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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Certification Authority (CA) for Apple Push Notification service (APNs)
I got a notification that the Certification Authority (CA) for Apple Push Notification service (APNs) is changing. Does this affect the push service for Apple Wallet passes or just for apps? I have a push service for Apple Wallet passes but no service for apps. I don't use push notification service for anything other than for Apple Wallet Pass push notifications, not at all for apps. Is there anything I need to do or is this not relevant to my situation? If it does, what do I need to change in order to make sure my service still works? Do I just replace the certificate? Is there a standard path where it would live on the server? I'm sure this is a simple thing, but it's been over a decade since I wrote the push service so I'm pretty rusty.
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413
Feb ’25
Audio Session in Notification Service Extension
Is there anyway that I could use AVAudioSession, AVAudioPlayer or anything similar in Notification Service Extension? I am trying to implement Audio Playback in the Notification Service Extension to play specific audio file when receiving Notification regardless the app state(foreground, background or killed), but I am not able to activate audio session in Notification Service Extension. NSError *sessionError = nil; BOOL success = [[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback error:&sessionError]; success = [[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setActive:YES error:&sessionError]; if (!success) { NSLog(@"Error activating audio session: %@", sessionError); } Below is the error that I got when I am trying to run the code above in Notification Service Extension. Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=561015905 "Session activation failed" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Session activation failed}
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135
May ’25
Darwin Notification vs polling every 5 seconds.
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?
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445
Feb ’25
Action Required: Apple Push Notification Service Server Certificate Update
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?
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3.2k
Feb ’25
APNs Background Push Success but Wallet Pass Fails with ‘Unable to Deserialize JSON Payload’ on Device
I'm working on implementing Apple Wallet passes using background push notifications. My server successfully sends the push notification using APNs. The response from the server is HTTP/2 200, and the device receives the push — I can confirm this from device logs. However, the device logs show the following error: "Failed to parse JSON message payload for topic " "Unable to deserialize JSON message payload" My payload is below 2 payload. //string payload = "{"aps":{"content-available":1}}"; string payload = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { aps = new Dictionary<string, object> { { "content-available", 1 } } }); string curlArgs = $"-s -o nul -w \"%{{http_code}}\" " + $"--data-binary \"{payload}\" " + $"-H \"apns-topic: {bundleId}\" " + $"-H \"apns-push-type: background\" " + $"-H \"apns-priority: 5\" " + $"-H \"content-type: application/json\" " + $"-H \"authorization: bearer {jwt}\" " + $"--http2 https://api.push.apple.com/3/device/{token}"; I’ve confirmed that: The device has the Wallet pass installed. The apns-topic header is set to my passTypeIdentifier. The apns-push-type is background and apns-priority is 5. Steps to Reproduce: Install Wallet pass on iOS device. Send background push to device using the above payload. Observe the device logs using Console.app or log stream. See error: unable to deserialize JSON message payload. Is there a specific payload format expected for Wallet passes? Or any additional fields required in the push payload to avoid this deserialization error?
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125
Jul ’25
Push notifications on macOS "discarded due to expiry"
I'm having a reproducible problem receiving push notifications on macOS 26.2. The pattern is that the push is received and then discarded almost immediately (there is a 60s expiration date) when on battery power and then when I plug in pushes start working and even if I unplug again it works for hours until breaking again. These are alert notifications with priority 10. Other team members have had similar problems but less reliably broken and even get a "stored for device power considerations" message followed by discarded (see apns-unique-id c29250a3-abbf-008a-96f9-a5384e32d1df). An example from my machine with the apns-unique-id 6b2dfe3d-af99-182a-0e1e-6b811d3ec486 which fails immediately. iOS is working fine however so this seems to be confined to macOS only.
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2w
No "Unregistered" Error Returned for Background Notifications
Hi team, We've observed that for all background notifications (where content-available set to true, https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/pushing-background-updates-to-your-app#Create-a-background-notification), we never received any response with error string "Unregistered". This differs from non-background pushes, where expired tokens are regularly cleared. Is this the expected behavior (i.e., background notifications will not return an "Unregistered" error), or could this indicate an issue on our side? Thanks in advance for any clarification.
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204
Jul ’25
Alarm sounds ios without critical alerts
Hello guys, i need a little help. Im building an alarm clock app, pretty good one, and i have my own sounds i want to use as the alarm ring but notifications on apple cant work when the phone is turned off or the device is in silent mode (Or at least thats how i understand it) unless they have this feature called critical alerts that lets you have notifications even when the phone is turned off or silented. Without this, the phone can do just one beep and only when you open the notification, then it starts ringing but how is this supposed to wake you up? Alarmy has this worked out fine and i cant figure out how, maybe someone here knows. Im thinking maybe they have the critical alerts enabled but then i dont know why Apple would approve theirs and not mine. I tried to submit for the critical alerts feature but apple didn’t approve it saying the app is not the use case and im kinda lost. The whole app could be ruined because of this. So my question is. is there any way how i can use my custom sounds as a notifications on ios even if the phone is turned off or in silent mode+turned off and the app is not straight up running without being approved for critical alerts? Somehow like alarmy does it but i dont know if they have the critical alerts or not. Thank you very much for any kind of help 🙏. For everyone whos reading this, take care!
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3w
Which apns errors should cause us to remove the tokens from our server's db?
