I implemented the sample on the website with an additional registerBackgroundThreadHandler that sends a notification when the message is received. This works great only until the device goes into sleep, after that point the NotyfingHandler will no longer be notified of any new messages, not even after the device is woken through other activity.

The only way to enable reception of new messages is to open the app again!

Also once the device is rebooted there is no way to receive a message without re-registering the MessageHandler first.

This clearly does not support the basic use case to receive a message at any time. I wonder if the issue is because AeroGearGCMMessageReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver instead of WakefulBroadcastReceiver.

Please could you suggest a way to receive messages at any time when the app is not active?