I've got a Progressive Web App which made with Blazor WebAssembly and I was wondering if I can send push notifications to iOS devices? Although people said if works now on Safari on MacOS, Push API's website says that it does not support Safari on iOS.
Do I need to wrap every web app if I target iOS? I don't have a MacBook, do I need to buy one just to achieve this?
Also there are Firebase and Azure Notification Hub, Can't I just use their service to send notifications for iOS? Firebase's had only Objective-C and Swift examples.
This also led to another question: Are notifications' way of transport is platform depended? I'm confused with cloud services' role on this.
You have only three main options to get push notifications working on iOS for a PWA. In both cases, you must register an App ID on Apple Developer portal, with permission to the appropriate service. For Option 1, your registered App ID must have permission to Apple Wallet. For options 2 and 3, you must have permission to Push Notifications. In both cases, you should record your Bundle ID and Team ID in case you need it later.
Option 1 (Easier): Use PassKit to set up a generic Apple Wallet pass, which can broker notifications that are very similar to native ones. Here's some documentation, and here's a working demo of how this can send push notifications to registered devices.
Option 2 (Harder): Use Firebase Cloud Messaging or a package like Node-APN to send push notifications the "proper" way, signed with a P12 or P8 key from the Apple Developer Portal. This gets tricky mainly because you need the iOS device identifier, which is only exposed to applications installed natively. I'm afraid I don't have an answer on how to get this device ID from within a PWA, and without it, this method doesn't work.
Option 3 (not a PWA): You can use an App ID with a provisioning profile and either a P12 or P8 key, similar to the previous option, but you wrap your application in Apache Cordova, and distribute it (either through the public app store, or using MDM software and via the private Apple Business Manager).
Those are your options. I have exhausted every possible avenue researching this, and I am confident that these will remain your only options through at least the next several months. It's possible we may see further support for Web Push or perhaps just a way to get the device ID from the web in the future, but until that time, this is it. There aren't any other ways to go about this presently.
Source: I architect and develop apps for major brands like Subway, Gartner, Morgan Stanley and PwC (among many others). My research is very recent, and includes direct communication with the head of WebKit at Apple, and also with one of the world's foremost PWA and iOS experts.
I just want to let you all know: Apple will support push notifications for web apps! This news was published at the WWDC2022. Apple will release Web Push with Safari 16 on macOS (Ventura) in a few months (2022) and for iOS and iPadOS in 2023.
See: https://webkit.org/blog/12945/meet-web-push/
I have a workaround to propose. If the PWA can send messages to a server and store them in the db, the watch app can always pull from the same server and display information. This is not the desirable solution, but my work.
Related
I'm building an in-house app that is distributed via the AirWatch app catalog. The app always runs with Guided Access enabled and all devices running it are managed by AirWatch. My questions are regarding auto-update:
Is there a way that AirWatch can force the update immediately or as soon as the device comes back online, without asking for the user's input? If so, how does the app being open affect this behavior? How does guided access being enabled affect this behavior?
Is there a link from AirWatch, perhaps an itms-services:// link, that the app can call to install the new version if a web service had indicated that it's no longer the latest version? If so, how does Guided Access being enabled affect this behavior?
Is there any other good model for remotely updating the app that will spread the update as quickly as possible and under the above conditions? The solution can be using MDM or a custom web service or both combined.
Thanks a lot for your help!!
If your devices are running iOS7 and you have your app Deployment settings set to "Auto" (as opposed to "On-Demand") the device will automatically take the update once it processes the APNs notification to do so. If the device is locked/offline it will typically check for outstanding APNs messages within a minute or so of being unlocked or coming back online.
What I don't know is since your app is in guided access mode if you're receiving a pop-up to install the new version. I've seen previously where if the app that requires an update is open iOS will prompt. What we have done to battle this is embed a check in the app that phones home to see if the app is current. If the app is NOT current the user can't do anything until they update their app.
Regarding a direct-link to the App Catalog to update the app that might get tricky with guided access enabled. Before you even try to tackle that issue understand that the app catalog webclip URL contains the UDID of the device as of AW7.1 (I think). Since the UDID is no longer programmatically accessible code-side AirWatch allows you to push the UDID upon app installation in the Deployment/Application Configuration section. You can embed {DeviceUid} into the key share on the device which will make it accessible for that applciation, hence allowing you to create the appropriate App Store URL within your app.
Good luck
honestly I didn't work with AirWatch. But I don't think that Apple provides a way for automatic update of ad-hoc or enterprise apps.
Well, I can describe a solution for an enterprise app I developed last year. Hope it will help you somehow.
First of all, I made it as a part of our secure website. (a little test flight)
Here's how app update works
When the app launches it sends special request to a server asking if
it is outdated and a new app version is available. (+ servers sends
url for new version installation (with itms-services://))
Then
if update is required, app fires alert with description of new
version, if user taps update, the app opens Safari where the user
is able to install a new version.
We made to different kinds of alert, optional (minor version change) and compulsory(major version change). With later variant user is unable to get rid of alert view, so he has to update the app.
You can update your internal app through the AirWatch Console and applications versioning.
I never used it but I imagine that at the end of the new version process, there is a way to push the updated app to the related devices. If the Push Mode is set to Auto, the user won't have to do anything and the app should be updated. If it is On Demand, the use will have to initiate the process from the App Catalog. From for the latest option, you have the solution to send a notification to the user.
