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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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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319
Nov ’25
Status of Notification Service Extension filtering entitlement
Hi Apple engineering team, I contacted Developer Support regarding the status of our entitlements request, and they recommended that I post here for visibility. It’s been just over two weeks since we submitted the request, and we haven’t received any updates yet. We understand these requests can take time, but it’s unclear what the typical timeline looks like or if there’s any way to check on the progress. Is there a way to get an update or better understand where we are in the process? We’re trying to plan our release and would really appreciate any guidance on what to expect. Thanks in advance for your help.
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133
May ’25
APNs Background Push Success but Wallet Pass Fails with ‘Unable to Deserialize JSON Payload’ on Device
I'm working on implementing Apple Wallet passes using background push notifications. My server successfully sends the push notification using APNs. The response from the server is HTTP/2 200, and the device receives the push — I can confirm this from device logs. However, the device logs show the following error: "Failed to parse JSON message payload for topic " "Unable to deserialize JSON message payload" My payload is below 2 payload. //string payload = "{"aps":{"content-available":1}}"; string payload = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { aps = new Dictionary<string, object> { { "content-available", 1 } } }); string curlArgs = $"-s -o nul -w \"%{{http_code}}\" " + $"--data-binary \"{payload}\" " + $"-H \"apns-topic: {bundleId}\" " + $"-H \"apns-push-type: background\" " + $"-H \"apns-priority: 5\" " + $"-H \"content-type: application/json\" " + $"-H \"authorization: bearer {jwt}\" " + $"--http2 https://api.push.apple.com/3/device/{token}"; I’ve confirmed that: The device has the Wallet pass installed. The apns-topic header is set to my passTypeIdentifier. The apns-push-type is background and apns-priority is 5. Steps to Reproduce: Install Wallet pass on iOS device. Send background push to device using the above payload. Observe the device logs using Console.app or log stream. See error: unable to deserialize JSON message payload. Is there a specific payload format expected for Wallet passes? Or any additional fields required in the push payload to avoid this deserialization error?
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161
Jul ’25
Push Notification Problem
Hello, i'm facing issues, when trying to integrate push notification feature into my app. the following message is shown and I don't know how to fix it: ExportArchive "Runner.app" requires a provisioning profile with the push notifications feature (Encountered error while creating the IPA) Thankful for any help! Best regards
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340
Mar ’25
No "Unregistered" Error Returned for Background Notifications
Hi team, We've observed that for all background notifications (where content-available set to true, https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/pushing-background-updates-to-your-app#Create-a-background-notification), we never received any response with error string "Unregistered". This differs from non-background pushes, where expired tokens are regularly cleared. Is this the expected behavior (i.e., background notifications will not return an "Unregistered" error), or could this indicate an issue on our side? Thanks in advance for any clarification.
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209
Jul ’25
How can I check applicationState by tap anps push cards?
when I implementation the UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate func userNotificationCenter(_ center: UNUserNotificationCenter, didReceive response: UNNotificationResponse, withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping () -&gt; Void) { var status = "" if (UIApplication.shared.applicationState == .active) { status = "active" } else if (UIApplication.shared.applicationState == .background) { status = "background" } else if (UIApplication.shared.applicationState == .inactive) { status = "inactive" } completionHandler() } I find that UIApplication.shared.applicationState == .background this case can not execute when application is in background。 why applicationState is inactive not background?
