← PushPig
Android (FCM)
Native Android push via Firebase Cloud Messaging, token handling included.
The PushPig Android app delivers notifications natively via
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), with the reliability and battery efficiency
Android users expect. Your recipients install the app from
Google Play,
join your channel and get every message as a system notification on their phone, even with no
browser open.
Send Android push without your own app
Sending push to Android normally means a mountain of work: build an app, publish it on Google
Play, create a Firebase project, manage service account keys, collect and maintain tokens. For a
handful of notifications to a team, a club or your own server alerts, that is wildly out of
proportion.
PushPig turns it around: the app already exists, all you need is a channel and an API key. Three
steps to your first notification:
- Create a channel in the dashboard, say
deploys or team
- Invite recipients via invite link or QR code, which the app scans directly
- Send with an HTTP POST to
/api/push/send
curl -X POST https://pushpig.de/api/push/send \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pp_YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"channel":"deploys","title":"Deploy done","body":"Version 2.4.1 is live."}'
That's all of it. No Gradle, no Play Console account, no Firebase project.
Your own FCM setup vs. PushPig
| FCM directly | PushPig |
|---|
| Own app required | yes | no |
| Firebase project | create and maintain it yourself | not needed |
| Service account key | store and rotate it yourself | not needed |
| Token management | your database, your cleanup | automatic |
| Recipient management | build it yourself | channels with opt-in |
| Delivery to browsers and email | second service needed | same request |
| Time to first push | days | minutes |
Token lifecycle included
FCM tokens change (reinstall, app update, cache reset). PushPig registers new tokens
automatically, detects expired ones and cleans them up on the next failed send. You don't have to
manage anything. Delivery stays clean.
This is the part that most often goes wrong in hand-rolled setups: leave dead tokens in place and
you accumulate a recipient list that delivers worse every month without anyone noticing. With
PushPig you see the opposite, per message, in the fcm_sent field: how many Android
devices the message actually reached.
Rich notifications
- Title + body, plus up to two action buttons with their own links
- Tapping opens the relevant channel directly in the app
- Join channels via QR code or invite link
- Your own JSON data in the
payload field, if your automation needs it
Quiet hours and urgent messages
Every recipient sets their own do-not-disturb window per channel. Messages that
fall inside it are held back and delivered afterwards, evaluated in the recipient's own time
zone. Nothing is lost, nobody is woken up at night.
For real alerts, set "urgent": true in the request. Those pushes bypass quiet hours
and are delivered immediately. The 3 a.m. outage gets through, the weekly planning waits until
morning.
One account, all devices
The same channels, subscriptions and quiet hours as in the browser. The app shares its backend
with the web version. A single user can receive on several devices at once: phone and tablet as
well as the desktop browser. Read is read, no matter where the message showed up.
When Android can't be reached
Phone off, app uninstalled, token invalid: even then the message need not be lost. Recipients can
enable the email fallback per channel, and the same message
goes out as an email, but only on failure and never in addition to the push. Anyone using the browser
instead of the app gets it via Web Push. For you it stays the
same single request in all three cases.
Test push straight to your own devices: /api/push/test lets you verify your own setup
without notifying real subscribers.
Frequently asked questions
How do I send a push notification to an Android phone?
The recipient installs the PushPig app from Google Play and joins your channel via invite link
or QR code. After that a single HTTP POST to https://pushpig.de/api/push/send is enough, with
your API key in the Authorization header and channel, title and body in the JSON payload. The
message shows up as a native Android notification within seconds.
Do I need my own Firebase project?
No. PushPig runs the Firebase Cloud Messaging integration itself. You create no Firebase
project, manage no service account key and store no FCM tokens. You only ever talk to the
PushPig API.
Do I need my own app on Google Play?
No. Your recipients use the PushPig app. That is the fastest route to Android push when you
want to send notifications but don't want to run an app of your own. You still get your own
channels, your own sender names and your own content.
What happens to expired FCM tokens?
PushPig detects them on send and cleans them up automatically. When FCM reports a token as
invalid it is removed, so your recipient list doesn't fill up with dead devices. New tokens are
registered by the app itself, for instance after a reinstall.
Can one user receive on several Android devices?
Yes. An account can register any number of devices, phone and tablet at the same time. Every
registered device gets the message; quiet hours apply per user and channel.
Does Android push cost extra?
No. Android delivery is included in every plan, including the free one with 1,000 pushes per
month. What counts is the send, not the delivery channel: one call to the send API costs one
unit no matter how many recipients receive it via Android, browser or email.
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