i am building a website which needs to send reminder messages to iOS (and Android) devices at certain times/dates. So not to a specific app on an iPhone, but to the iPhone itself.
like in the way the reminders app on the iPhone works: even when the app isn't active, reminders pop up.
For the last two days i've been googling on-and-off and reading about apns and firebase etc., but every script and tutorial understandably mentions tokens and id's that you need to receive from Apple and/or Android to get it to work.
One thing i can't find on google is: do i need to have an developer ID or something for this? I'm no xcode or swift programmer, i mainly work with php and query etc. and hopefully can avoid paying yearly for a developer license with Apple or Google.
Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction?
And surely any pointers to a good service or script to use is also very helpful. In the mean time i'll keep digging.
Thanks in advance for any help!
If you want to be able to run your app on an actual device you need to be registered developer, to be able to create certificates and provisioning profiles to sign your app with. You also need to be able to create certificates to be able to send push notifications.
You write that you want to send notifications directly to the phone. This isn't possible. All push notifications must be sent to an app. It doesn't matter if the app is running or not. Which makes sense. Otherwise you would be able to send push notifications to any iOS device out there...
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Currently, our client's app is in the AppStore, but they want to distribute it to schools and universities. Also, they want the student when opens app first time would be already logged in.
There are tons of info on the internet but it's hard for me to compile it into something clear. As far as I understood first they should enroll in Apple School Manager and rise their own Mobile Device Management. Then devices should be registered on that server. After that server will be sending those commands link. Is that correct?
Also what concerns silent login. The only way to implement it that comes into my mind is to at the app launch send request with some specific data(but what?) and if this is the device under Apple School Manager then return token.
P.S. I hope this is the correct place to ask this kind of question.
I'm seeing the following while trying to sign into Apple Chat Business Sandbox for the first time:
The spinner keeps spinning without any response...
This is happening in both Safari and Chrome browsers.
I'm on and
What's missing?
Contrary to the usual promotional bruhaha made by Apple for a couple of years in a row for its Apple Business Chat Sandbox as a great tool for developers, this seems to be yet another of their software duds.
After a lot (over a month) of back and forth emailing Apple support and experiencing loads of gaslighting and obfuscating by Apple folks of the real state of things, i.e:
I finally asked them directly:
Here's Apple's response:
Perhaps this will serve as a warning for someone looking to implement Apple Business Chat to take their much ballyhooed products with a grain of salt.
I don't think Apple sandbox page is gone.
You still have the documentation at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/businesschat/exploring_business_chat
And the current sandbox env link : https://idmsa.apple.com/IDMSWebAuth/login?isESAEnabled=false&appIdKey=e096fbe1d4b3913a4fa19b9f21a9ad4e58ab71dc3963c5b72a439fb539b6bea6&rv=2
You’ll need a device running iOS 11.3 or later to use the Business Chat Sandbox.
On your iOS device, sign in to Messages using your Apple ID. Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > Apple ID.
Sign in to Business Chat Sandbox with the Apple ID you are using for Messages. A QR code appears the first time you log in.
Scan the QR code with the camera on your iOS device. Then follow the notification on the top to launch a Business Chat conversation with the Business Chat Sandbox.
I am building out a iOS & Android app. My app may not fully scale to support users and have some limited functionality out the gates. I wanted to put an invite list on the front of registration like Mailbox did a few years ago.
I was trying to read the Apple app store guidelines to creating a "waiting list / invite list" and couldn't get a clear picture. I assume Android is more flexible on this, so I figured I could start with Apple's guidelines first.
Here is what I can find.
In Apple's docs, it says under 3.2.2 "UnAcceptable"
(v) Arbitrarily restricting who may use the app, such as by location or carrier.
In this specific case, I am not blocking by location or carrier. I am just putting up a wall to use the app since some of my users can use it in a limited form, but I can't open it up to everyone on Day 1.
I understand I can run a "testflight" release, but I wanted to make our app available in the App Store for anyone to download since it will be publicly available, just not fully ready for a million people to hit it. My understanding is that the testflight release requires a bit more work based on their docs and isn't as simple as just putting it in the public app store so anyone can get to it.
Apple has the ultimate authority for approving and rejecting apps in their app store so nothing on SO can really be perfect advice. If you are really concerned about approval, you can try to contact apple developers support. Here are a few things I would advise:
Make sure in the developer notes for Apple when you submit to them you include a free account.
In the notes for the app store let the users know that it may take up to __ hours for their registration to get activated.
My understanding is you are doing this to handle the volume of users as you are launching the app. Be advised though that if you start restricting users too much you will possibly get poor reviews. Only restrict usage if absolutely required. If you run into issues make sure you are communicating with the users so they understand.
Good luck with you new app!
I've used the following tutorial to implement push notification in my app.
http://www.raywenderlich.com/32960/apple-push-notification-services-in-ios-6-tutorial-part-1
And it works for development version. But I had include a device token in the payload (php) file.
Does this need to be the same for distribution as well. Do I need to gather all the device tokens from active users and send distribution push notifications, one by one?
I thought I would be able to do a broadcast without keeping track of all active device tokens. Is this not the case?
App is already on app store by the way.
Thanks.
Yes, you have to keep track of their device tokens. Also keep in mind that the device token might change for a single device, even though that doesn't happen frequently.
If you think that's too much trouble, you can use some service like Parse.com to do that for you, using their SDK.
I want to add free subscriptions to a newsstand app i've been working on, the only problem I can find out how to do this is from this guide. However as helpful as that is you have to use urban airship, where it cost $0.10 per subscribe, so for a free app, it'd be costing me, which i couldn't afford to do every month.
Are there any other ways;
How would i set up a server my self?
Would it be the same for any IAP stuff?
Thank you in advance.
Apple requires that Newsstand apps offer its contens using iTunes managed subscriptions. This means you have to run a server that hosts the Newsstand content, which won't be free.
Your only alternative is to release your app as a non-Newsstand app, build the content into your app, and release an App Store update when it's time for a new issue. This isn't ideal as only Newsstand apps have background downloading.
So... get some funding, or find someone else with a Newsstand app who will host your content for free :)
I'm in the same boat. Right now I'm considering using the JavaPNS API to send push notifications. (Local notifications wont work since they don't wake up the app when its not active).
As far as hosting goes... for some unknown reason Google AppEngine does not support JavaPNS.
I'm thinking about writing a JavaPNS program and running it on my own laptop daily to send out push notifications.
The only thing I have yet to figure out is how to get a list of users who have subscribed to my app. If the user must register the device token with my server then that means my server will have to be running all the time, which I cant do. Man I hope I don't have to use urban airship.
There should be a free way to do this. Hopefully we can figure this out...