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205
Mar ’25
Alarm sounds ios without critical alerts
Hello guys, i need a little help. Im building an alarm clock app, pretty good one, and i have my own sounds i want to use as the alarm ring but notifications on apple cant work when the phone is turned off or the device is in silent mode (Or at least thats how i understand it) unless they have this feature called critical alerts that lets you have notifications even when the phone is turned off or silented. Without this, the phone can do just one beep and only when you open the notification, then it starts ringing but how is this supposed to wake you up? Alarmy has this worked out fine and i cant figure out how, maybe someone here knows. Im thinking maybe they have the critical alerts enabled but then i dont know why Apple would approve theirs and not mine. I tried to submit for the critical alerts feature but apple didn’t approve it saying the app is not the use case and im kinda lost. The whole app could be ruined because of this. So my question is. is there any way how i can use my custom sounds as a notifications on ios even if the phone is turned off or in silent mode+turned off and the app is not straight up running without being approved for critical alerts? Somehow like alarmy does it but i dont know if they have the critical alerts or not. Thank you very much for any kind of help 🙏. For everyone whos reading this, take care!
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197
Jan ’26
Push notifications on macOS "discarded due to expiry"
I'm having a reproducible problem receiving push notifications on macOS 26.2. The pattern is that the push is received and then discarded almost immediately (there is a 60s expiration date) when on battery power and then when I plug in pushes start working and even if I unplug again it works for hours until breaking again. These are alert notifications with priority 10. Other team members have had similar problems but less reliably broken and even get a "stored for device power considerations" message followed by discarded (see apns-unique-id c29250a3-abbf-008a-96f9-a5384e32d1df). An example from my machine with the apns-unique-id 6b2dfe3d-af99-182a-0e1e-6b811d3ec486 which fails immediately. iOS is working fine however so this seems to be confined to macOS only.
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218
Jan ’26
Real-time notification
I need to create a background notification that counts down time and uses buttons to add or subtract time. Currently, I'm developing in React Native and using Expo Go to develop my app. I managed to display a simple notification, but I can't get it to work in real-time, so that when the time is up, it emits a sound indicating that the break is over. How can I implement this feature? My application now: My goal:
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109
Nov ’25
api.push.apple.com always return 400 bad devicetoken
everytime i get my devicetoken from mdm certification,send to apns (api.push.apple.com 443),always return 400,please help me confirm if the devicetoken is expired or somethine wrong else here is the request and response device_token:79c3aec2b2c2b672c3b756c3910977c3a936c3aae280985ac380e280a6091cc2bfc3a132192b14c392c2be7a2ee280a229c3aa push_magic:AAFDAB81-0E63-4B72-A60A-1F8085325870 status_code: 400 headers: {'apns-id': '14BDD477-7D76-A2FB-582C-140BBD95A420'} resp: {'reason': 'BadDeviceToken'}
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136
Jun ’25
Critical Notifications
Hey Together, I have seen that critical notifications need to be confirmed by apple to be used. Sadly I couldn't figure out where to ask for that. Context: I have a sports tournament app for Beach Handball. There are a couple of Courts like up to 20-25. The main use for that in my app would be to notify first aiders/Medics. Right now they are called in via Speakers or by the referees just writing that into a WhatsApp chat. As this takes a long time and the speakers can be deactivated due to rain, power shortage or even the medics sometimes are not in range to exactly hear the speakers calling them. To Speed up this process I want them to download the App, Register via an E-Mail or a One Time Code. Now if a referee needs immediate Help from the Medics on their court they can send the Critical alert to the Medics without having to write a chat into a WhatsApp group, to get a call through the speakers 10 minutes later which the medics may not even hear. A couple of weeks ago we had a player falling on her back/neck/head and they couldn't figure out if she broke her neck or not. Luckily the medics were right next to the court and saw that. but what would happen if they were a couple hundred of meters away and did not notice that? I mean the PA system was off due to a power shortage. someone trying to move her? Risking her death? And while we are at it we could add those notifications if a team is missing to a court for a game that already should've started. Critical because it is urgent. Those notifications are handled with care.
