Does Android's standard mail app run using AlarmManager

Question

When an Android device receives mail, does it do this by periodically connecting to the mail server? When the device is in standby mode where the screen is off, I assume that the standard mail app also is shut down but possibly uses the AlarmManager to awake and then check the mail. I can't imagine that the mail app is always running with a full Wakelock turned on, keeping the CPU always running, as that would drain the battery.

The reason I need to know this is because my own app needs to get a notification from its own server when certain events take place. I could just as well implement a repeating alarm that activates my app periodically and checks for the notifications. But if the mail client already is waking up at a regular time interval, I probably can save on battery consumption by using e-mail to notify my app instead. For this to work though, it must be possible for the mail app to launch my app when it receives e-mail. I doubt that this is possible, or is it?

Answer 1

This is what you wnat to use: Google Cloud Messaging