Notifications

RSS for tag

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

Notifications Documentation

Posts under Notifications subtopic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

AlarmKit plays system error tone instead of custom sound files (iOS 26.0)
AlarmKit custom sounds are universally broken in iOS 26.0 stable - instead of playing your custom sound, it plays a system error/timeout beep. I've spent days investigating why custom sounds result in what sounds like an error beep (like when you cancel an operation or hit a timeout) instead of the actual audio file. I can now prove this is an Apple bug, not implementation error. Evidence: Test 1: My Implementation Followed Apple's documentation exactly Tried both bundle and Library/Sounds (as documented) Result: System error beep (not my audio) Test 2: Professional Apps Tested ADHDAlarms (popular AlarmKit example by jacobsapps) https://github.com/jacobsapps/ADHDAlarms Their airhorn.mp3 custom sound: same error beep (not an airhorn) Their default sound: works perfectly Test 3: Device Testing Physical iPhone (iOS 26.0 - 23A341): broken iOS Simulator: broken Not device-specific Files are found correctly, but the actual audio file is never played. Instead, you hear what sounds like a system error/cancellation tone. What I've Eliminated Not a Library/Sounds vs Bundle issue (both broken) Not a file format issue (.mp3, .caf, .m4a all broken) Not an implementation issue (professional apps broken too) Not a device issue (simulator and device both broken) Not a file size issue (5KB to 2MB all broken) The Documentation Lie: Apple's docs for AlertConfiguration.AlertSound.named(_:) state: "Choose a file that's in your app's main bundle or the Library/Sounds folder" https://developer.apple.com/documentation/activitykit/alertconfiguration/alertsound/named(_:) Both locations are broken. Tested on: iOS 26.0 (23A341), Xcode 26.0.1, Swift 6.2 Impact: This affects any app trying to: Provide personalized wake-up sounds Use custom alarm tones Create meditation/sleep apps Differentiate from default iOS alarms Current Status: Multiple bug reports filed: FB19900024, FB18237648, FB19779004 Apple engineer claimed "fixed in latest beta" in August Still broken in iOS 26.0 stable (September) Workaround: None that I know of. You must use .default sound. For apps needing custom audio, play it with AVAudioPlayer after the alarm fires and user opens the app. Question: Has ANYONE gotten custom AlarmKit sounds working in iOS 26.0 stable? If so, plzzz help I'd be so grateful.
2
1
130
Oct ’25
APNS Notifications not received on macOS Device
Hello Team, We are currently experiencing an issue where some of our devices are not receiving push notifications. We are sending notifications via the Apple Push Notification portal (https://developer.apple.com/notifications/push-notifications-console/) using the following two requests. However, in both cases, the notifications are not being delivered to the devices. Scenario 1 : When we send a request with apns-push-type set to alert, we receive the following error. Request : curl -v --header "authorization: bearer ${AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN}" --header "apns-topic: com.testcompany.sampletest" --header "apns-push-type: alert" --header "apns-priority: 10" --header "apns-expiration: 0" --data '{"aps":{"alert":{"title":"Test Notification Title","subtitle":"Test Notification Sub Title","body":"Test Notification Body"}}}' --http2 https://api.push.apple.com:443/3/device/*devicetoken* Response: { "code": 400, "message": "bad-request", "reason": "The device token is inactive for the specified topic. There is no need to send further pushes to the same device token, unless your application retrieves the same device token.", "requestUuid": "c4ae39b4-87e1-4269-a1e9-163f60ec0385" } Scenario 2 : However, if we send the request with apns-push-type set to background, the request is processed successfully by APNs, but no notification is received on the device. Request : curl -v --header "authorization: bearer ${AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN}" --header "apns-topic: com.testcompany.sampletest" --header "apns-push-type: background" --header "apns-priority: 10" --header "apns-expiration: 0" --data '{"aps":{"alert":{"title":"Test Notification Title","subtitle":"Test Notification Sub Title","body":"Test Notification Body"}}}' --http2 https://api.push.apple.com:443/3/device/*devicetoken* Response: Getting a message that The notification sent successfully but no notification is received on the device. In both cases (with alert and background push types), the push notification does not reach the device. Additionally, when we validated the device token using the APNs Device Token Validator, it appears to be valid and returns the following message. "Device Token is valid for sending Alert & Background push-type notifications in the Production environment" Affected Device: macOS version : MacOS 15.3.1 Processor : Apple M1 Could you please assist me in resolving this issue? Thanks
2
1
192
Oct ’25
Apple Push Notification service's Certification Authority (CA) update
As you announced at this link https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/766788, 'APNs will update the server certificates in sandbox on January 20, 2025, and in production on February 24, 2025.' I guess you have updated the sandbox certificate. What can we do to test whether we have correctly updated our application’s Trust Store to include the new server certificate.We test on a server that haven't updated the new server certificate, connect your sandbox environment 'api.sandbox.push.apple.com' to send notifications, it succeed. As I guess, it should failed.
