Android's GcmReceiver/GcmListenerService Forces Application to Foreground on receive

Question

I\'m running into an issue with my implementation of GCM on Android, min SDK 15. I am perfectly able to receive push notifications from GCM, and my GcmListenerService

Answer 1

Thanks to @petey in the question's comment history, I went down the right path to figure out what was going on in the application.

His comment posed looking through the Application launch to make sure something else in the flow wasn't forcing an Activity intent to fire. Something I did not realize about Android (as a fledgling developer) was the full lifecycle of the Application class, and its relation to Intent receivers and filters.

My issue, in a nutshell, was that the MyApplication class (extended from Application) contained logic that fired an Intent based on a few other saved states of the app - there was nothing guarding against this should a filter have forced the app open, and these receivers were the first time the application was to be started in any way other than the device's launcher.

To anyone else experiencing similar issues: Intent filters, in order to function, will always fire your manifested Application, as per standard android behavior. Make SURE that your core logic flow is able to handle the fact that your launch may come from places other than a user tapping on you!

P.S.: To any developers to whom this is intensely obvious, be gentle, and help explain the big-overview Android app lifecycle concepts to your peers ;)