[Gear VR] Push notification - possible ?

imperativity said:

Hi,

I am currently looking into this and will advise you on whether this is possible.

Thanks for your patience.

What was the outcome of this?

imperativity said:

It was determined that there was no current way outside of potentially using Google Cloud Messaging.

Any chance Oculus will provide a solution in the nearest future ? (via SDK with exposure to Blueprints)

Steam has a decent way of making sure existing users are aware of the updates and allow devs to make a post that informs users of updates and changes and whatnot, along with notification popup.

FYI, @imperativity parse no longer exists. Facebook (your parent company) bought them and shut them down. :) But there are other cloud services that will handle push notifications for you on android/ios. Just search for android push notification cloud services, or something like that. 

@imperativity Sorry, I don't see how it's useful at all :/ Imagine you purchased an app in the Oculus store. Developer issued an update. Next time you go back into VR, how do you know if that app you purchased was updated ? Fetching file from S3 would be only useful for showing some notes inside the app IMO.

Here is another idea, and I don't know if or how it can be done, but it's kinda the best way to go about it right now.

It would be nice to install standard Android app from Play store at the same time as VR app being installed. The "companion" app is the one that would be updated with notes and stuff when Oculus Store app is updated. This way user will know that there is an update available.

Is it possible to do something like that or would user have to manually install "companion" app from Play store ?

Also, another idea - have user subscribe to a mailing list while in-game. Simpler than a standalone app (I would have no idea where to start with that and I totally hate Java :#  ), although probably less effective than direct push notifications.

As long as they are willing to provide you with an email address. In actuality, implementing the push notification stuff isn't very hard, though I don't know that you'll find a ready-made blueprint for it. You might have to write/copy-paste some actual code to add it to your game. 

delphinius81 said:

As long as they are willing to provide you with an email address. In actuality, implementing the push notification stuff isn't very hard, though I don't know that you'll find a ready-made blueprint for it. You might have to write/copy-paste some actual code to add it to your game. 

Sure. Same goes for everything else. You wouldn't bruteforce push notification on user without allowing them to opt-out, right ? :)

I wouldn't want to mess with hacks like Parse Server. Not worth time and effort at this point.

My people have auto-update of their gearvr apps enabled in the app settings (at least I do :-P )  - so no need for a notification I just see an app was automatically updated in the background in my notification toolbar when it happens :)

aussieburgerVR said:

My people have auto-update of their gearvr apps enabled in the app settings (at least I do :-P )  - so no need for a notification I just see an app was automatically updated in the background in my notification toolbar when it happens :)

I guess none of the apps I own never get updated as I don't see any updates notifications except for Oculus Home and Activities :/