[somebodythere]

> No way around it, mobile devices don't have guaranteed connectivity as servers do.

Not sure what "guaranteed connectivity" has to do with it, your phone is connected to network ~90% of the time, and when it is, it has a socket connection with the Google Cloud Messaging API (or iPhone equivalient) which pushes down data as it comes into the queue. If messages come in while you're disconnected, you get them all the next time data is pushed.

[nicolas314]

Ah but sockets are only an illusion that fall apart under the next tunnel. Mobiles are not constantly connected, they use a wireless packet-based network. The only way your mobile is registered as part of a network is because it is the one polling stations at regular intervals. Can't go the other way around, really. How could the network know you are now out of that tunnel? You may want to have a look at how APN are implemented on iOS to see how a push is in fact a poll from device.

[Andrew_nenakhov]

No. See my answer above. Mobile devices on both iOS and Android have a built-in XMPP client that reconnects to APNS/FCM servers every time it regains connectivity.

[chatmasta]

If they’re using XMPP like others in the thread mentioned, they’re likely using STUN/TURN for signaling. IIRC according to google, something like 10% of hole punched traffic needs to be routed through the TURN server due to symmetric NAT. For all other types, a nearly persistent connection from server to client is possible with STUN/TURN, since a client can resignal when its connection changes.