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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Inconsistent VoIP Push Behavior Post Network Restoration
We are observing unexpected behavior in Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) delivery and would appreciate clarification and guidance. Below is a detailed breakdown of the scenario and related questions. Abbreviations: APNP – Apple Push Notification Provider APNS – Apple Push Notification Service Scenario: User1 is registered on iOS device1. Flight Mode is enabled on iOS device1. User2 initiates a call to User1 (Time t = 0 sec). User2 cancels the outgoing call after 5 seconds (Time t = 5 sec). Flight Mode is disabled on iOS device1 after 20 seconds (Time t = 25 sec). Observation: iOS device1 displays an incoming call notification (CallKit UI) after flight mode is turned off, despite the call being cancelled by User2. This notification disappears automatically after approximately 8–10 seconds. Logic Flow: At time t = 0, our APNP sends a VoIP push (priority) to APNS for the incoming call. Since device1 is in flight mode, APNS cannot deliver the push. At t = 25 sec, after flight mode is turned off, APNS delivers the cached VoIP push to device1. The app takes ~5 seconds to initialize (CSDK setup, SIP registration, etc.). It eventually receives a SIP NOTIFY with state="full" and empty dialog info (indicating no active call). Consequently, the CallKit incoming call is removed after ~8 seconds. Questions: → We set the apns-expiration header to 0, expecting that the VoIP push would not be delivered if the device was unreachable when the push was sent. However, APNS still delivers the push 20–30 seconds later, once the device is back online. Q. Why is the apns-expiration header not respected in this case? → Upon receiving the VoIP push, we require ~10–12 seconds to determine if a visible CallKit notification is still relevant (e.g., by completing SIP registration and checking for active dialogs). Q. Is it acceptable, per Apple guidelines, to intentionally delay showing the CallKit UI (incoming call) for 10–15 seconds after receiving the VoIP push? → Apple documentation states that the priority VoIP push channel should be used only for notifying incoming calls, while regular (non-VoIP) pushes should be used for other updates, including call cancellations. Q. What is the rationale behind discouraging the use of the priority VoIP push channel for call cancellation events? In some cases, immediate cancellation notification is as critical as the initial incoming call. Would Apple consider it acceptable to occasionally use the priority VoIP channel for rare call-cancellation scenarios without risking throttling or suspension? → In our implementation, we send an incoming call notification via the priority VoIP channel. Shortly after, we send a call cancellation notification on the regular push channel, marked with "content-available": 1. We expect this regular push to wake the app (triggering application:didReceiveRemoteNotification:fetchCompletionHandler:), but in practice the app never wakes, and our debug logs inside that delegate method never appear. Q. Under what exact conditions does a "content-available": 1 regular push fail to wake the app when it follows a VoIP push? Are there additional requirements (e.g., background modes, rate limits, power optimizations) that could prevent the delegate from being called? → According to Apple documentation: “APNs stores only one notification per bundle ID. When multiple notifications are sent to the same device for the same bundle ID, APNs keeps only the latest one.” However, in our tests: If a device is offline when APNs receives both: (a) a priority VoIP push for an incoming call, (b) a regular push for call cancellation (same bundle ID), Upon the device reconnecting, APNs still delivers the earlier VoIP push, instead of discarding it and delivering only the most recent (cancellation) notification. Q. Why doesn’t APNs replace the queued VoIP push with the newer regular push when both share the same bundle ID? Is this expected behavior due to channel type differences (VoIP vs. regular), or is there a way to ensure that the latest notification (even if regular) supersedes the earlier VoIP push? We’d appreciate your input or recommendations on handling such delayed pushes and any best practices for VoIP push expiration handling and call UI timing.
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107
Aug ’25
Discrepancy between App Store Server API `expiresDate` and iOS Settings subscription expiration date
I am developing an iOS app that uses App Store Server API (v2) for auto-renewable subscriptions. I noticed a discrepancy between the expiration date returned by the API and the date displayed in iPhone Settings > Subscriptions: App Store Server API expiresDate: 2025-09-12T12:10:25 (KST) iOS Settings > Subscriptions: 2025-09-11 (one day earlier) My understanding: The API’s expiresDate is the precise UTC timestamp. The Settings UI might display the "last full calendar day" for UX purposes. Questions: Is this behavior (UI showing one day earlier) an intentional Apple policy? If so, is there any official documentation or guideline explaining this behavior? Should developers always rely on the API’s expiresDate for subscription state management? This discrepancy is confusing for both developers and end users, so any clarification or official reference would be greatly appreciated.
