Send push notifications on android without using C2DM

Question

Is it possible to send push notifications to an android application without using Google server: C2DM?

So, I would like to have my own server which sends notifications directly to the app, but I'm not sure how are the notifications perceived by the device, because the device needs to receive notifications even if the app is not running and the notifications should appear in the notification center.

I think that the guys from www.airpush.com have managed to this, but I'm not sure how.

Can anyone help me with this please?

UPDATE:

Also I would like to know how to display the notifications in the notification center if I don't use C2DM? And if it is possible to configure the notification center to receive notifications from my server even if the user deletes the application developed by us, application which registered that device to receive notifications.

I want to send 3-4 notifications a day, but these notifications need to appear in the notification center and they should go only through our server. How can I configure the notification center within the app to make requests on my server for push notifications.

Thank You!

Answer 1

There is a solution from UrbanAirship called Helium push. According documentation Helium:

Works on Android 1.6 and higher
Does not require a Google Account
No default pushes per day limit
No default pushes per minute limit
Works on Amazon devices (e.g., Kindle Fire)
End to end Urban Airship support (i.e., API to to device)
Best throughput

The problem is that you need development app key for using this one.