Dear Apple Developer Support,
I am currently developing an iOS application that uses push notifications with custom .caf audio and a Notification Service Extension.
I have implemented the extension to download and play a dynamic sound file from a remote sound_url. It works well when the app is in the foreground or background.
However, when the app is force-closed (swiped up from multitasking), the Notification Service Extension does not seem to run. As a result, the custom sound is not downloaded or played.
I would like to confirm:
Is it possible to trigger the Notification Service Extension when the app is killed?
If not, what is the correct way to play a custom .caf sound when the app is terminated? Should I preload and save the .caf file in App Group storage and reference it by name in the sound field?
Are there any best practices or limitations regarding push notification customization when the app is killed?
I appreciate your help in clarifying this issue. Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Phan Van Tung
Notifications
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Hey everyone!
I'm trying to develop an app that would need to send periodic notifications (every 20 minutes, for instance) to the user even when the app is not running (but only when the phone is being used). I've been reading through the prior comments and all about not being able to have a timer run in the background in the way I need it to, but I wanted to ask if there's any way around this, or is there truly no way?
If there is no way to do this, I was just now considering another workaround, where I could try getting the time they open their phone, and from there, I schedule local notification for every 20 minutes or so for the entire day, and they keep sending until the phone is turned off, when the rest of the scheduled local notifications are cancelled. Is this possible?
I would also appreciate any other suggests/workarounds for this. Happy to provide any additional details needed!
Thanks!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
UNNotificationAttachment convenience init method seems to be checking for supported file types based on the extension of the file URL provided as a constructor parameter. This seems to be sub-optimal at best and incorrect at worst.
Is this is a known issue for which a bug already exists?
I’m receiving notifications from all third-party apps that I use however, most of the time there is no sound or haptics with the notification. In some cases, very seldomly I will receive a sound when a notification comes in, but that’s only with one of the many third-party apps that I use. I’ve spoken to Apple about this when this whole problem started during an update that you guys rolled out sometime between September and November 2024. They blamed it on the app programmers but I think at this point we all know that it’s Apple’s inability to accept that the problem is on their end. I never had problems receiving notifications from any of the apps prior to that.
I guess my question is will Apple ever fix this or are they going to sweep it under the rug and pretend like it doesn’t exist?
How to create a Notifications Settings button in the Notification Settings similar to Facebook Notification Settings that will lead users to the app's internal settings page?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
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?
I'm trying to provide custom localized descriptions for the iOS notification permission popup in my app, which supports multiple locales. To achieve this, I'm using InfoPlist.strings files per locale with the following keys:
NSUserNotificationsUsageDescription
NSUserTrackingUsageDescription
The issue I'm facing is that NSUserTrackingUsageDescription is working correctly across all tested locales, but NSUserNotificationsUsageDescription only works for some locales.
Locales tested:
Working: ja, tr, fr-CA
Not working: fr-BE, nl-BE
In each case, the correct localized NSUserTrackingUsageDescription appears, but the NSUserNotificationsUsageDescription falls back to the default or does not appear as expected in fr-BE and nl-BE.
I'm using Xcode 16 and testing on both iOS 18 simulator and physical devices, and the issue is consistent across both.
Any insights on whether this is a known issue in iOS or if there are additional steps needed for NSUserNotificationsUsageDescription to localize properly would be greatly appreciated.
Our team also received this email regarding the APNS. I don't know if I need to do something or not, since I haven't found any information in SAP Forums either.
Our app uses the SAP Mobile Services push notifications.
If any of you know any information about this, please let me know.
I have been working on adding a badge number count to my app, but have run into a really weird edge case. If I have a badge number on my app, delete the application and then re-install it, the badge number still persists on the app icon until I first open the app. I tried looking to see if there is a lifecycle method that is triggered upon uninstalling an app as well as if there is a specific userDefaults attribute to check in order to clear the badge, but I can't find any clear solutions. Does anyone know of a fix to this issue?
Hello,
we have a problem with fake call on iPhone device for incoming calls.
When I leave the iPhone in idle state for 30, 40 seconds and dialed voip app number the iPhone rings and there is no problem.
When I leave it in idle for longer time one minute or two minutes I get "Call Failed to Connect" on iPhone's display and after this fake call I get second call with real calling number displays on iPhone.
This first fake call is triggered by wake up push notification type 'voip'.
If I switched off this wake up push notification type 'voip' and device's token has not expired yet I don't get fake call and iPhone's directly displays calling number.
But in this situation we need to use wake up push notification type 'voip' on during a certain time to keep the device's token in our database and continuing to receive calling number without fake call.
If we switched off the wake up push notification type 'voip' on certain time we need to activate again wake up push notification type 'voip' for incoming calls to wake up the iPhone.
And in this way every time on every incoming call the iPhone's will display first fake call "Call Failed to connect" and after that the call with Calling number.
How we can eliminate this fake call and use only one wake up push notification only for incoming calls not use second type wake up push on certain time?
Thank you,
I paste here our code for this:
public ApnClient(IOptions settings)
{
var httpHandler = new HttpClientHandler()
{
ClientCertificates = { new X509Certificate2(certificate.Export(X509ContentType.Pfx)) },
};
ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Tls13;
this.httpClient = new HttpClient(httpHandler)
{
DefaultRequestVersion = HttpVersion.Version20,
DefaultVersionPolicy = HttpVersionPolicy.RequestVersionOrHigher,
BaseAddress = new Uri(settings.Value.ApnProdBaseUri),
DefaultRequestHeaders =
{
{
"apns-topic", ApnsTopic
},
},
};
}
public async Task<bool> WakeUpDevice(string deviceToken, string callId)
{
this.requestContent = new StringContent(
$"{{\"aps\":{{\"content-available\":\"1\"}}}}",
System.Text.Encoding.UTF8,
"application/json");
var res = await this.httpClient.PostAsync($"/3/device/{deviceToken}", this.requestContent);
return res.IsSuccessStatusCode;
}
We operate a social network application, SportsYou with over 3 million monthly active users and are experiencing significant issues with push notification delivery through APNs.