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115
Sep ’25
Reliability and latency for Appsore server side notifications v2
Hi Team, We are building oru subscrption app and want to rely on server side purchase / subscription related notifications. We went through https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appstoreservernotifications/enabling-app-store-server-notifications We wanted to understand the reliability and latency for server side notifciations provided by Appstore.
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73
Nov ’25
invalid_client when invoking https://appleid.apple.com/auth/token
sending the following POST request: ---- HTTP REQUEST ---- POST https://appleid.apple.com/auth/token Headers: Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded Body: client_id=au.com.thejlrguy.businesschat&client_secret=eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IktLUDc4MkhGVTcifQ.eyJ...QeDn7ug&grant_type=client_credentials&scope=https%3A%2F%2Fappleid.apple.com Getting the below error: {"error":"invalid_client"} The private key used to sign the JWT was created 24 hours ago.
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98
May ’25
PKPushRegistry not running in background or when app is killed
self.pushRegistry = [[PKPushRegistry alloc] initWithQueue:dispatch_get_main_queue()]; self.pushRegistry.delegate = self; self.pushRegistry.desiredPushTypes = [NSSet setWithObject:PKPushTypeVoIP]; //处理接收到的VoIP推送 (void)pushRegistry:(PKPushRegistry *)registry didReceiveIncomingPushWithPayload:(PKPushPayload *)payload forType:(PKPushType)type withCompletionHandler:(void(^)(void))completion then we send message from our server or from apple's cloud service: https://icloud.developer.apple.com/dashboard/notifications website services: when app is in foreground,withCompletionHandler wil be called correctly,but when app is in background or has killed ,withCompletionHandler not be called!!! the background fetch、voice over ip is checked in signing & capabilities tabs why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?why?
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410
Mar ’25
Getting VoIP notifications to work and use iOS call UI when phone is locked/app is in background/Not running
Hey there my application allows users to have video calls with each other using Agora. I have successfully set up incoming call functionality on Android but on iOS I am struggling to get the call ui to appear when the app is not running/in background/locked. To my knowledge this is because there is much stricter security on iOS which is limiting me from calling this. When i initially set it up it worked at first when the app was in the background but I think I was failing to report the call to call kit in time and now it's not working. I'm not sure if I need access to this entitlement: com.apple.developer.pushkit.unrestricted-voip Which i believe is only for the big boys or if I make sure I'm reporting the call to call kit fast enough that I won't encounter this issue and it will consistently work in the background.
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235
Mar ’25
Voice control puts three icons in the menu bar
Having voice control enabled now puts three menu bar items. The blue icon it has always had, supplemented with an orange microphone and an orange dot next to control center. I know this orange icon is there to notify me that a third-party application is accessing the microphone, but this is a first-party system service that is always running. If another app starts accessing the microphone I won't know, since the orange icon is always there anyway. It's like a California prop 65 warning. Maybe it was a good idea in principal but with it being ubiquitous everyone just ignores it. Siri is also always accessing the microphone, but doesn't trigger this orange eyesore because it's a system service. Both Siri and voice control are always on in the background, are first-party system services that must be specifically enabled, and both have their own menu bar icon that can be removed if not wanted. This orange icon with voice control potentially introduces MORE risk by training me to ignore the orange icon. Please return to the pre-26.3 behaviour of using this orange icon for third-party apps and not first-party system services. FB22036182 -- "Voice control causes extra menu bar icon"
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How do I manually associate an iOS app counterpart to my macOS app to deduplicate Notifications from iPhone?
