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
Silent push throttling breaking accessibility app for neurodivergent users
Hello all 👋 We're developing an app for families with neurodivergent members (primarily autistic children) and have run into a critical reliability issue with silent push notifications that breaks core functionality. Our current implementation: When a caretaker updates the person's daily routine/schedule in our system, we send a silent push notification to the user's device. The app wakes, connects to our server, downloads the updated schedule, and creates/updates local notifications for upcoming activities. The problem: Because the app is rarely/never directly interacted with by the end user (the child doesn't open the app - caregivers configure it on their behalf), silent push notifications get progressively throttled and eventually stop being delivered entirely. This means schedule changes made by caregivers never reach the device, breaking the app's core value proposition. Uninstalling and reinstalling doesn't reset the throttling state Questions: Is there any way to reset or mitigate throttling for devices that legitimately need background updates but have low or no user interaction? This is an accessibility use case where the end user (child) doesn't interact with the app, but the app must reliably receive updates. Would switching to regular (visible) push notifications avoid this throttling even if the app is not interacted with? We already have Critical Alerts entitlement, but for regular updates we're worried that the "CRITICAL ALERT" banner will be too upsetting for the child. Is there any exception process for accessibility apps to change the way Critical Alerts are presented? For neurodivergent individuals, predictable routines are essential. When schedule updates don't reach their device, it can cause significant distress. This is a genuine accessibility need, not a "nice-to-have" feature. Any guidance from Apple engineers or developers who've solved similar challenges would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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Oct ’25
iOS doesn't handle incoming call of Local PUSH when receiving a Local PUSH after receiving an APNs PUSH
I am developing an application that uses NetworkExtension (Local PUSH function) And VoIP(APNs) PUSH. Nowadays, I found a problem on this app doesn't handle incoming call of Local PUSH when receiving a Local PUSH after receiving an APNs PUSH. My confimation result of my app and server log is below. 11:00 AM: my server(PBX) requests a VoIP(APNs) PUSH notification to the APNs. But my app does not receive the VoIP(APNs) PUSH. At this time, my app is running on LAN (Wi-Fi without internet connection), as a result, NetworkExtension was running. so I think this is normal behaviour. 14:55:11 PM: There is an incoming call from the my server(PBX) via local net, and NetworkExtension calls iOS API(API name is reportIncomingCall). However, iOS does not call the delegate didReceiveIncomingCallWithUserInfo for the reportIncomingCall. 14:55:11 PM: At almost the same time, iOS calls the delegate cdidReceiveIncomingPushWithPayload of VoIP PUSH. (instead of call the delegate didReceiveIncomingCallWithUserInfo for the reportIncomingCall?) And the content of this VoIP(APNs) PUSH was the incoming call at "11:00 AM". In other words, the VoIP(APNs) PUSH at 11:00 AM is stuck inside iOS, and at 14:55:11 PM, from NetworkExtension reports it. I feel there is a problem on iOS doesn't handle incoming call of Local PUSH when receiving a Local PUSH after receiving an VoIP(APNs) PUSH. Would you tell me Apple's opioion about this? If this is known problem, Please tell me about it.
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May ’25
Action Required: Apple Push Notification Service Server Certificate Update
Hi, We received 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. Note, that we are using Firebase to deliver push notifications and the connection is done via APN keys, not certificates. Is there anything that we need to update in the application to mitigate the risk of not delivered push notes ?
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1.2k
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
Notification easy control
Dear Apple Team, I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to share a playful and innovative idea that could enhance the iPhone experience—particularly when viewing content in full-screen mode through apps like Apple TV or YouTube. Feature Concept: Hands-Free Dismissal of Notifications When the iPhone is in landscape mode, incoming notifications can interrupt the viewing experience. While Focus Mode and swipe gestures help, I thought of a more intuitive and hands-free interaction: using a light puff of air directed toward the screen to dismiss a notification. This interaction could use the microphone or other onboard sensors to detect a brief burst of air, providing a fun and natural way to maintain immersion without touching the device. If this isn’t feasible with current hardware, here are a few alternative concepts that align with the same goal: Blink to Dismiss: Using Face ID sensors to detect a quick blink as a hands-free gesture. Shake to Dismiss: A gentle shake gesture when holding the iPhone in one hand. Gaze-Based Dismissal: Notifications automatically disappear after a brief moment of eye contact. These ideas could offer both accessibility benefits and a touch of delight—making the iPhone feel even more magical and responsive. Thank you for your time and for considering this suggestion! Warm regards, Badhan Baidya
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Sep ’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
Apple Wallet Pass Logo Not Showing on notification on iOS 18
I'm having trouble displaying the Apple Wallet pass logo on iOS 18 when a notification occurs. It works on iOS 17 but not on iOS 18 (tested on versions 18.1 and 18.3). I ensured the Wallet pass icon sizes are correct: icon.png → 29×29 icon@ 2x.png → 58×58 icon@ 3x.png → 87×87 Questions: Has Apple changed any requirements for displaying Wallet pass logos in iOS 18? Are there new size, format, or metadata constraints?
