Google cloud and xmpp server

Question

my team is building an android instant messaging app (like weChat or Line) and we heard that gcm can really make things easy for us

But while I was reading about google cloud messaging service, I realized that there were few components that must be thought of before doing the project

So I am guessing that there are 3 parts to gcm: gcm server, app server(3rd party), and application itself, and the question i have is with app server. I understand that gcm will work as a xmpp server, but what about the app server, does it have to be xmpp server as well? or can it be any server that can just send http request to gcm server? Thank you

Answer 1

There are two ways to connect to GCM server. The simple way is sending HTTP requests to GCM server. This gives you cloud to device (server to application) messaging functionality.

The more complicated way is to establish an XMPP connection with the GCM cloud connection server, which gives you both cloud to device and device to cloud messaging.

If you don't need device to cloud messaging (which mean sending messages from your application to your server via the GCM server), your server will only have to send HTTP requests to GCM server.