2
0
586
Jan ’25
Notification Service Extension Not Triggering for Push Notifications on iOS
I have integrated a Notification Service Extension in my app to handle rich push notifications with images. The issue occurs on iOS 15 and iOS 18 devices—while the text content of the notification shows, the image is not displayed. However, the rich push notification works fine on other iOS versions (e.g. iOS 16, iOS 17) I’ve tried the following steps: Verified App Groups are the same for both the main app and the extension. Checked the "mutable-content" flag in the notification payload. Added a print statement in the NotificationService.swift to check if it’s running. It doesn’t appear in the Xcode logs. I’ve tried using Attach to Process in Xcode, but nothing happens. The app is installed on a real device, and I’m testing with push notifications when the app is in the background.
2
0
172
Mar ’25
Critical Messaging Intermittent Success with notSupported
Hello, I am trying to utilize the Critical Messaging API to allow my user to message 1 or multiple pre registered contacts automatically. An issue I am having with this in testing is that when the application attempts to fire off texts to the phone numbers the success rate changes from trial to trial, with no variable changing. Sometimes I can send a Critical Message to multiple phone numbers in rapid succession, sometimes the message is only sent to 1 contact, and sometimes I get no successes. Each failure always returns the MSCriticalMessaging.notSupported error. The API documentation states, "The send(_:to:) method only works if the app is backgrounded, if it’s called from foreground the framework returns a MSCriticalMessagingError.notSupported error." If my app is always backgrounded in these tests, what other issues may cause this notSupported error return, and why does the outcomes success rate vary?
2
0
184
Sep ’25
Missing INITIAL_BUY notification for a single user (App Store Server Notification V2)
Hi all, We’re implementing in-app subscriptions in our iOS app using App Store Server Notifications V2 in the production environment. Everything is generally working well — we receive notifications such as DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS, CANCELLATION, etc., and we log all incoming notifications into our own database. However, we've encountered a single case where the INITIAL_BUY notification was not received for a specific user. Interestingly, we did receive the later notifications (DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS and CANCELLATION) for that same user. Here is our setup: App Store Server Notifications V2 Notification endpoint is stable and functioning normally (receives and logs other notifications) Notifications are reliably stored in our database The issue occurred only once for one user Environment: Production We've already contacted Apple Developer Support, but were informed that this issue is out of scope for direct support, and were directed to the Developer Forums. Our questions: Under what conditions might the INITIAL_BUY notification fail to be sent or delivered? Is there any known behavior or scenario where Apple may skip the INITIAL_BUY notification? Any recommendations on how to further investigate or verify whether it was sent from Apple’s side? We’ve confirmed that the notification never hit our server (no logs, no DB record), and our system was healthy at the time. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
2
0
103
Sep ’25
PTT Framework Restrictions
We are attempting to update our app to use the PTT framework, as it has been made clear that this will be required in a future iOS version as opposed to using the Unrestricted VoIP entitlement we are using for several features of our app. However, the behavior of this framework poses some problems with implementing our app's functionality: It is not possible to programmatically join a channel when the app is not in the foreground. This hinders our ability to implement the Automatically activate radio stream feature of our app, which allows users who have opted into this feature to immediately begin hearing live PTT audio from their agency following an incident alert. Having the app constantly "joined to a channel" and using the restoration delegate could potentially work, however this is not ideal as this would result in the PTT UI needing to be displayed at all times, even when no radio stream is activated. We have a "Text to Speech" option that, when enabled, reads out the content of an incident alert after the alert sound has played. This currently happens by triggering an AVSpeechSynthesizer in the PushKit incoming push callback. It may be possible to render TTS audio on the fly in a Notification Service Extension and assign it as the notification's sound, if that is possible this is less of a problem. We also use the PushKit callback to, again if the user has enabled it, activate a "Shake to Respond" feature, allowing a short period of time after receiving an incident alert in which the user can shake their device to indicate that they are responding to the incident. There does not appear to be any way to have the level of background execution required to implement this using an NSE, and this is of course beyond the scope of the PTT framework. What options do we have to be able to continue to provide this functionality, without risk of it being disabled in a future iOS version?
