Comment by pureIDEOLOGY

They want more users. Google actually makes special deals with carriers to optimize GCM, so it's best for battery life. It depends on your carrier, but the websockets fork LibreSignal can use up to 5x the battery life. On my phone using the fork bumps battery usage from 1-2% to 2-4% (Sprint), but is totally worth it to avoid Pentagon/Alphabet (I mean Google).