Notifications

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Learn about the technical aspects of notification delivery on device, including notification types, priorities, and notification center management.

Notifications Documentation

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Periodic, seemingly global APNS disruptions
Hello, I'm from Microsoft team maintaining push notification api behind Teams platform. We are experiencing strange and short error spikes towards APNS that seem to mostly correlate worldwide. We checked the networking and push request code but could not find what could be causing this. These error spikes are all timeouts or connection resets (by remote host, ie. APNS servers) and seem to come and go randomly: Would it be possible to check this for outages or some other metrics on your side or investigate why would it happen? Since it's worldwide it seems unlikely it's something broken on our side. We are using the standard APNS http2 endpoint with modern support for all RFC features (so everything should work normally). Mind you, our api might be in a unique position because of the volume of notifications (in the billions per day).
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Mar ’25
APNs Authentication Key Replacement and Impact on Existing Device Tokens
Hello, I have a question regarding the replacement of the APNs authentication key (.p8) in a Firebase setup for push notifications. Currently, my app uses an APNs authentication key from the original Apple Developer account. However, we are in the process of transferring app ownership to a new Apple Developer account, which will require generating a new APNs authentication key and updating it in Firebase. My concerns are: Impact on Existing Device Tokens: If we replace the existing .p8 key with a new one generated from the new developer account, will the existing APNs device tokens remain valid, or will they need to be reissued? Push Notification Delivery: Will Firebase still be able to send push notifications to devices that were registered with the previous APNs authentication key after the key is replaced? Steps for a Smooth Transition: Are there any best practices or additional steps we need to follow to ensure uninterrupted delivery of push notifications during and after the key replacement? Any insights or guidance from the Apple Developer team or community would be greatly appreciated.
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Jan ’25
Wake up the app when you receive a notification in the background
Hello, I am encountering an issue with maintaining socket connections in iOS applications that need to remain active while in background mode. I am developing an application that requires maintaining an active socket connection in the background to receive real-time data. However, I've noticed that the socket connection is terminated as soon as the app enters background mode, which affects the intended functionality of my app. I understand that there are restrictions on background activities in iOS to preserve battery life and system resources. However, I would like to know what approach Apple recommends for handling this type of requirement. Are there specific APIs or configurations I should consider to ensure the socket remains active in the background? I would greatly appreciate any guidance or resources you could provide. I am eager to ensure that my app complies with Apple's guidelines and delivers the best possible experience for users.
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Feb ’25
Issue related to APNS is delivering expired voip push notification.
Hi, am facing an issue related to voip push notifications getting delivered 1-2 hours after apns-expiration to 0 and apns-priority to 10. I had raised a similar post got a reply that it may be due to network delay. But network delay can cause the delivery of voip push to be delayed only by few seconds or minutes. But in our case voip push is getting delivered hours after the voip call was attempted. Steps to reproduce: Put our voip app in background and lock iPhone. As app is put in background, socket connections gets disconnected from server. Now if a caller makes call to this app, the call should be delivered through voip push. 2) Voip push should ideally be received even if app is in background and iPhone is locked. It is connected to a good wifi network. But it does not receive the voip push. 3) After 1-2 hours user unlocks iPhone and opens voip app. As soon as user opens app, the voip push is received and phone starts ringing.
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Apr ’25
Action Required: Apple Push Notification Service Server Certificate Update
Hello Everyone, We have some doubts regarding the apple notification alert update received in Oct 2024 for APNS server certificate update. Does this change is already live for sandbox environment? As we have checked on sandbox environment without changing any certificate its working and we are able to get push notification. Does that means our system does not need any change for production as well? If required where we should add https://www.sectigo.com/knowledge-base/detail/Sectigo-Intermediate-Certificates/kA01N000000rfBO. This certificate. For FYI we are using python library called django-push-notifications which internally call to the APNS server for push notifications.
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Feb ’25
Can APNs handle large numbers of VoIP requests in real time?
I am developing a system to send VoIP notifications to terminals with APNs. I understand that the maximum JSON Payload for VoIP is 5kb. If I want to send VoIP notifications to 3000 terminals, I am considering sending 3000 requests in parallel from the system to the APNs, will the APNs guarantee that the notifications will be sent to each terminal without a significant time lag when receiving 3000 requests simultaneously?
