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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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
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256
Oct ’25
Can Critical Alerts Play Sound Continuously Until User Interaction?
We are developing an app that receives push notifications (via Firebase) from configured IoT devices. It is essential that when a specific type of notification is received, a sound is played continuously until the user interacts with the notification. This behavior is crucial for alerting users to certain critical states of the IoT device. We understand that Critical Alerts on iOS can bypass Do Not Disturb and silent mode. However, from our testing and available documentation, the sound from a Critical Alert seems to be limited to around 30 seconds. Our question: Is it possible on iOS to have a Critical Alert (or any other type of notification) continue playing sound until the user interacts with the notification or app? If so, could someone please point us to the appropriate documentation or APIs? Thanks in advance for any guidance.
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125
May ’25
Apple CarPlay Notifications - Tap action handler
I am developing a CarPlay driving tasks app and is able to display push notifications on CarPlay. I am looking at a way to get a tap action handler for push notifications on CarPlay such that when a user taps the notification and by default the app opens, but I want to present a CPInformationTemplate with data corresponding to the tapped notification.
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123
Oct ’25
Unknown APNs ERROR: BadEnvironmentKeyInToken when sending Push To Talk notifications
We’re sending PTT notifications from our server and are receiving HTTP 403 from APNs for certain phones with the reason field BadEnvironmentKeyInToken. I can’t find this reason documented in Apple’s public error list. I’d like to confirm what this error specifically means and how to resolve it. Any guidance or clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Here is the document I was referring to. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/CommunicatingwithAPNs.html
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456
Jan ’26
Critical Messages Allow messages to
I am creating an app that uses critical messages, I have been granted this entitlement and I am adding the certificate and in the info.plist. In the app I request authorization to send messages to specific numbers. When I try the app in production from Xcode this works fine and I can send the critical messages. However, when I am using the app in the test flight the authorization does not seem to be remembered on the background. Moreover, I go to security/privacy settings and I grant permission to the selected number (I see that it only shows one number even when I have to granted, its like it removes the previous one) however when I exit the setting page the permission is reset (and therefore denied), I think this is a bug. Can you look into that. Both this removing granted permission (HIGH PRIORITY, this message can only be sent in the background, therefore the user can not grant it and why the maximum telephone number to be granted to send messages is reset also to a single one LOWER PRIORITY). Thanks
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90
May ’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?
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199
Sep ’25
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.
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Oct ’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
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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?
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483
Apr ’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!
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122
Sep ’25
Silent Push notifications XCode 16.3 stop working on production
Hello, we have recently started signing and building our applications using Xcode 16.3. Since we made this change, we’ve noticed that the applications have stopped receiving silent push notifications (content-available: 1) when they are distributed via TestFlight or the App Store, even though we haven’t changed anything in the way these notifications are sent. As I mentioned, this started happening after migrating our project from Xcode 15 to Xcode 16.3. Regular push notifications are still working as expected, but silent ones are not being received by the apps. We are desperate because we rely on these silent notifications to inform the apps of updates, and we haven’t been able to identify the root cause of the issue.
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90
May ’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.
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121
Sep ’25
Delay in notifications iPhone 16 Pro iOS 18.3
Hi, I’m having issues with push notifications on my phone across multiple apps. When someone sends me a message, I only receive the notification 10 to 15 minutes later. For example, on WhatsApp, people say that my chat only shows one checkmark when they send me a message. I don’t know what else to do. I’ve already contacted Apple Support, visited an Apple-affiliated physical store, and followed all the recommended procedures. This is my first time using an iPhone—I bought it for professional use, but it’s practically useless if I don’t receive notifications instantly. They even told me that if I send it in for warranty service, there’s a 90% chance they won’t detect the issue, and the iPhone will come back with the same problem.
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819
Jan ’26
Not receiving apple server notification v2 on production URL
Hello, previously i have tested the purchase via test flight and the server notification was sent to my sandbox url. Now when I made the purchase from live app, my server did not receive any notification even though the production url was the same as the sandbox url. The purchase was for a consumable product. Please help, thanks.
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541
May ’25
How to Enable com.apple.developer.pushkit.unrestricted-voip Entitlement for Production App?
We are developing a walkie-talkie style iOS app using CallKit and PushKit for real-time voice communication. The app is intended for internal company use and requires unrestricted VoIP push capabilities to reliably deliver incoming call alerts, even in background or locked states. Our app's use case follows Apple’s guidelines, and we are not using PushKit for messaging or background data. We have already enabled "Push Notifications" in Capabilities and confirmed the provisioning profile, but are unable to enable com.apple.developer.pushkit.unrestricted-voip. Could someone from Apple or the community advise on the current process to request this entitlement for a production app? Developer Team ID: 3KX7Q4LX88 App Bundle ID: com.ksc-sys.rcc.TakumiTalk Developer Name: KOHEI TAKAOKA Company: R C C, Y.K
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125
Jun ’25
Push Notification Icon Not Updated on Some Devices After App Icon Change
Hi, We recently updated our app icon, but the push notification icon has not been updated on some devices. It still shows the old icon on: • iPhone 16 Pro — iOS 26 • iPhone 14 — iOS 26 • iPad Pro 11” (M4) — iOS 18.6.2 • iPhone 16 Plus — iOS 18.5 After restarting these devices, the push notification icon is refreshed and displays the new version correctly. Could you advise how we can ensure the push notification icon updates properly on all affected devices without requiring users to restart? Thank you.
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369
Jan ’26