It is also possible to retire or inactivate older versions to only keep the newest one.
If you have access to AirWatch Online Documentation, I recommend you the page Using Add Version for Applications. If you don't, contact your administrator and ask for all the pages located in Mobile Application Management -> Internal Applications and the page Using Add Version for Applications.
You should try it with a single device though ;)
I am working on an enterprise app and need access to programmatically retrieve the device's serial number. Is there an API or any documentation on how to retrieve this in iOS 8? From what I can tell, this functionality has been removed in iOS 8.
Is there a suitable replacement identifier for the serial? I need something that is reliable and will never change even if the device is reset.
It will be for enterprise usage so App Store approval is not a concern.
You're up a creek here. The two "tracking" features are Advertising Identifier and Identifier for Vendor. The former can be reset within the Settings app quite easily while the latter will reset once the user uninstalls all apps with the root bundle identifier associated with the app suite. Both also change with a device reset of course.
If you're deploying the app with an MDM solution you will have access to that device's UDID as it still flows forward to MDM servers, you just can't access it programmatically in your code. The complete deprecation of UDID, serial number and MAC address (even with private APIs) stomped all over some custom utilities I wrote within our Enterprise to try and accomplish something similar to what you're looking to do. If you find somethingthats consistent I'd love to see the follow-up!
EDIT:
I had an epiphany while circling back to this situation again. If you are in fact using AirWatch (I can't speak to Mobile Iron, etc) you can setup the console to send a keychain value to each device at the time of app install. From there the app will be able to consume the value AirWatch sends down. The same goes for any attribute that AirWatch harvests for the device (serial, UDID, MAC, etc). While this workaround comes with a big caveat (using AirWatch for deployment) it will work. Since Apple neutered all Serial Number work arounds win iOS8 this is the most viable option I have found.
Over the past little while I’ve been working with a client who would like to leverage Apple’s new Suggested App feature on iOS 8. The client's goal was to display a suggest app lock screen notification any time a person passes by a specific geo-location. After spending some time trying to find a concrete answer to what level of control (if any) the client would have over Apple’s Suggest App feature, it was decided to send our questions directly to Apple.
Below is copy of the questions I sent to Apple.
Hello,
For our next app release, my team and I would like to leverage Apple's Suggest App feature provided in iOS 8.
We've taken a look through the iTunes Connect portal and we haven't been able to find a configuration panel anywhere which allows us to control when/where our app should appear as a suggested app.
Questions:
Is it possible for us to specify the conditions that out app will appear as a suggested app for users who haven't downloaded it yet?
Can we specify a geo-fence that will display our app as a suggested app on a user's lock screen?
If we have no control over Apple's Suggested App configuration, under what conditions will our iOS appear on a user's lock screen as a suggested app?
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Turn on your phone
Enable suggested apps
Enable 3G
Lock your screen
Walk past a region.
Expected Result: A suggested app appears on the iPhone lock screen.
Here is the response I received directly from Apple Developer Support Team:
Hello,
Location relevant Apps are recommended on the lock screen and in the App Store based on a number of factors, including their popularity at the location, and there is no mechanism or process by which an App developer can add their App to the list of recommended Apps.
However, if your iOS App is directly related to the location or venue (such as a mall guide iOS App which is published by the mall owner or operator), and you believe your iOS App’s relevance warrants it being included the list of recommended Apps, then you are encouraged to submit an enhancement request via http://bugreport.apple.com/, and request that Apple consider whether your iOS App should be included in the list of recommended Apps for that location.
You should provide as much detail in the ’enhancement request' about the App and venue/location as possible, such as the App ID, App Name, URL to the App on the App Store, venue name, venue location (address & lat/lon), the relevance (if any) of your iOS App to the venue/location, and relationship (if any) between you as the developer and the owner/operator of the venue/location.
Submission of an enhancement request does not guarantee that a particular iOS App will be added to the list of recommended Apps for a venue or location, and the sole feedback from Apple on the request will come through the http://bugreport.apple.com/ bug report system.
Regards,
Apple Developer Technical Support
We are working on a commercial VOIP application based on SIP. We have found PJSIP/Siphon and able to compile for iOS 7. And it's working fine for us. So, our doubt is if we can use this in our app and deploy the app to app store.
Thanks.
It depends.
If you have an open-source product you can use it in the AppStore.
If you do not share your source code you must buy a license from Teluu before you launch it in the AppStore.
If you use Siphon, you will need to look at their license terms as well before pushing it to the AppStore.
Otherwise they can sue you and get your app kicked out of the stores and it can become a very expensive process for you.
I recently downloaded an app (Overkill) and they have an in game "virtual currency" called "overkill medals" or "OM". You can use the in-app purchase system to buy more OM, or you can earn it, through their service called "Tapjoy."
Tapjoy (inside the Overkill app) brings up a menu with eligible apps, and a link to the iTunes store to download it and requires you to "download and open" the app in order to earn your OM.
How does this app know that I have downloaded and opened the app, in order to award me the OM?
Edit: It also seems to know when I had the app already
The app is likely checking to see if another app has registered a custom URL scheme, by calling UIApplication canOpenURL, against a list of known schemes dolled out by Tapjoy to each implementor.
The isn't anything within the Apple's iOS SDK that would allow this, so in all likelihood each of these apps is registering with a web service. The server is tracking installation and use of the various apps by relating the unique device id.