Howdy, I'm trying to figure out how to replicate the following behavior for our app: The system is able to ascertain that the Mac equivalent of some iOS app is installed locally, and it prevents notifications from being mirrored. However, I am unable to determine how this association is inferred. When I check our iOS app under this prefpane, the switch remains enabled and toggleable—we'd like to act like Slack here. My initial assumption is that an app group containing both the Mac and iOS apps can be used to create the association; however, I would like to confirm that this is indeed the case before doing so. I'm not terribly confident about this. Details: The bundle identifiers of both apps do not match. This also applies to Slack; its iOS app is com.tinyspeck.chatlyio while its Mac app is com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap. In our case, the iOS app's identifier is like com.company.app while the Mac app's identifier is com.company.app.desktop. Both apps are signed with certificates that have matching team identifiers. The com.apple.developer.team-identifier entitlement is present on the Mac app. The Mac app shares a keychain access group with the iOS app. The Mac app is not sandboxed. The Mac app is an Electron app. The Mac app does not use APNs. It sends notifications "locally". I currently only have the iOS app installed on my iPhone via TestFlight, if that matters. Notification mirroring does work, but we'd like to forcibly disable this by associating the apps together. To my knowledge, the iOS app makes use of both a UNNotificationServiceExtension and a UNNotificationContentExtension. The iOS app currently doesn't have an assigned category (at least in Xcode). The Mac app is currently miscategorized as a developer tool (LSApplicationCategoryType = "public.app-category.developer-tools";), but that should be fixed. (Redacted) bundle information for the Mac app: CFBundleDisplayName = App; CFBundleExecutable = "App Desktop"; CFBundleName = App; Note that our CFBundleExecutable differs from the bundle's display name/name because we're currently migrating our users to a new version of the app that they'd likely want to live alongside the new one. The filename of the bundle itself is, similarly, App Desktop.app. For the iOS app, to my knowledge, the CFBundleName and CFBundleDisplayName are App.
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173
Mar ’25
Firebase Push Notification Background Handling Fails on TestFlight iOS App
Hi, We are using Firebase to configure APNs (Apple Push Notification Service) for sending push notifications. During local testing, the push notifications are received properly when the app is in the foreground or background. After TestFlight testing and passing review, we found that when the app is installed using the developer's Apple ID, push notifications are received correctly whether the app is in the foreground or background. However, when the app is provided to other testers (using non-developer Apple IDs), notifications are only received when the app is in the foreground, and they are not triggered when the app is in the background or inactive state. Request for Assistance: Why, after TestFlight testing and passing review, does the app receive push notifications properly in the background when installed using the developer's Apple ID, but on other testers' devices, notifications are not received when the app is in the background? Are there any differences in Apple ID types or device configurations (developer ID vs. regular tester ID) that could affect the behavior of push notifications in the background mode? Do we need to apply any additional settings or permissions, particularly for handling background push notifications? Are there any iOS version or device-specific limitations that could impact the proper delivery of background push notifications? Additional Information: The app is properly configured for APNs, and push notifications are being sent via Firebase. In the developer's Apple ID test environment, the app receives push notifications properly whether it is in the foreground or background. On other testers' devices, push notifications are only received when the app is in the foreground, and they are not received when the app is in the background. All test devices have been verified to have notification permissions enabled, and Firebase configuration is correct.
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76
Apr ’25
Detecting Notification Banners, DND, and other screen anomalies
Is there a public method to know when an APNS has appeared on the screen? wrapping up a very high end photogrammetry app, using the front facing camera and screen illumination- incoming notifications completely throw off the math. Ideally, it would be great to turn on Do Not Disturb for the short process, but we’d settle for just the detection of the notification banner. also: extra credit - programattically adjusting Auto Dimming, and True Tone would be lovely too.
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60
May ’25
Using notifyUserWithHaptic for Background Alarms in Standalone Watch App
I’m building a standalone Apple Watch smart alarm app that should trigger alarms on the watch in response to Bluetooth or internet events. This means the app operates in the background and attempts to trigger an alarm when such an event occurs. As far as I know, the appropriate API for this is WKExtendedRuntimeSession.notifyUserWithHaptic:repeatHandler. However, I can’t seem to start an extended runtime session while the app is in the background. I’m getting the following error: -[WKExtendedRuntimeSession _invalidationReasonAndDelegateCallbackErrorForError:outCallbackError:]:729: WKExtendedRuntimeSession hit internal error. Error Domain=com.apple.CarouselServices.SessionErrorDomain Code=17 "startSession cannot be called on a scheduled session" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=startSession cannot be called on a scheduled session} Calling notifyUserWithHaptic directly also similarly fails. It seems notifyUserWithHaptic is intended to be scheduled during a foreground session to trigger at a later time, rather than being called ad hoc from a background context. Is there any way to create a proper alarm view on the Apple Watch from a background execution context?
