My understanding is that the GCM is for notifications that come in from off the phone (i.e. from a server). Rather than have every program have a background ser

My understanding is that the GCM is for notifications that come in from off the phone (i.e. from a server). Rather than have every program have a background service (and if they are badly made, have it drain the battery) to check notifications, they can all tie into one background service that can be optimized for it. I would imagine that notifications that are local don't need to go through GCM.