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Apr ’25
How to Retrieve Current Badge Count After applicationIconBadgeNumber Deprecation?
Hi Everyone, I noticed that applicationIconBadgeNumber has been deprecated in iOS17. While there's a new method to set the badge number using setBadgeCount(_:withCompletionHandler:), I couldn't find a way to retrieve the current value. Previously we used to call UIApplication.shared.applicationIconBadgeNumber, to get the current value, which is deprecated now. Does anyone know how to get the current badge count? Thanks!
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Jan ’25
Background Push Notifications for Emergency App Delayed Despite Critical Alert Entitlement
I’m using Appnotic from my server to send notifications for an emergency service, where it is critical that notifications are delivered immediately. My payload looks like this: "aps": { "alert": "Test alert", "sound": { "critical": 1, "name": "sound.wav", "volume": 0.5 }, "content-available": 1, "category": "alert" }, "topic": "com.fireservicerota.FSR-Primary-Alerting", "custom_payload": { "id": "11", "type": "alert", "incident_id": 23434, "incident_response_id": 2652343, "expiration_time": "2024-06-06T16:59:05+01:00" } } I already have the critical alert entitlement and background processing enabled. Everything seems fine when debugging, but I’m experiencing issues: • Some notifications never arrive • Around 60% of notifications arrive with noticeable delay Since this is an emergency app, delivery speed is crucial. What could be causing this inconsistency?
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Apr ’25
Question About APNs Server Certificate Update and Firebase Cloud Messaging
Hi, Regarding the announcement about the Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) Server Certificate Update, I wanted to clarify whether it will impact my app’s push notification setup. I use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) to send push notifications to iOS devices, and in my Firebase project settings, I have configured an APNs Authentication Key under the Apple app configuration tab (Firebase Console > Project Settings > Cloud Messaging > iOS app configuration). The authentication key I am using was generated from Apple Developer > Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles > Keys. Since I am using this authentication method instead of APNs certificates, are there any changes I need to be aware of due to the APNs server certificate update, and do I need to update anything in my current configuration to ensure push notifications continue to work? Thanks in advance!
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Feb ’25
PushToTalk Framework Behavior After Force Quit and Challenges in Achieving Reliable PTT Functionality
Hello everyone, Our team is currently developing a PTT (Push-to-Talk) application using the officially recommended PushToTalk framework. During development, we've encountered a point of confusion regarding the application's behavior after being force-quit by the user. Based on our understanding of the PushToTalk framework documentation (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/pushtotalk/creating-a-push-to-talk-app/) and the PTChannelManager session restoration mechanism, when a user manually kills the app from the background (App Switcher), the current PTT session (the system session managed by PTChannelManager) should terminate. Subsequent pushtotalk type pushes sent via APNS, without an active session, appear to be silently discarded by the system and cannot wake the app for processing (similar to what Kevin Elliott DTS mentioned in https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/760506 Point D). This seems to prevent reliable PTT message reception in our app after a user force quits. However, we've observed that some popular PTT applications on the market (e.g., TenTen) appear to successfully receive and play PTT voice messages from friends even after the user has performed a force-quit action. This behavior seems inconsistent with our test results and understanding based on the standard framework, posing a challenge for us in providing similar reliability using standard methods. This naturally leads us to wonder how this capability is achieved. We've reviewed developer forums and are aware of the historical existence of a PTT-specific com.apple.developer.pushkit.unrestricted-voip entitlement, which allowed PushKit usage for PTT without CallKit binding. While Apple DTS engineers have repeatedly stated this entitlement is being deprecated and urged migration to the PushToTalk framework (e.g., https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/763289), we are curious if the observed "wake-after-force-quit" capability might be related to some apps potentially still utilizing this outgoing special entitlement. Alternatively, is there perhaps a mechanism within the standard PushToTalk framework that allows wake-up after force quit that we haven't fully grasped? Therefore, we'd like to ask fellow developers for clarification and discussion: When using the standard PushToTalk framework, have others confirmed that the app indeed cannot be woken up by pushtotalk pushes after being force-quit by the user? Is this the expected behavior? Has anyone successfully achieved a TenTen-like experience (reliable PTT reception after force quit) using only the standard PushToTalk framework? If so, could you share key implementation insights or areas to focus on? (e.g., Is it related to specific usage patterns of the restorationDelegate?) How do you view this potential discrepancy between standard framework capabilities and the behavior exhibited by some apps? What considerations does this bring to development planning and user experience design (especially when users might have expectations set by the "always-on" behavior of other apps)? Are there any best practices or specific techniques when using PTChannelManager session management and restoration that maximize PTT message reliability (especially after the app is terminated by the system in the background), while still adhering to the framework's design principles (like user awareness of the session via UI)? [For instance, another developer raised challenges related to PTT framework restrictions here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/773981] We hope this discussion can help clarify our understanding of the framework and gather community best practices for building reliable PTT functionality while adhering to Apple's guidelines. Thanks for any insights or shared experiences!
