Android Quickstart

This Quickstart demonstrates how to send Push Notifications using Notify and a Twilio Notify sample Android app.

What we will do next:

• Set up a Notify Service Instance
• Gather account information
• Set up the server app
• Set up the Twilio Notify sample Android app
• Create a Binding for Android Push Notifications (FCM)
• Send a Push Notification to a device running on a Simulator

Set up a Notify Service Instance

Gather account information

We need to do is grab all the necessary information from our Twilio account. Here's what we'll need

You will also need to create a push credential on the Twilio Console, and then configure it on your Notify service. You can upload your credentials here. If you do not yet have one, you can provision one following this guide.

Set up the server app

When using the Notify service, you'll need to be able to register devices to receive notifications, and then send notifications to those devices. To get you going quickly, we've created a server that accomplishes these tasks in:

• Node.js
• PHP
• Python
• Ruby
• Java

The sample mobile app is set up to communicate with the server-side app to register a device for notifications. More on this in the next paragraphs.

For this example let's use the Node.js server, but you can pick the language you prefer.

Step 1: Install Node.js

Get Node.js here and complete the installation.

Step 2: Download Node.js server app and unzip it

Download Node.js server app and unzip it or get it from GitHub

Step 3: Configure and run the server app on your machine

Now that you have Node.js installed and the Node.js server downloaded and unpacked, it is time to configure the server with your specific account information. Copy the .env.example file to .env. Next, we need to edit the .env file to include the three configuration parameters (Account SID, Auth SID, Notify Service instance SID) we gathered from above. You can do this from the Terminal window on your Mac or with any text editor.

Now we'll want to install our dependencies. In your Terminal window, navigate to the folder, where you unzipped the app, and run:

npm install

Once we've done configuring we're ready to start the server - again in your terminal, run:

npm start

To confirm the server is running, visit http://localhost:3000 in a web browser. You should see the home screen, informing you of which services have been configured.

Set up the Twilio Notify sample Android app

Step 1: Get the Twilio Notify sample Android app

To get going quickly, we provide an Android sample app built as a stand-alone Android Studio project written in Java:

• Download for Android Studio

The application is built using the Gradle automation system and is available on GitHub.

Open Android Studio and import the project by double clicking on it's build.gradle file.

Step 2: Configure Android Push Notifications

If not done yet, follow this guide to configure Android Push Notifications for the Twilio Notify sample Android app.

Compile the project and it will build your gradle dependencies automatically.

Next, in the notifyapi/TwilioSDKStarterAPI.java file on this line: private final static String BASE_SERVER_URL = "YOUR_SDK_STARTER_SERVER_URL"; replace the string with the address of your server.

Create a Binding for Android Push Notifications (FCM)

Next we need to create a Binding between user Identity and the device running the app. User Identity can be any unique identifier you choose, like GUID. You can find out more about Identity and Bindings in the Binding resource reference API

In the app enter Identity you choose and click the button Create binding.

This action creates a Binding which uniquely identifies a user on a certain device, running your application.

In the terminal window running Node.js server, you should see something like this

BindingInstance {
  _version: 
   V1 {
     _domain: 
      Notify {
        twilio: [Object],
        baseUrl: 'https://notify.twilio.com',
        _v1: [Circular] },
     _version: 'v1',
     _credentials: undefined,
     _services: 
      { [Function: ServiceListInstance]
        _version: [Circular],
        _solution: {},
        _uri: '/Services',
        create: [Function: create],
        each: [Function: each],
        list: [Function: list],
        page: [Function: page],
        get: [Function: get] } },
  sid: 'BSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
  accountSid: 'ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,
  serviceSid: 'ISXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,
  dateCreated: 2017-01-17T13:07:39.000Z,
  dateUpdated: 2017-01-17T13:07:39.000Z,
  notificationProtocolVersion: '3',
  endpoint: 'user9999999XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
  identity: 'user9999999',
  bindingType: 'fcm',
  address: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
  tags: [],
  url: 'https://notify.twilio.com/v1/Services/ISXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/Bindings/BSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
  _context: undefined,
  _solution: 
   { serviceSid: 'ISXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
     sid: 'BSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX' } }

If you are running the sample app in debugger mode and it wasn't successful, you'll see an error message printed in the console.

Now that we have the Binding, we are ready to send a Push Notification to an Android app running on a device or on the emulator.

Send a Push Notification to your App

To send a notification, you can use the Notify page on the server starter kit you downloaded. Just go ahead and click the Notify button at the bottom of the home page to go to the Notify page.

On this page, send a message to the identity you used in the app. Because you registered a binding with Twilio, the server will send your device the 'Hello IDENTITY' message as a notification.

You're all set! From here, you can start building your own application.

Running Twilio Notify sample Android app on a device with ngrok

One of the ways to do that is to use ngrok.

Download ngrok. Navigate to ngrok folder in Terminal window and run:

./ngrok http 3000

as a result you should see something like this

Session Status                online                                                                                                            
Version                       2.1.18                                                                                                            
Region                        United States (us)                                                                                                
Web Interface                 http://127.0.0.1:4040                                                                                             
Forwarding                    http://a9534ff6.ngrok.io -> localhost:3000                                                                        
Forwarding                    https://a9534ff6.ngrok.io -> localhost:3000                                                                       

Connections                   ttl     opn     rt1     rt5     p50     p90                                                                       
                              2       0       0.00    0.00    61.71   120.52                                                                                                                                                                           

Next, in the notifyapi/TwilioSDKStarterAPI.java file on this line: private final static String BASE_SERVER_URL = "YOUR_SDK_STARTER_SERVER_URL"; replace the string with the address of your server.

Now build the app to your device. When the app loads, you should see a simple UI where you can enter an identity for the user and send a Push notification to the device, exactly as on the Simulator

What's next?

There's much more you can do with Notify. Try our other Quickstarts to send:

• SMS Notification
• iOS Push Notifications
• Facebook Messenger Notifications

Or learn how to:

• Send Notifications to a group of users
• Send Notifications to users preferred channel