Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said he was going to Moscow to address problems with the MAX messenger: during air raids, residents do not receive push notifications when phone access is limited by so-called white lists. According to him, the alerts fail because the software depends on services provided by foreign companies.
This means that when access to the global internet is restricted, Russian users lose part of the critical functions of their devices. Gladkov called internet shutdowns one of the most serious problems for border areas and advised residents to rely on street sirens first and then check MAX alert channels manually.
Experts interviewed by the publication say most Android devices in Russia depend on Firebase Cloud Messaging from Google. According to T-Bank, Android accounted for 58-60% of users in 2022-2024, while iOS made up 40-42%; Cloudflare estimated the 2025 split at 66% to 34%.
An anonymous IT specialist said Russian alternatives, including RuStore solutions, cannot fully replace FCM without changes to the operating system itself. He said Google’s service is embedded in Android at the system level, while other apps run in the background on the same footing as MAX.
The issue goes beyond notifications. If Google services were blocked, app auto-updates, system functions and Android payment services could also be affected. Leonid Yuldashev, coordinator of Russian-language projects at eQualitie, said such a transition is theoretically possible, but would take years of preparation.
The situation is even more rigid on iPhones: notifications require access to the Apple Push Notification Service, and there is no open version of iOS. That means a full white-list regime would require either an agreement with Apple or a broader replacement of devices on the market. Against that backdrop, Yulia Navalnaya and the Anti-Corruption Foundation, through the “I Am Connected” campaign, propose pressing app stores to remove MAX in order to make any forced shift to a state messenger more difficult.