title: Push Notifications for different platforms and devices in China
body: <p>I read a lot of articles about how to implement Push Notifications with Cordova (and Ionic 2) and I'm not sure how to implement that in China when not using Google's push server.</p>
  
  <p>I think using <a href="https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugin-push" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugin-push</a> is a good idea. But all the Howtos are focussing on creating an account in Google's FCM which is not really helpful in China. I doubt Chinese phones use Google to poll for notifications. Which leads to my next question.</p>
  
  <p><strong>I was assuming that there exists only one central push service for all platforms</strong> (Android, iOS and Windows) <strong>and vendors</strong> for the following reasons:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>One platform is only polling from one fixed push server to save battery life.</li>
  <li>If an app (server side) is sending a push notification, it does not know anything about the receiver's device, so it can only count on a centralized service delivering the message to the device regardless of platform or vendor.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>But do Apple, Google and Microsoft all use the same push service? I doubt it, and that's what makes me confused. Also, if I'm in China, as Google's services are unstable here, the Android phones distributed in China are not using Google and even not install Google Play Store.</p>
  
  <p>When I install a Chinese app (hosted in China) on a German phone (Android) I still get all notifications for that app even if I'm obviously polling from Google's push server. That means, the notification messages of the Chinese app is somehow delivered to Google.</p>
  
  <p><strong>The only explanation for that is that the different push services are working together.</strong> Is that the case? If so, than does it make a difference where I create an account (Google FCM: <a href="https://medium.com/@ankushaggarwal/gcm-setup-for-android-push-notifications-656cfdd8adbd#.rr2lfivfh" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@ankushaggarwal/gcm-setup-for-android-push-notifications-656cfdd8adbd#.rr2lfivfh</a>), it is still usable on different push servers? Also, when I send a notification, could I use any server all over the world?</p>
  
  <p>How can I find out which push server my phone is connected with (Android)?</p>
  
  <p>A lot of confusing here, I really appreciate if someone could bring light to that topic :-)</p>