We have a large number of users reporting they are not receiving push notifications. Our infrastructure uses AWS SNS integrated with APNs to deliver notifications. However, AWS CloudWatch consistently reports successful delivery (Success response), even though users confirm they never received the notifications.
Because we receive success responses from AWS SNS, our system does not attempt to recreate or refresh the device endpoints. This leaves us unable to detect or recover from these delivery failures automatically.
This issue is widespread and inconsistent. It affects users across multiple variables including different iOS versions, different device models, and different versions of our application. We cannot identify a clear pattern that would help us isolate the root cause.
With millions of active users, even a small percentage of delivery failures represents thousands of users experiencing a degraded service. This is significantly impacting user engagement and satisfaction.
We need guidance on how to properly diagnose this issue and ensure reliable notification delivery to our users. Specifically, we'd like to understand why we're receiving success responses when notifications aren't being delivered, and what steps we can take to detect and prevent these failures.
We are currently planning the development of an iOS healthcare application that will require the use of Critical Alerts. I understand that these notifications bypass Do Not Disturb and Silent mode, and therefore require special entitlement from Apple.
We understand that Critical Alerts require a special entitlement from Apple. Could you please clarify:
Do we need to request and obtain Apple’s approval for Critical Alerts before we begin development of the app?
Or can we apply for this entitlement after we have a working build or prototype ready?
We want to ensure compliance and streamline our development process, so any guidance on the appropriate timing for the entitlement request would be greatly appreciated.
There is one xpc server and two xpc clients (clientA and clientB). When clientB sends a message to the xpc server, xpc server fills a value for dummyString in it's memory and I want clientA to know that dummyString got updated and also the new value for this dummyString. The updation of dummyString is not something that happens often.
Two options we tried:
Have a timer for 5 seconds in clientA and keep polling and request for the value of this dummyString.
Setup a darwin notification in server that gets posted whenever dummyString is being updated. clientA receives requests for dummyString value only when it observes a notification being posted.
Which of these two approaches causes the least delay for clientA to know the updated value of dummyString?
Hi Apple Team,
we reiceved the following message.
Hello, We’re reaching out with a final reminder that the Certification Authority (CA) for Apple Push Notification service (APNs) is changing. APNs updated the server certificates in sandbox on January 21, 2025. APNs production server certificates will be updated on February 24, 2025. To continue using APNs without interruption, you’ll need to update your application’s Trust Store to include the new server certificate: SHA-2 Root: USERTrust RSA Certification Authority certificate.
Our web service sends token-based push notifications directly to the Apple Push server.
For testing: https://api.development.push.apple.com:443
In production: https://api.push.apple.com:443
We have never installed any certificates for using APNs.
Do we need to take any action regarding this message, or can we ignore it?
Hello, it seems like starting from iOS 18.0, it is possible to entirely skip the notifications permission request alert by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. It doesn't work this way with any other kinds of system alerts, nor in iOS 17.4 (tested it in the Simulator though).
So, is it a bug? Or is it intended? Either way, I haven't found any information regarding that.
The problem with that is when you skip the alert, notifications are missing from the app preferences.
"As we announced in October, the Certification Authority (CA) for Apple Push Notification service (APNs) is changing. APNs will update the server certificates in sandbox on January 20, 2025, and in production on x date, 2025. To continue using APNs without interruption, you’ll need to update your application’s Trust Store to include the new server certificate: SHA-2 Root : USERTrust RSA Certification Authority certificate.
To ensure a smooth transition and avoid push notification delivery failures, please make sure that both old and new server certificates are included in the Trust Store before the cut-off date for each of your application servers that connect to sandbox and production. At this time, you don’t need to update the APNs SSL provider certificates issued to you by Apple."
As we are using firebase for receiving notifications and azure notification hub, I read that there is nothing we as developers need to do and will be handled by the providers right?
I’m using the shielding API, my code:
let store = ManagedSettingsStore()
let whitelist = SharedDefaults.whitelistApplications
store.shield.applicationCategories = .all(except: whitelist)
And to clear the shield, my code is:
store.shield.applications = nil
store.shield.applicationCategories = nil
The issue:
Some users report that after uninstalling my app, the shield is still active, and the UI changes to the default iOS system interface. Even after restarting the device, the apps on the phone remains locked, so the user has no way to remove the shield.
Recently I’ve received several complaints on social media and App Store comments, accusing my app of being malicious software.
This is not a 100% reproducible bug, but it happens frequently enough. I was also able to reproduce it myself by uninstalling the app during an active lock session.
Could Apple engineers please look into this issue and advise how to ensure that once the user uninstalls the app, the device is no longer locked?
Hi Team,
We’re following up on our request for the Critical Alert entitlement for our app, which we plan to use to notify users about critical states of their devices. It’s been almost 4 weeks since we submitted the request, and we wanted to check on the typical review timeline so we can plan our upcoming work accordingly.
If there’s anything we can provide or clarify to help complete the review or make the process easier, we’d be happy to assist. or the right forum to reach out to.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Hey there,i start a live activity,but it not works, and sometime it can work;
apns-unique-id 46445cfa-1bf6-0f63-5ea3-2afa53e02b0d
and it show that "
2025年5月19日 GMT+8 15:13:25.836
received by APNS Server
2025年5月19日 GMT+8 15:13:26.244
discarded as application was not registered"
but i did not know how can i do;
thanks for you help
Is there any callback available when a/all notifications is/are removed from notification tray?