In this presentation we will discuss various ways of interaction between mobile applications and servers/cloud: pull and push mechanisms, protocols (XML, JSON, Protocol Buffers, etc), some special features of Android, iOS, WP7/8. Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) will be considered, both as the architecture overview and the practical usage. An attention will be made for internet traffic optimization, low delays, debugging, and some methods to deal efficiently with cases of poor mobile network connectivity.