Having some discussion about when we should clear out a token from our servers. Docs say: Don’t retry notification responses with the error code BadDeviceToken, DeviceTokenNotForTopic, Forbidden, ExpiredToken, Unregistered, or PayloadTooLarge. You can retry with a delay, if you get the error code TooManyRequests. The way I see it is that with the exception of PayloadTooLarge, all other errors means you should remove the token from your server. Either because: The token is no longer good The token is good, but this is just not the right: environment (sandbox vs production) topic (the token is from a different bundle id or developer team) target (app vs live activity appex) Do I have it right? Extra context: when using the "JSON Web Token Validator" tool, a colleague reported that a 410 -Expired token (from couple days back) was still valid today. This raises questions about when tokens should actually be deleted and how these error codes should be interpreted. Also is it possible for the docs to get updated for us to explicitly know if a token should get removed and not leave it for interpretation?
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136
Nov ’25
VoIP / PushKit notification failure on versions of iOS 18
We are trying to figure out a strange issue. Our app has not changed for at least 10 months but my devices and the QA tester device have all stopped receiving push/call notifications for twilio voip The twilio credential and apple voip services certificate are in date and valid It is pointing to the correct bundle id and topic (not changed configuration for years) token passed in to TwilioVoiceSDK.register() is retrieved from PKPushRegistry as per guide Running locally the Twilio Voice SDK successfully registers and retrieves APNs token What is interesting is if I log in with exactly the same client account on an iOS 18.5 device (and an older iPad) call notifications work perfectly (I have made sure all focus modes/dnd are off and notification settings are identical) The only changes myself and QA have made recently is minor iOS 18 version updates - 18.6.2 and 18.7.1 These now receive Invalid device token from APNs when Twilio attempts to create a call/voip notification for the user identity Our devices sometimes switch environments test/prod so I installed the app cleanly on a borrowed 18.6.2 device and got the exact same issue We have tested on these devices most of the year with no issues. I have been in touch with twilio support and added code to explicitly unregister and re register on an affected device to clear any bindings but it didn't help. Have apple made any changes in PushKit or token behaviour for later versions of iOS 18? Thanks
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168
Nov ’25
Expected behavior for a Notification Service Extension with notification filtering when requestAuthorization has not been requested
If there is a Notification Service Extension which has the com.apple.developer.usernotifications.filtering entitlement, then does/how having that entitlement affect the preconditions for the NSE to be delivered a push? Specifically, if the app has not prompted for requestAuthorization() is it expected that the push will be delivered to the NSE or not? Thank you
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146
Sep ’25
App notifications are failing to trigger
Facing issue while sending push notification through the application. The APNs certificate is valid. Below is the error log. System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. ---> PushSharp.Apple.ApnsNotificationException: Apns notification error: 'ConnectionError' ---> System.IO.IOException: Unable to write data to the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.EndSend(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.EndWrite(IAsyncResult asyncResult) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Net.Security._SslStream.EndWrite(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Net.Security.SslStream.EndWrite(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.IO.Stream.<>c.b__53_1(Stream stream, IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskFactory1.FromAsyncTrimPromise1.Complete(TInstance thisRef, Func3 endMethod, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Boolean requiresSynchronization) --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ValidateEnd(Task task) at PushSharp.Apple.ApnsConnection.<SendBatch>d__21.MoveNext() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at PushSharp.Apple.ApnsServiceConnection.<Send>d__2.MoveNext() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- ---> (Inner Exception #0) PushSharp.Apple.ApnsNotificationException: Apns notification error: 'ConnectionError' ---> System.IO.IOException: Unable to write data to the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.EndSend(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.EndWrite(IAsyncResult asyncResult) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Net.Security._SslStream.EndWrite(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Net.Security.SslStream.EndWrite(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.IO.Stream.<>c.<BeginEndWriteAsync>b__53_1(Stream stream, IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskFactory1.FromAsyncTrimPromise1.Complete(TInstance thisRef, Func3 endMethod, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Boolean requiresSynchronization) --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ValidateEnd(Task task) at PushSharp.Apple.ApnsConnection.d__21.MoveNext() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at PushSharp.Apple.ApnsServiceConnection.d__2.MoveNext()<---
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164
May ’25
APNS Connection Timed out
This error has been continuously occurring for about 9 hours. We have not replaced the certificate, modified the server code, or changed the firewall policy. Some requests succeed, but many are timing out, with several timeouts occurring every minute. We are unable to find the cause. Please help. APNS Exception io netty channel ConnecttimeException: Connection timed out
APNSOutboundHandler api.push.apple.com/17.188.169.28:443 api.push.apple.com/(other ip):443 api.push.apple.com/(other ip):443 api.push.apple.com/(other ip):443 api.push.apple.com/(other ip):443 ...
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709
Apr ’25
Can Critical Alerts Play Sound Continuously Until User Interaction?
We are developing an app that receives push notifications (via Firebase) from configured IoT devices. It is essential that when a specific type of notification is received, a sound is played continuously until the user interacts with the notification. This behavior is crucial for alerting users to certain critical states of the IoT device. We understand that Critical Alerts on iOS can bypass Do Not Disturb and silent mode. However, from our testing and available documentation, the sound from a Critical Alert seems to be limited to around 30 seconds. Our question: Is it possible on iOS to have a Critical Alert (or any other type of notification) continue playing sound until the user interacts with the notification or app? If so, could someone please point us to the appropriate documentation or APIs? Thanks in advance for any guidance.
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112
May ’25