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Jun ’25
VoIP call notification is randomly not delivered to a specific user
I'm facing an issue delivering VoIP push notifications to user devices. It's pretty random, sometimes notifications are delivered and sometimes not. I've had a call with the user to understand and narrow down the issue, including testing delivery of pushes to their device token via Push Notification Console as described here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/testing-notifications-using-the-push-notification-console#4181180. I asked a user to use Wi-Fi first and tried delivering around 10 pushes via console and 2 of them were lost while the rest was delivered. I asked a user to use cellular and tried delivering also around 10 pushes and most of them were lost and only few of them were delivered. Production environment was used to deliver pushes hence I cannot see delivery log and so I have no visibility over a reason why push wasn't delivered. I wanted to file a code-level support ticket to get help however I need to supply a sample xcode project which in this particular case doesn't make any sense as I'm using Apple's Push Notification Console tool and it delivers pushes in some cases while doesn't deliver it in other cases. I'm pretty familiar with all potential reasons why push might not be shown on device, including app early crashes, not reporting a call to CallKit etc. => although you never know, I'm pretty sure it's not our case. How can I get support on investigating specific user device token delivery issues like in the case I described above? I have device token and push console records but it's not clear how to get support on that. Thank you!
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Feb ’25
push notifications are not receiving to device
iOS push notification is not working for in App since 03-Apr-2025. We are pushing the message to APNS from our application, but message is not delivered to iOS device. We have performed tests on both PROD and QA environment and following are the observations: PROD successfully pushing the notification to APNS but not receiving the notification on iOS device (100% failure). QA received notification on iOS device always (100% success). Analyzed PROD notification server log at our end and we do not observe any error and it is showing successful also when message is pushed to APNS all the time. Need to check from APNS why push messages are not delivered to iOS devices. Validated the PROD APNS certificate at our end which we are using during call to APNS - it is valid till Oct 2025. Please suggest me any possible solution because I don't have any clue where it is failing and what to do
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Apr ’25
Clarification about ANCS being unavailable
Hello, I am working on a project that involves using external device to connect over BLE with users iPhone. I would like to be able to notify users on our device about eg. incoming calls, messages etc. I have been succesfull in using ANCS to achieve that but I am a little worried around consistency of this solution, especially taking into account following line from documentation: Due to the nature of iOS, the ANCS is not guaranteed to always be present. As a result, the NC should look for and subscribe to the Service Changed characteristic of the GATT service in order to monitor for the potential publishing and unpublishing of the ANCS at any time. I have not been able (yet?) to find or identify circumstances when ANCS would not be avilable or would be "removed in runtime", hence would it be possible to request some guidance and clarification on the conditions when ANCS can be unavailable or removed? Thank you!
