For Apple developers that want an easy way to add cloud storage or device-to-device push notifications to their apps, Google has announced Mobile Backend Starter for iOS.
The package gives developers everything they need to quickly set up a back-end for their apps, without having to write any back-end code, according to Google.
Using Google’s back-end and client libraries developers can: store data in the cloud; send device-to-device push notifications; use continuous queries to notify devices of data changes; and authenticate users using Google Accounts, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.
The same set of features exists for both Android and iOS, and the back-end manages the platform specifics such as using Google Cloud Messaging for Android and APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) for iOS devices. The Android version of the package was announced in June.
Mobile Backend Starter is based on Google’s App Engine platform, and allows developers to handle hundreds of concurrent users at no charge, according to Google. The source codes for the back-end as well as the Android and iOS clients are available on Github, so developers are free to explore and add specific customizations if they wish, Google said.