
2. Click on the browse button and select the JSON file containing the key that was downloaded in step-1.
3. Hit the upload button.

Note: When setting up your environment, it’s important to distinguish between development and production modes. If you’ve uploaded a development certificate, it will only function for subscriptions created in the development environment, and likewise for production. This separation ensures seamless testing and deployment of push notifications across different environments.

API (Legacy) it’s deprecated, not recommended

How to enable Cloud Messaging API (Legacy)

To enable Cloud Messaging API (legacy) instead of Firebase Cloud Messaging API (HTTP V1), please log in to your Firebase account, afterward select your Application and do the following:

1. Click on the Settings icon.
2. Select Project Settings from the drop-down list.

3. In section Project Settings select Cloud Messaging tab.
4. Click on the three-dots (kebab) menu to the right of Cloud Messaging API (Legacy) and choose the Manage API in Google Cloud Console option. You will be redirected to Google Cloud Console.

5. Click the Enable buttons in the Cloud Messaging section.

6. Refresh the Cloud Messaging page and a server key will appear.

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Configure Firebase project and API key

1. To find your FCM server key, go to your Firebase console => Project Settings => Cloud Messaging.

2. Copy the server key to your Dashboard => YOUR_APP => Push Notifications => Settings, select the environment for which you are adding the key and click the Save key. Use the same server key for development and production zones. You can use both these environments up to you.

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Add Firebase to your Project

1. As part of enabling Firebase services in your Android application, you need to add the google-services dependency to your project-level build.gradle file.

buildscript {

    // ...

    dependencies {
        // ...
        classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:4.3.10'
    }
}

2. Add FCM dependency to your app level build.gradle file.

implementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-core:20.0.0"

3. Include a gms plugin to your app level build.gradle file.

apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

4. Download the google-services.json file from your Firebase Project dashboard and put it into your app folder in your Android project.
5. Copy the sender ID value following Firebase console => Project Settings => Cloud Messaging.

6. Edit your app AndroidManifest file and add your Firebase sender ID as well as notification type and environment to integrate automatic push subscription.

<meta-data
    android:name="com.quickblox.messages.TYPE"
    android:value="FCM"/>
<meta-data
    android:name="com.quickblox.messages.SENDER_ID"
    android:value="639872757929"/>
<meta-data
    android:name="com.quickblox.messages.QB_ENVIRONMENT"
    android:value="DEVELOPMENT"/>

• com.quickblox.messages.TYPE - can be GCM or FCM.
• com.quickblox.messages.SENDER_ID - your sender ID from google console (for example, 639872757929).
• com.quickblox.messages.QB_ENVIRONMENT - can be DEVELOPMENT or PRODUCTION.

7. Then you need to setup QBFcmPushListenerService and QBFcmPushInstanceIDService in AndroidManifest.

<service android:name="com.quickblox.messages.services.fcm.QBFcmPushListenerService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.MESSAGING_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

<service android:name="com.quickblox.messages.services.fcm.QBFcmPushInstanceIDService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.INSTANCE_ID_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

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Automatic push subscription

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Enable/Disable push subscription

QBSettings.getInstance().setEnablePushNotification(false);
// by default is true

boolean isEnabled = QBSettings.getInstance().isEnablePushNotification();

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Track subscription status

QBPushManager.getInstance().addListener(new QBPushManager.QBSubscribeListener() {
    @Override
    public void onSubscriptionCreated() {

    }

    @Override
    public void onSubscriptionError(Exception exception, int resultCode) {
        if (resultCode >= 0) {
            // might be Google play service exception
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onSubscriptionDeleted(boolean delete) {

    }
});

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Manual push subscription

1. Set SubscribePushStrategy.NEVER as the main strategy.

// default SubscribePushStrategy.ALWAYS
QBSettings.getInstance().setSubscribePushStrategy(SubscribePushStrategy.NEVER)

SubscribeService.subscribeToPushes(context, false);
SubscribeService.unSubscribeFromPushes(context);

2. And then in your class extended from QBFcmPushListenerService you need to handle when the token is refreshed:

@Override
public void onNewToken(String token) {
    boolean tokenRefreshed = true;
    SubscribeService.subscribeToPushes(context, tokenRefreshed);
}

3. Add your class extended from QBFcmPushListenerService to the Manifest file.

<service android:name="your_file_location.YourFilePushListenerService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.MESSAGING_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

<service android:name="com.quickblox.messages.services.fcm.QBFcmPushInstanceIDService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.INSTANCE_ID_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

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Send push notifications

StringifyArrayList<Integer> userIds = new StringifyArrayList<>();

for (QBUser user : userList) {
    userIds.add(user.getId());
}

QBEvent event = new QBEvent();
event.setUserIds(userIDs);
event.setEnvironment(QBEnvironment.DEVELOPMENT);
event.setNotificationType(QBNotificationType.PUSH);
event.setPushType(QBPushType.GCM);

HashMap<String, Object> customData = new HashMap<>();
customData.put("data.message", "Hello QuickBlox");
customData.put("data.type", "First QuickBlox Push");

event.setMessage(customData);

QBPushNotifications.createEvents(event).performAsync(new QBEntityCallback<QBEvent>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(QBEvent event, Bundle bundle) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(QBResponseException exception) {

    }
});

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Receive push notifications

BroadcastReceiver pushBroadcastReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        String message = intent.getStringExtra("message");
        String from = intent.getStringExtra("from");
    }
};

LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).registerReceiver(pushBroadcastReceiver, new IntentFilter("new-push-event"));

@Override
public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) {
    String from = remoteMessage.getFrom();
    Map<String, String> data = remoteMessage.getData();
}

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Troubleshooting

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Push notifications are not received on Android devices

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A subscription is removed after a push is sent and the push isn’t delivered

1. Some other data is set instead of a correct device registration token. For example, a Firebase project ID, Firebase user token, etc.
2. The client app unregistered itself from GCM/FCM. This can happen if the user uninstalls the application or, on iOS, if the APNs Feedback Service reported the APNs token as invalid.
3. The registration token expired. For example, Google might decide to refresh registration tokens or the APNs token may have expired for iOS devices.
4. The client app was updated, but the new version is not configured to receive messages.