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Apr ’25
Provisioning Profile Not Including Push Notifications Capability
Provisioning profiles created for my App ID are not including the Push Notifications capability, even though Push Notifications is enabled in the App ID configuration in Apple Developer Portal. I have enabled Push Notifications for my App ID (com.abc.app) in the Apple Developer Portal. The capability shows as enabled and saved. However, when provisioning profiles are generated (either manually or through third-party tools like Expo Application Services), they do not include: The Push Notifications capability The aps-environment entitlement This results in build failures with the following errors: Provisioning profile "*[expo] com.abc.app AppStore [timestamp]" doesn't support the Push Notifications capability. Provisioning profile "*[expo] com.abc.app AppStore [timestamp]" doesn't include the aps-environment entitlement. Steps Taken ✅ Enabled Push Notifications in App ID configuration (com.mirova.app) ✅ Saved the App ID configuration multiple times ✅ Waited for Apple's systems to sync (waited 5-10 minutes) ✅ Removed and re-added Push Notifications capability (unchecked, saved, re-checked, saved) ✅ Created Push Notification key in Apple Developer Portal ✅ Verified Push Notifications is checked and saved in App ID ❌ Provisioning profiles still created without Push Notifications capability Expected Behavior When Push Notifications is enabled for an App ID, any provisioning profiles created for that App ID should automatically include: Push Notifications capability aps-environment entitlement (set to production or development) Actual Behavior Provisioning profiles are created without Push Notifications capability, even though: Push Notifications is enabled in App ID App ID configuration is saved Sufficient time has passed for sync Additional Information Push Notification Key: Created and valid (Key ID: 3YKQ7XLG9L and 747G8W2J68) Distribution Certificate: Valid and active Provisioning Profile Type: App Store distribution Third-party Tool: Using Expo Application Services (EAS) for builds, but issue persists with manually created profiles as well Questions Is there a delay or sync issue between enabling Push Notifications in App ID and it being available for provisioning profiles? Are there any additional steps required to ensure Push Notifications is included in provisioning profiles? Is there a known issue with Push Notifications capability not being included in provisioning profiles? Should I create the provisioning profile in a specific way to ensure Push Notifications is included? Environment Platform: iOS Build Type: App Store distribution Xcode Version: (via EAS cloud build) Thank you for your assistance. I've been unable to resolve this issue and would appreciate any guidance. iOS Deployment Target: Latest
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APN Certificate on app transfer
Hi, My customer has acquired the assets of another company. We therefore need to transfer this company's app to my customer's account. This app primarily functions using WebRTC video, which relies on APN PUSH notifications. I have reviewed the information about transferring an app from one developer account to another, particularly here: https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/transfer-an-app/overview-of-app-transfer. I understand that we need to generate a new SSL certificate that will be integrated into the app once it has been transferred. Since users will not all update the app immediately, we will have two server certificates running in parallel for some time. Is it allowed to send two notifications to the same iPhone, knowing that one of the two will systematically fail? If not, what is the best practice for successfully migrating VOIP notifications? Thank you in advance, F. BABIN
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Jan ’25
Push notifications - Traffic gets "server-rst"
It seems our company server is sending to Apple push service the push notifications that are supposed to be transferred to devices our app is installed on – but you it seems you are blocking the request We can see traffic going out from our server side towards the apple gateway notification server using port 2195 and we can see that the traffic gets "server-rst" meaning that the apple gateway server kills the connection You might need to whitelist our external IP's
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Apr ’25
didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken called twice when also using CKSyncEngine in project
In didFinishLaunchingWithOptions I have this setup for getting the token to send to my server for notifications. The issue is that the delegate callback didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken gets called twice when also initializing a CKSyncEngine object. This confuses me. Is this expected behavior? Why is the delegate callback only called twice when both are called, but not at all when only using CKSyncEngine. See code and comments below. /// Calling just this triggers `didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken` once. UIApplication.shared.registerForRemoteNotifications() /// When triggering the above function plus initializing a CKSyncEngine, `didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken` gets called twice. /// This somewhat make sense, because CloudKit likely also registers for remote notifications itself, but why is the delegate not triggered when *only* initializing CKSyncEngine and removing the `registerForRemoteNotifications` call above? let syncManager = SyncManager() /// Further more, if calling `registerForRemoteNotifications` with a delay instead of directly, the delegate is only called once, as expected. For some reason, the delegate is only triggered when two entities call `registerForRemoteNotifications` at the same time? DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 4) { UIApplication.shared.registerForRemoteNotifications() } func application(_ application: UIApplication, didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken deviceToken: Data) { print("didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken") }
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Nov ’25
Can I listen to user choice when asked for update permissions on Live Activity?
We would like to better understand the discrepancy between a Push To Start and the subsequent Updates where I see a number of recipients drop greatly. Our assumption is that this is a result of the end user not clicking the "Allow" prompt when a push to start widget is shown on the screen for the first time, but we currently do not have a way to listen to the user's choice when prompted. Is there any way of tapping into this, to determine if this is in fact where the variance is coming from, or if there is actually just a problem with the request to retrieve the update token from our end?
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Apr ’25