# Orientation about receiving a couple of pieces of data from an external service
**URL:** https://community.thunkable.com/t/orientation-about-receiving-a-couple-of-pieces-of-data-from-an-external-service/755020
**Category:** Questions about Thunkable X
**Created:** [August 20, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/orientation-about-receiving-a-couple-of-pieces-of-data-from-an-external-service/755020 "2020-08-20T00:38:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@parknpayuserc4he](https://community.thunkable.com/u/parknpayuserc4he)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/orientation-about-receiving-a-couple-of-pieces-of-data-from-an-external-service/755020/1 "2020-08-20T00:38:33Z")
Basically my app will be in the background (or maybe even closed) and then fire certain screen when a remote camera reads a number, and sends it to the app along with an ID. In other words how do I make my app “listen” for a particular push of data?
Which is the way to go, restful apis?
Should I use OneSignal for this?
Any Tutorial out there related?
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### Author:  [@domhnallohanlon](https://community.thunkable.com/u/domhnallohanlon)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/orientation-about-receiving-a-couple-of-pieces-of-data-from-an-external-service/755020/2 "2020-09-02T20:40:13Z")
Hey @parknpayuserc4he
> [@parknpayuserc4he](#):
>
> Basically my app will be in the background (or maybe even closed)
This isn’t possible with Thunkable. The app needs to be open and running in the foreground.
Can you tell us a little more about the app you are trying to build?
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@ioannis](https://community.thunkable.com/u/ioannis)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2024, 12:24pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/orientation-about-receiving-a-couple-of-pieces-of-data-from-an-external-service/755020/3 "2024-11-08T12:24:18Z")