Hi! I'm developing a device that need to send some notifications to an android device. I'm searching a bit what's the best solution (for implementation and long term availability). I've seen that pushingbox and pushbullet are quite common, but i'm interested if there are some other better alternatives.
Thanks!
Pushing the user is said to quite effective.
Uhm.... Maybe "pushing" in that way is a bit too much, a notify on the phone is suffciient 
Na ... users react better to sledgehammers
Expanding the therm "pushing" a bit too much 
Hm .. maybe a little electric shock?
Ehm... A suggestion that not involves, a physical approach?
I've searched a bit about iot, and it's a jungle! Ifttt, arduino create, firebase... pushbullet and pushingbox are only the tip of the iceberg. Only evaluating all this services can require days. Need to choose what platform to use. Ifttt seem nice. Can do a notify, write data to a google sheet and also send a mail, all with the free account.
It's my first arduino based project and i'm a little disoriented
Days? ... LOL, you have not looked close enough 
As more as i search, more things came up! Endless world. Never tought that behind the iot thing there was a so huge background.
I think that i try first with pushingbox/pushbullet, then the adafruit io/ifttt as looks also promising.
Add also pushover as pushbullett alternative, with a 5usd one time fee can be interesting.
I not know if are the "best bet", but at least are well documented... i was worried that there wasn't available a secure smtp implementation, but this services made mail notify absolutely obsolete.
The only little "problem" seem the ssl implementation that take a lot of resources...
So, after some more search:
On a board without the Crypto IC it's better to use only services with HTTP api, as the ssl software implementation eat away 110kb of flash storage. Almost half of what is disponible on most devices.
In this case, we are very limited:
pushingbox (that can to a trigger to pushbullet, for example)
adafruit io (only for data monitoring)
blynk
pushsafer (pricing based on notifications number)
others?
In case of a board with 608a (or better, the 608b, with the corrected i2c problem), eventually can be used BearSSL using the hardware crypto ic, and can use almost any service:
pushbullet
ifttt via webhooks
pushover
...
and really a lot of them...
Many if not all of them require also json.
Seem that by now only few services are compatible with unencrypted connections...
That's the problem with shortcuts: in the end they cost more time and offer less options than you have when doing it yourself. And in contrast to doing yourself, you are locked to a vendor you know nothing about and you still do not know how stuff works.
I would agree, and i'm developing a web interface for get most of the data (access via vpn to my home network). But, as there isn't tls support for mail notify, and for my application would be really nice a phone notification (else my garage can flood under heavy rain - for sure i'm not leaving all to arduino, there is also a failsafe system), i need to find something that promptly alert me... My bad i'm not always at home...
Perhaps using MQTT might be a solution?
Idahowalker:
Perhaps using MQTT might be a solution?
I've seen also that... but, intended as a local broker (like mosquitto maybe on a raspberry pi, and then develop an android app for the phone - thing that if possible i prefer to not have, both for time spent and for have another device in house), or with an external service? I've seen that adafruit io can do MQTT. Need to search better also in that way for other services that support MQTT and check pro/cons of everyone...
Thanks for the suggestion!
masterx81:
I've seen also that... but, intended as a local broker (like mosquitto maybe on a raspberry pi, and then develop an android app for the phone - thing that if possible i prefer to not have, both for time spent and for have another device in house), or with an external service? I've seen that adafruit io can do MQTT. Need to search better also in that way for other services that support MQTT and check pro/cons of everyone...
Thanks for the suggestion!
You can use a public broker. I originally used AWS. AWS would cost 1 dollar a day. Public brokers are, public. A RPi4 cost 100ish USD, I own it. My security. With Python, I can run all the ESP32's from a inter web site.
Mmm, interesting approach. For now i think that i try with a simple http service for sending the notify, in the meantime i end the code for the device. Once that all is working, i'll use also this method. Having a rpi allow me also for have a "proxy" that accept unsecure connections and made secure connections (for example an smtp service). I not like too much the idea for have another device in house only for few notify/year (but maybe the project can be expanded in future...), but if it's the best way...
You have developed your own app for getting the data?
masterx81:
You have developed your own app for getting the data?
Each ESP32 has it's own application installed that is meant for a specific application. I wrote the Python code on the RPi that handles communications between the ESP32's and the website database.
If you want you can use Node-Red on the RPi or another PC to send/receive/manipulate the MQTT thingies.
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