How to communicate data/files between Chrome Extension & Android App? [closed]

Question

In this App (Desktop Notifications), they are sending notifications from Android Phone to their Chrome Extension.

I want to do the same. How can this be achieved? I am looking for direction on what tools I need to start researching (as I am directionless to start)

I do not have a server, so do i need to use Google APp Engine? Should I be storing the notifications in Google Cloud Datastore?

Is GAE the right approach here?

(Note: Indie developer here, so preferably looking for a free solution, at least until the app gets lot more users)

Answer 1

It's a partial answer, but it's longer than a comment.

There are two APIs in Chrome for notifications:

1) The older chrome.pushMessaging API, using "Google Cloud Messaging for Chrome".

• Maximum payload length: 256 bytes
• Maximum subchannels: 4
• Maximum API requests per day: 10,000

2) The newer chrome.gcm API, using Google Cloud Messaging

GCM is completely free no matter how big your messaging needs are, and there are no quotas.

(Quote from http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html)

I think only the second one is two-way.

As far as I can tell (and I am not an expert in this!), they do not require a separate server to handle the messages. Both your Android app and your extension should be able to send a message to a Google endpoint and it will be broadcast to intended recipients.