AWS now has mobile push notifications API

You can now send push notifications (Apple APNS or Google GCM) via AWS!

This feature comes under SNS (Simple Notification Service), which includes sending to email and SMS too.

The pricing is amazingly cheap too. Mobile push notifications will cost $1 or less for 1 million pushes! As a comparison, Parse charges $70 per 1 million pushes.

After 4 years, iOS developers can now interact with WhatsApp via URL Schema

In their latest release, WhatsApp has introduced their app URL schema.

For example, the following URL will open WhatsApp from your app, with the message and user prefilled.

whatsapp://send?text=Hello%2C%20World!&abid=1234

At the same time, the app has changed from fixed paid app to auto-renewable subscription. So they earn $0.99 every year!

Interestingly, didn't Apple say auto-renewable subscription is only for apps that has new content?

Live Chat for mobile - from Apptentive

Apptentive started with providing in-app feedbacks and surveys.

Today, they have a "revolution".

They have announced Message Center, kind of like live chat, but for mobile.

Apigee Push Notifications

Push is one of the hottest API around and we have covered a few.

Now, even Apigee is into the game.

They are providing 10M free push per month, which is 10 times of what competitors such as Parse offer!

They also running a contest now, and will provide you additional 10M free push for next 12 months, if you integrate and send out 1 test push.

Google Analytics now has A/B Testing!

Yesterday we posted about Google introducing BaaS for mobile developers.

Today, there is another new stuff from their labs: A/B Testing, and integrated into Google Analytics!

This feature is known as "Experiments". You can refer to the developer documentation.

It looks awfully for developers only. If you are not a developer, perhaps Optimizely is better for you.

Google also jumped onto the BaaS bandwagon

Google has launched their own Backend-as-a-Service, like Parse (now belongs to Facebook) and Helios (Heroku).

They called it the Mobile Backend Starter.


As the creator of Android, it is no surprise they created a much needed service for mobile developers.

The question now: Would Apple be jumping onto the bandwagon?

We will find out in WWDC 2013.

Ninja Blocks - Build apps that talk to your hardwares

Ninja Blocks started off as a kickstarter project.

It's now shipping, and looks cool!

If you are a geek who wants to build something for home automation, this would be really helpful.

In their own words:

The free Ninja Blocks platform makes it trivial to build web & mobile apps that talk to hardware. Get up and running in minutes, and begin talking to hardware & connected devices with the web languages you already know. Focus 100% on your app, and never have to worry about embedded programming, electronics, & networking protocols again.