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Feb ’25
About APNS certificate replacement
I received an email from Apple saying that I needed to replace the APNS certificate. I am inquiring because I am curious about who has the relevant authority and who actually makes the changes. Could you please provide specific guidance on this? 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. 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. If you have any questions, please contact us. The Apple Developer Relations Team
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744
Feb ’25
What is the expected behavior for a notification service extension if the user has not been prompted for requestAuthorization()
If an iOS application has a notification service extension which gets sent a push, but the user has not been prompted for notification authorization via requestAuthorization() then what is the expected behavior? Will the push get delivered to the NSE but the resulting notification not displayed? Or will the push not get delivered at all to the NSE?
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142
Sep ’25
Why are non-critical notifications quieter than critical alerts at max volume?
When I turn the Ringtone and Alerts volume all the way up, I expect standard notifications to play at the loudest level the device allows. In theory, this should match the volume of a critical alert with its sound.volume set to 1.0 in payload. However, I’ve noticed that non-critical notifications still play quieter than critical alerts under these conditions. Critical alerts with volume: 1.0 sound noticeably louder than standard notifications, even though the Ringtone and Alerts slider is already set to maximum. And I couldn't find a documentation for this behavior anywhere. Is this expected behavior on iOS? And is there any way to make non-critical notifications play at the same maximum loudness as critical alerts? Thanks in advance for any clarification.
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233
Sep ’25
APNs Feedback Service Domain Unavailable
The APNs Feedback Service domain “feedback.push.apple.com” was deprecated on March 31, 2021, and became unavailable after August 2025 due to domain name resolution failures. Will this feedback service become available again in the future? Also, is it possible to use the APNs Feedback Service with a domain different from “feedback.push.apple.com”?
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Sep ’25
APNS notifications of apns-push-type pushtotalk sometimes stop arriving after switching networks
PLATFORM AND VERSION: iOS Development environment: Other: .net MAUI with vscode Run-time configuration: iOS 18.1.1 DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM APNS notifications of apns-push-type pushtotalk sometimes stop arriving after switching networks. STEPS TO REPRODUCE We have created a simple app which can be used to deminstrate this issue. When you launch the app it displays the APNS token which you can then use fromn the Apple Push Console to manually send it PTT push notifications. https://github.com/trampster/PttPushNotificationIssue On an iPhone SE (we havn't been able to reproduce on our iPhone 11) Start the APP to register for the APNS push notifications Turn off the WiFi wait for 5 seconds Attempt a push to the app manually using the Push Notifications Console (this should fail, which is fine) Turn on Cellular and wait for it to connect Attempt to push to the app manually using the Push Notifications Console -> This fails, and all attempts to send an pushtotalk push notifications fail until the we switch network again. Send a push while offline before connecting to the new network seems to make it happen more often but hard to tell for sure. The results of the failed push in the console look like this: Delivery LogLast updated: 30/01/25, 16:45:06 GMT+13 Refresh 30 Jan 2025, 16:45:03.661 GMT+13 received by APNS Server 30 Jan 2025, 16:45:03.662 GMT+13 discarded as device was offline The device is actually very much online. Switching networks again oftern makes things come right. But it doesn't seem to come right by itself. We can't respond to network changes and do anything as the whole point of using push-to-talk push notifications is to wake up the app when in the background to answer a call, this means we are not running and therefore cannot respond to network changes to try to work arround this issue.
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Apr ’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
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
Timezone for Device Notification statistics?
What timezone is used in the CloudKit Push Notification reporting? Meaning, when I see 1,000 Sent Push Notifications on 2/18, is that 2025-02-18 00:00 through 2025-02-18 23:59 PST? EST? UTC? The metrics shown in [the CloudKit Push Notification reporting] are not lining up with stats from my marketing system, and I'm trying to diagnose. Also, is there a way to see DELIVERIES or just SENT? I'm looking to learn more about why a Notification would be Sent but not received by the user. Thank you!
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Feb ’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