2
0
419
Apr ’25
Extend of notification content
In iOS 26, I can check the notification that arrives to the user when the AirPods or Apple Watch is fully charged. When tap the notification, notification only expands and does not include actions such as moving to an app. I checked the documents of UserNotification and UNNotificationServiceExtension, but I couldn't find what I wanted. I can expand by long-tapping as default, but I'm looking for a way to expand it without entering the app when I tap the notification. I wonder if there is an API that I missed or if it's not publicly supported. thank you for your support.
2
0
113
Sep ’25
Unable to connect to APNS sandbox endpoint
I am unable to connect to APNs sandbox push endpoint from our backend servers. It works fine when hitting the request from my local machine but it fails from the infra servers. Here are the complete curl details. Endpoint: https://api.sandbox.push.apple.com:443 CURL request and response: curl -v https://api.sandbox.push.apple.com:443 Trying 17.188.168.149:443... Connected to api.sandbox.push.apple.com (17.188.168.149) port 443 ALPN: curl offers h2,http/1.1 Cipher selection: ALL:!EXPORT:!EXPORT40:!EXPORT56:!aNULL:!LOW:!RC4:@STRENGTH TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1): CAfile: /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt CApath: none OpenSSL SSL_connect: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL in connection to api.sandbox.push.apple.com:443 Closing connection curl: (35) OpenSSL SSL_connect: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL in connection to api.sandbox.push.apple.com:443 There are no issues with Production endpoint. Can someone help? Verified all certificates. Everything worked fine until 29th July but started failing since 30th July Here is the PCAP file. Additionally, Here is the outbound public IP : 3.251.214.255 apple_push_sandbox_pcap.txt
2
0
105
Sep ’25
Broadcast Push Notifications - Update ignored
I want to update my lockscreen LiveActivity via Broadcast Push Notification, but updating always fails - but ending always works. Payload with "update" is completely ignored: {"aps":{"timestamp":1685952000,"event":"update","content-state":{"currentSlotName":"Debug1","nextSlotName":"Debug2"}}} Same payload with "end" works, the view is refreshed with the new content-state: {"aps":{"timestamp":1685952000,"event":"end","content-state":{"currentSlotName":"Debug1","nextSlotName":"Debug2"}}} Via the MacOS Console I am able to see that both events happen to end up on the device. I am sending these Broadcast Push Notifications via Apple's Push Notifications Console.
2
0
272
Mar ’25
Push Notification Delivery Delays and Failures on iOS Devices
I am experiencing an issue with push notifications on my iOS application. The issue is as follows: On Android devices, push notifications are received immediately without any problems. On iOS devices, the behavior is inconsistent: When the app is in the foreground, notifications are received immediately. When the app is in the background or in recent apps with a significant delay of 5–10 hours, push notifications are not received at all. This behavior creates a major challenge for us, as timely notifications are critical for our app’s functionality. We have already verified the following points on our side: Push notification certificates and APNs setup are correct. Payload and server configurations are valid, as notifications are working fine on Android. No restrictions from the server-side, since Android users receive notifications instantly. It seems the issue is specifically related to iOS devices or APNs delivery. Could you please help us identify the cause and provide guidance on how to resolve this?
