Notifications in WP8 - why don't they push correctly?

[ImmortalWarrior]

From a developer's perspective, I was wondering if anyone had any real information, or comments made by the Windows Phone team, as to why push notifications are so spotty on the platform?

I was thinking back to the days when I had an ancient Bold 9000, and I realized that I really missed the reliability of facebook, twitter, and messenger notifications to be almost instant. The only notifications that are instant on my Lumia 920 are my emails when set to "As they arrive".

So what technical difference does Microsoft have set up that causes this to happen, and has Joe Belfiore or others commented on it at all?

Note: I understand the API problem with facebook, but I'm talking about how the facebook app can alert me of a notification (albeit late) but the notification list under the Me tile won't update for hours... and there are other examples of this, not limited to facebook. Messenger is iffy as well.

*Edit: apparently there is no way to alter the title of a thread. Mods, feel free to correct my poor typo

 

[Omar Zak]

Re: Notifications in WP8 - why don'y they push correctly?

i also suffer some "chaos" in Whatsapp notifications .... but im sure they will fix it soon ...
it tells you that you have a message and when you open the app you dont find it, return back to main screen and the notification is still there

 

[rockstarzzz]

Re: Notifications in WP8 - why don'y they push correctly?

You can correct thread title by first clicking edit post. Then advanced. Now thread title can be edited.

 

[Bartdog]

Re: Notifications in WP8 - why don'y they push correctly?

Facebook works better for me than, say ESPN. its the worst. Compared to ESPN, I'd say most are acceptable. Sometimes fox news or CNN will get "stuck" for a few days and I'll have to restart the phone to wake them up. Nothing wakes up ESPN.
Sent from my Lumia 920 using Board Express

 

[ChMar]

Re: Notifications in WP8 - why don'y they push correctly?

Look at developper docs. When you opt to send notifications you decide from many types (live tile update, etc). And depending on what you choose you get them delivered instalntly or at 240secs or later. For voip apps for im apps it makes sense to send them imediatly. For other scenarios not so. You can leave with a lag of 2 minutes for a news reader app(or for a facebook mesage saying that you received a comment or a like). This is also true for windows 8. The reason is that every network transfer consume battery. So having them centralized by the os and in batches(receive many simultaneous push live tile updates but at lower rate) increases bataery life and reduces interface lag. This is a really nice feature and it's one of the many reasons the os perfoms so well and can run using lower resources as opposed to a more permisive os like android.

 

[ChMar]

Re: Notifications in WP8 - why don'y they push correctly?

@bartdog the problem you encounter is because those apps don't use push notifications. They probably use background agents to stream data periodically. And if that background agent crashes you have to relaunch the app for the background agent to be rearmed. A good windows 8 or windows phone 8 app requires more polishing in order to preserve batery life and os fluidity and is usualy best complemented with a cloud component that most apps don't have

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

I should note that I am an applications developer and am well versed in the nuances of cross network communication. That being said, I mean mostly that built in features have poor push notifications. Messenger is a prime example. You can be "online" and it will not receive notifications. This problem also affects the group chat of family room. This shouldn't happen.