In one illustrative example, a mobile device receives from a relay services node an enable message which indicates a pending data message to be retrieved from a host service. The pending data message may comprise a body of text. Subsequent to the receiving of the enable message, a messaging application is opened at the mobile device. In response to the opening of the messaging application, the mobile device communicates directly with the host service without use of the relay services node, for retrieving the pending data message from the host service via a wireless network.