2
0
214
Aug ’25
CarPlay notifications unsupported for Driving Task apps in iOS 18.6
I have my app configured as a Driving Task app with the entitlement and provisioning profile correctly set up. I am also requesting the ".carPlay" notification authorization option and setting up the carplay notification category with the ".allowInCarPlay" category, both without error. When testing with the iPhone and carplay simulators the user notifications I send are appearing on the phone but not in carplay. When I check the notification settings with UNUserNotificationCenter.current().getNotificationSettings() I see that carplay is shown to be not supported ("carPlaySetting: NotSupported"). The CarPlay Developer Guide 2025-06-09 (which is the version currently referenced in the Apple docs) states that "Starting in iOS 18.4, notifications are also supported in CarPlay driving task apps". Has this discrepancy been addressed anywhere, or is this an open issue? My software versions: MacOS: Sequoia 15.6 XCode: 16.4 iPhone Simulator: iPhone 16 with iOS 18.6
2
0
97
Aug ’25
Inquiry About Push Notification Behavior After App Transfer
We are in the process of transferring our app to a new Apple Developer Organization account. Our app uses the Apple Push Notification service (APNs) with a .p8 authentication key configured on our server to send push notifications. We would like to confirm: Once the app transfer is completed, will push notifications continue to work temporarily using the existing .p8 key on our server, until we generate and configure a new .p8 key under the new organization's account? Understanding this behavior is critical for us to ensure a smooth transition and avoid any disruption in push notification delivery for our users. Thank you for your guidance and support.
2
0
116
Aug ’25
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
2
0
292
Jan ’25
push notification on capacitor ios app with firebase or apnotic
Hi, I'm working on an IOS app using capacitor. I'm trying to receive push notifications on my downloaded app from testflight. I tried with FCM and it's working on my android app but not on ios and the logs show no error. This is how I retreive the FCM token: const fcmToken = await FCM.getToken() sendSubscriptionToBackEnd({ fcm_token: fcmToken.token, device: platform }) Then I have a job on my backend to send the push notifications: def perform fcm = FCM.new( StringIO.new(Rails.application.credentials.google_application_credentials), Rails.application.credentials.firebase_project_id ) NotificationSubscription.find_each(batch_size: 100) do |subscription| begin response = fcm.send_v1({ token: subscription.fcm_token, notification: { title: 'Un nouveau signal a été publié', body: 'Un nouveau signal a été publié, cliquez ici pour le voir' }, android: { priority: 'high' }, apns: { payload: { aps: { # alert: { # title: 'Un nouveau signal a été publié', # body: 'Un nouveau signal a été publié, cliquez ici pour le voir' # }, sound: 'default' } }, headers: { "apns-priority": "10", "apns-push-type": "alert" } } }) if response[:status_code] == 200 Rails.logger.info "Notification sent successfully to #{subscription.id} on device #{subscription.device}" else Rails.logger.error "Failed to send notification to #{subscription.id} body: #{response[:body]}" # subscription.destroy end rescue StandardError => e Rails.logger.error "Error while sending notification to #{subscription.device}: #{e.message}" subscription.destroy end end end and the logs show that it's successful but i dont receive the notification. When I test from firebase console I receive the push notification on both ios and android capacitor apps. I also added this in the apple delegate: Messaging.messaging().apnsToken = deviceToken Messaging.messaging().token(completion: { (token, error) in if let error = error { NotificationCenter.default.post(name: .capacitorDidFailToRegisterForRemoteNotifications, object: error) } else if let token = token { NotificationCenter.default.post(name: .capacitorDidRegisterForRemoteNotifications, object: token) } }) } func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError error: Error) { NotificationCenter.default.post(name: .capacitorDidFailToRegisterForRemoteNotifications, object: error) } I also tried using apns tokens and ther apnotic gem: console.log('APNs Token:', token.value) if (platform === 'ios') { sendSubscriptionToBackEnd({ apns_token: token.value, device: platform }).then(() => { displaySnackbar(`APNs token: ${token.value}`, 'success') }) } }) # Create the APNs connection outside the loop