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144
Jul ’25
Live Caller ID Lookup — What’s the automatic refresh cadence for config/PIR parameters? Best way to prompt updates?
Hi Apple team, We’re shipping a Live Caller ID Lookup extension on iOS 18 and have a question about the automatic refresh of configuration/PIR parameters. Questions 1. Is there any documented interval/TTL (min/max) for the system’s automatic refresh of /config and PIR parameters, or is it entirely opportunistic (battery/network/usage)? I can’t find a cadence in the IdentityLookup docs. 2. Does iOS honor server cache headers (e.g., Cache-Control/Expires) to influence when it re-fetches? 3. Which events also trigger a refresh (enable/disable in Settings, OS/app update, device reboot, token/epoch change)? 4. Are there rate limits or best-practice limits for calling refreshExtensionContext and refreshPIRParameters?
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94
Sep ’25
App Store Server Notification Issue
Hello, I am writing this because the behavior of the App Store Server Notification that our server receives is problematic in the Sandbox environment. I have two questions in total. When purchasing a Free Trial subscription, after receiving the SUBSCRIBED / INITAL_BUY Notification, DID_RENEW should be sent when it expires, but DID_FAIL_TO_RENEW/GRACE_PERIOD is sent. The EXPIRE Notification is sent after the subscription expires or DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS/AUTO_RENEW_DISABLED is sent, but it does not arrive. The first problem is that I recently heard that automatic payments after a free trial require the user's consent via email. Is this the reason? If so, I am curious about how I can test it in the Sandbox environment. Is the second problem a bug?
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137
Apr ’25
Push Notification don't wake up my app
Hi everyone, We're experiencing an issue with our Flutter app that uses PushKit, CallKit, and Janus for handling VoIP calls. Everything works fine when the app is in the foreground, but when the app is in the background or completely closed (terminated state), the behavior is inconsistent: Sometimes, incoming calls are received as expected. Other times, the app does nothing, and the call is not delivered at all. Upon checking the console logs, we noticed that our app is being canceled (terminated by the system), which seems to be the reason why calls are not coming through. This happens randomly, making it difficult to reproduce consistently. Additional Details: The app is configured to handle VoIP notifications correctly. We are using PushKit to wake up the app and trigger CallKit for the incoming call UI. When the app is active, calls are handled correctly via Janus WebRTC signaling. We have verified that background modes for VoIP are enabled in the Info.plist. We suspect that iOS may be aggressively killing the app in the background, preventing incoming call notifications from reaching it. Questions: Has anyone experienced similar behavior with PushKit + CallKit on recent iOS versions? Could iOS be terminating the app due to background execution policies? Are there recommended best practices to ensure reliable delivery of VoIP notifications when the app is closed? Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Addional Information: this is the cancellation information at console: Received incoming message on topic hiperme.app at priority 10 por omisión 17:10:18.462084-0300 dasd CANCELED: com.apple.pushLaunch.hiperme.app:E8BACD at priority 10
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154
Mar ’25
Is there a way to dynamically configure Actionable Notifications?
Hello, We are trying to implement Actionable Notifications on iOS via Remote Notifications. According to Apple’s official documentation (Declaring Your Actionable Notification Types), it is recommended to register notification categories at launch time. However, in our use case, the number of buttons and their actions in the Actionable Notification are determined at the time of the Remote Notification request. This means that we cannot predefine the categories at app launch but need to dynamically configure them based on the payload of the Remote Notification. Our Approach We are considering setting aps.mutable-content = 1 and using Notification Service Extension to modify the categoryIdentifier dynamically. Below is the JSON payload we plan to use for Remote Notifications: { "aps": { "alert": { "title": "New Message Received!", "body": "Check out the details." }, "category": "DYNAMIC_CATEGORY", "mutable-content": 1 }, "categoryData": { "id": "DYNAMIC_CATEGORY", "actions": [ { "id": "REPLY_ACTION", "title": "Reply", "options": ["foreground"] }, { "id": "DELETE_ACTION", "title": "Delete", "options": ["destructive"] } ] } } Questions: Can we dynamically configure Actionable Notifications based on the Remote Notification payload? If we set categoryIdentifier in Notification Service Extension’s didReceive(_:withContentHandler:), will users still see the correct action buttons even if the app is terminated? What is the recommended approach to dynamically configure Actionable Notifications at the time of receiving the Remote Notification, rather than at app launch?
