I know this question can sound a bit strange, but I want to ask this anyway (feel free to downvote): is it possible to send push notifications to an iOS device without connecting to an Apple server? My idea is to send a push from my private server, not Apple's. Is this possible?
Info from developer.apple.com
Remote notifications—also known as push notifications—arrive from
outside a device or a Mac. They originate on a remote server—the app’s
provider—and are pushed to apps on devices (via the Apple Push
Notification service) when there are messages to see or data to
download.
There is no way to do it without using Apple Push Notification System (apns).
Well, the general answer would be - no.
It is not possible due to Apple's restrictions.
There may be different providers to an APN, but as the documentation suggests, there has to be a direct connection to an APN.
For more informations, please check out Apple's Documentation on Apple Push Notification Service.
However, I found this post where a user suggests using a service called Urban Airship - I have not tried this myself, so I don't know if and how it would work, but you may check it out :)
Related
So, i'm developing a IOS VOIP app, and find out that i need to use a Push notification server to make my app work on background to receive incoming calls and etc.
I searched and dont find anything about how can i set-up, develop, use, find about, a push notification server/gateway
I found some server who are paid and dont help me on anything, because i can't pay it right now.
I'm sorry to write a question entirely of text, with no code, but there's no code to use right now.
Yes i read the documentation, and articles, and etc, but they just talk about "Setup your server and send a push to apns", nothing useful about what i should use or how can i set-up a server.
Here's what i already found about it:
Mizu VOIP push gateway
How to create a native iOS app that can receive VoIP push notifications
Session Talk push gateway
Mizu VOIP Push notifications
Push notifications docs
In case doesn't exist a non-paid alternative to a push notification server/gateway, is there a workaround to this problem with the newest IOS changes? (I found something like a workaround said by the Zoiper team here)
Thanks in advance!
[EDIT]
The solution was using the Flexisip proxy server.
Can one use a 3rd party service to send Push Notifications without relying on the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS)?
If it is a requirement that one use the APNS service, is it simply a requirement for App Store approval or is it a technological limitation?
I have seen other questions, such as this one: Apple push notification without Apple Server, but it mainly deals with sending files and is several years old.
Apple requires you to use APNS to send push notifications to devices. This cannot be done without APNS, if you found a way around this then Apple would most likely reject the app.
Click here to read the documentation. When you register for push notifications you are actually getting the device token for your app on that specific device from APNS, therefore that is an APNS specific token and you will need to use APNS to send the notification.
I'm trying to add notifications to a private chat app that uses Firebase, unfortunately Firebase has an APN service but it must be configured and needs also a server app to manage it. I'd like to have the user notified when someone is texting him while the app is in the background. The problem is that APN (Apple Push Notifications) requires a server with a certificate and that is ok with me, but I'm looking for a way to send push notifications from an iOS device to another device, I mean device-to-device push notifications and the server has just to relay the messages as they are. In my case the APN server should only relay the messages that it receives from a source device to the destination device. I couldn't find a way to obtain that without writing sever code. I want to use pre-built existing services. Has anybody any idea on how to send push notifications from one device to another without configuring and writing server apps? I tried a workaround using the background fetch iOS feature, but the system si randomly giving my app execution time... and that means that my app could wait hours before being started by the system... so that is not a viable solution. Please help
Ok, probably what I found out could be helpful for others. Actually
what I'm looking for can be directly integrated in the app. You need a library like NWPusher (free on GitHub) which can be imported, and with just a few lines of code and the APN device token you get from the system, it is possibile to implement APN notifications... easily, but most importantly... for free.
UPDATE
Check also APNS framework on GitHub. It's written in Swift 3.0 and it supports the latest features.
You are essentially looking for a messaging / chat API to handle device-to-device communication. You might want to try Pusher or PubNub
I am not very familiar with push notifications. But is it possible to send push notification from one app to another? I know you need a server to send notifications but is it possible implement that in an app.
Short answer: No, pushes are sent from a server to a server.
Long answer: Of course, it's not common practice, but lots of fun.
To send out a push notification to an Apple device, you will need to connect with the APNS server and then send your notification in data format. Although this is usually done from a server, it can just as well be done from an iPhone or iPad.
If you want to get going yourself, I recommend reading all the documentation Apple provides on this topic (start here). Everything you need to know is in there, but you will need to pay attention to the details in order to get this to work.
An easier way to get going is by using NWPusher. This is an iOS framework that provides all the tools you need to push from iOS to iOS. It even includes an iOS demo app that does this:
NWPusher - Push from iOS
Just a small warning: In order to push from iOS, you will need to include the push certificate and private key in the app bundle. This is not a secure place to keep such a private key and you definitely don't want your app's push certificate to leak.
Enjoy!
How do iOS "push" notifications get delivered to a particular device without that device needing to poll a server?
For example, let's say I have received a new message on Facebook. Facebook notifies Apple that my device should receive a notification as such. But how does Apple know which device/IP to push the message to?
Each device can be updated with data using their own unique device tokens. This picture explains everything . .
It was too much for me to put in a comment so.
From the documentation.
Apple Push Notification service (APNs) propagates push notifications to devices having applications registered to receive those notifications. Each device establishes an accredited and encrypted IP connection with the service and receives notifications over this persistent connection. Providers connect with APNs through a persistent and secure channel while monitoring incoming data intended for their client applications. When new data for an application arrives, the provider prepares and sends a notification through the channel to APNs, which pushes the notification to the target device..
I suggest reading the documentation for more information and how to use and configure. It's all there.
Push Notifications
I created an infographic to explain the workflow of push notifications. Hope this is helpful.
Device does not keep polling the server for the push notifications.
To keep it simple, consider an iPhone is connected to internet. On connecting to internet iPhone establishes connection to Apple Push Notifications server this connection is open connection which means data can be thrown to iPhone from server the moment data arrives to server.
Apple does not use HTTP protocol for Push notifications but if you understand HTTP Protocol its almost a similar methodology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_technology#HTTP_server_push
There is a really nice exaplanation of push notifications in this article.
In iOS, apps can’t do a lot in the background. Apps are only allowed to do limited set of activities so battery life is conserved.
But what if something interesting happens and you wish to let the user know about this, even if they’re not currently using your app?