connection = Apnotic::Connection.new( auth_method: :token, cert_path: StringIO.new(Rails.application.credentials.apns_key_path), key_id: Rails.application.credentials.apn_key_id, team_id: Rails.application.credentials.apple_team_id ) NotificationSubscription.find_each(batch_size: 100) do |subscription| if subscription.device == 'ios' begin # Create the notification for the current device token notification = Apnotic::Notification.new(subscription.apns_token) notification.alert = "Un nouveau signal a été publié" notification.topic = Rails.application.credentials.apple_bundle_id # Prepare and send the push push = connection.prepare_push(notification) push.on(:response) do |response| if response.ok? Rails.logger.info "Notification sent successfully to #{subscription.id} on device #{subscription.device}" else Rails.logger.error "Failed to send notification to #{subscription.id} body: #{response.status} - #{response.body}" end end connection.push_async(push) rescue StandardError => e Rails.logger.error "Error while sending notification to #{subscription.device}: #{e.message}" subscription.destroy end end end connection.join(timeout: 5) connection.close end but i have a bad token error: Failed to send notification to 223 body: 400 - {"reason"=>"BadDeviceToken"} I, [2025-01-23T02:23:59.013407 #104] INFO -- : [ActiveJob] [ApnsNotificationJob] I checked my aps entitlement env and its production, have all the certificates, keys.. so I dont understand why i can receive push notifications from firebase console but not from my app
2
0
702
Jan ’25
Problem receiving Remote Notification in the background after Review Rejected
I created an app. One if its functionalities is receive Remote Notification in the background, while app is monitoring Significant Location Changes (SLC). This functionality worked fine. I was receiving these notifications correctly. Sometimes instantly, sometime with small or large delay. And then I send the app for review. It was rejected with 3 remarks: The app or metadata includes information about third-party platforms that may not be relevant for App Store users, who are focused on experiences offered by the app itself (I wrote that app communication works both for iOS and Android.) The app declares support for audio in the UIBackgroundModes key in your Info.plist but we are unable to locate any features that require persistent audio. EULA (End User License Agreement) is missing for in-app purchases. After the rejection the app is no longer receiving these notifications. They are there, since the app receives them, when I open app, or significant location change is detected. It also works, when I run the app directly from Xcode (in debug mode), not from TestFlight nor in Sandbox. It seem to me like Apple somehow spoiled my background capabilities on purpose or accidentally. Is it possible? What can I do with it? Is it the case that I should just fix the review remarks and send the app back to review, and once the app passes it, it will work again? Or should I not count on it? Any suggestions? I asked Apple using: https://developer.apple.com/contact/topic/#!/topic/select but so far no response.
2
0
163
Aug ’25
Persist and deliver scheduled local notifications after app update
I have an app available for download in the Apple App Store. The app sends local notifications, which are scheduled at the user's request once the app launches. I've recently learned that when new versions of my app are deployed and automatically update on the user's device, previously scheduled local notifications are deleted. Given my app design, the user can re-launch the app in order to re-schedule the local notifications. This is a bit of a problem, though, because part of my app's value is in reminding the user - so after requesting a local notification, the user expects to receive a local notification and then launch the app, not the other way around. Given this, I've been exploring solutions so my app continues to function as expected (including delivering local notifications, even if the app hasn't yet been launched) after an app update. I've explored .backgroundTasks(), but they too are apparently deleted with an app update and require the app to be re-launched first to work as expected. Another solution might be to use push notifications instead of local notifications, but that seems like a very involved solution if I'm just looking to make sure that local notifications persist after an app update. I can't be the only person to have this dilemma - am I overlooking a simple solution?
2
0
376
Jan ’25