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96
Mar ’25
Carplay not read incoming chat message like whats app.
We have implemented Carplay in our voip based project and in this we have implemented Incoming call and chat notification feature for Carplay. For Carplay we implemented siri. Siri Object donated Successfully in Notification service Extension when notification didreceive method called. Donation Code :- func donateIncomingMessageIntent(sender: String, senderId: String, message: String, messageId: String, userInfo: [AnyHashable: Any],destination:String) { // Create proper name components clearAllinteraction() var nameComponents = PersonNameComponents() nameComponents.givenName = sender //unknown let senderPerson = INPerson( personHandle: INPersonHandle(value: senderId, type: .unknown), nameComponents: nameComponents, displayName: sender, image: nil, contactIdentifier: senderId, customIdentifier: "sender_\(senderId)" ) let recipientPerson = INPerson( personHandle: INPersonHandle(value: "me@example.com", type: .emailAddress), nameComponents: nil, displayName: "Me", image: nil, contactIdentifier: "me_id", customIdentifier: "user_id" ) let inMessage = INMessage( identifier: messageId, conversationIdentifier: "conversation_\(senderId)", content: message, dateSent: Date(), sender: senderPerson, recipients: [recipientPerson], groupName: nil, messageType: .text ) let intent = INSearchForMessagesIntent( recipients: [recipientPerson], senders: [senderPerson], searchTerms: [message], attributes: .unread, dateTime: nil, identifiers: [messageId], notificationIdentifiers: [messageId], groupNames: ["Messages"] ) let interaction = INInteraction(intent: intent, response: nil) interaction.identifier = "message_\(messageId)" interaction.direction = .incoming // Add direction DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInitiated).async { interaction.donate { error in if let error = error { print("❌ Failed to donate INSearchForMessagesIntent: \(error.localizedDescription)") } else { print("✅ Donated INSearchForMessagesIntent successfully!") let intentData: [String: Any] = [ "senderName": sender, "senderId": senderId, "message": message, "messageId": messageId, "timestamp": Date().timeIntervalSince1970, "conversationId": "conversation_\(senderId)", // Add conversationId "destination":destination ] let defaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: "group.com.chatapp") // 🔁 Use your App Group ID defaults?.removeObject(forKey: "lastCarPlayIntentData") defaults?.set(intentData, forKey: "lastCarPlayIntentData") defaults?.synchronize() } } } } Here SenderID is like 3000@abc,2000@abc etc. In siri ,When we handle INSearchForMessagesIntent at that time all data getting from Userdefaults because without Userdefaults INSearchForMessagesIntent value nil. Even we enabled announcement using .allowAnnouncement. We also tried to save same sender in contact Book because sometime siri search contact and not found then may be raise this type of issue. So we need code level support for read incoming message in carplay when notification comes. Thank you.
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228
May ’25
Wallet Pass Stops Updating After Silent Push — Device Never Fetches New .pkpass (Possible Throttling)
Hi everyone, I'm developing a custom Apple Wallet pass using a Django backend and exposing my local server through ngrok during development. For the first ~30 minutes, everything works exactly as expected: the pass registers correctly, silent push notifications trigger instant updates, Wallet immediately performs the GET request to fetch the new .pkpass, and the changeMessage displays almost instantly on the lock screen. At some point, however, the pass stops updating entirely. Apple APNs continues to return 200 OK for every silent push I send, but the device never performs the required GET /v1/passes// call to download the updated pass. As a result, even the internal content of the pass (ex: points/balance fields) no longer updates, which confirms that Wallet is not fetching the new .pkpass at all. No changeMessage appears either. This behavior has been described informally by other developers as Apple Wallet Pass Update Throttling, where the Wallet daemon begins ignoring silent pushes after repeated updates or certain internal conditions. I’m trying to confirm whether this is indeed throttling, what triggers it, and how to avoid it during development.
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132
Nov ’25