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70
Jul ’25
long wait time for usernotifications.filtering entitlement
Hi, happy new year, I'm a Product Manager for a communications app that's currently in testflight. We requested the com.apple.developer.usernotifications.filtering entitlement on December 3rd, and have yet to receive a response from Apple. I understand that the holiday break may have gotten in the way, however it feels like we were lost in the queue as it's been 6 weeks with no response. Our app owner has checked-in inside appstoreconnect but has not received anything back. Is this common? Is there any process for getting a status update? Are we doing something wrong? Without this entitlement we cannot make the device ring in the background. The app is a voice and video messaging platform.
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335
Jan ’26
Push Live Activity not showing up
This is in an iOS Simulator running iOS 18.2 I send a start live activity push notification from the Push Notifications Console on icloud.developer.apple.com. When checking the console.log output it seems to receive the message, yet the activity does not appear in the dynamic island. (the app is backgrounded when I test this) Can anyone tell me why it's not showing? Starting the same activity from within the app using Swift code works fine. Here is the console.app output: default 11:01:59.060954+0100 apsd <APSConnectionServer: 0x104207b80; development/com.apple.aps.sessioncore.PushNotifications.dev/liveactivitiesd 0>: Sending push to client. UUID: (null) default 11:01:59.061012+0100 apsd Dispatching high priority message on server: <APSConnectionServer: 0x104207b80; development/com.apple.aps.sessioncore.PushNotifications.dev/liveactivitiesd 0> default 11:01:59.061770+0100 apsd Looking up connection on peer: 4304b50 found <APSConnectionServer: 0x104207b80; development/com.apple.aps.sessioncore.PushNotifications.dev/liveactivitiesd 0> default 11:01:59.062283+0100 liveactivitiesd APSXPCDeliverMessageEvent: Created APSIncomingMessage. UUID: (null) default 11:01:59.062642+0100 liveactivitiesd <APSConnection: 0x600003d18000> Delivering message from apsd: <APSIncomingMessage: 0x600000c2e9a0> 2897852514 com.****.****.push-type.liveactivity default 11:01:59.062763+0100 liveactivitiesd <APSConnection: 0x600003d18000> Delivering message from apsd. UUID: (null) default 11:01:59.063374+0100 liveactivitiesd <APSConnection: 0x600003d18000> making delegate (<SessionPushNotifications.APSPushConnection: 0x600000227460>) calls to deliver message 2897852514 { aps = { alert = { "loc-key" = "recording_started_message"; "title-loc-key" = "recording_started_title"; }; attributes = { isRecording = 1; }; "attributes-type" = SWAutomaticTripRecorderActivityAttributes; "content-state" = { distance = 0; }; event = start; timestamp = 1742374701; }; } for topic com.****.****test.push-type.liveactivity default 11:01:59.063440+0100 liveactivitiesd <APSConnection: 0x600003d18000> calling <SessionPushNotifications.APSPushConnection: 0x600000227460> connection:didReceiveIncomingMessage: default 11:01:59.063740+0100 liveactivitiesd Acquiring keep-alive with reason: Received message default 11:01:59.063785+0100 liveactivitiesd Keep-alive reasons: ["Received message": 1] default 11:01:59.063803+0100 liveactivitiesd <APSConnection: 0x600003d18000> returned from <SessionPushNotifications.APSPushConnection: 0x600000227460> connection:didReceiveIncomingMessage: default 11:01:59.063883+0100 liveactivitiesd <APSConnection: 0x600003d18000> responding with an ack for message with guid E19D7D04-12A0-4F1B-B33C-F6BF57EE2EFF default 11:01:59.063921+0100 liveactivitiesd <APSConnection: 0x600003d18000> responding with an ack. UUID: (null) default 11:01:59.063996+0100 apsd Looking up connection on peer: 4304b50 found <APSConnectionServer: 0x104207b80; development/com.apple.aps.sessioncore.PushNotifications.dev/liveactivitiesd 0> default 11:01:59.064019+0100 apsd <APSUserCourier 0x100f052a0 development 0> informed that <APSConnectionServer: 0x104207b80; development/com.apple.aps.sessioncore.PushNotifications.dev/liveactivitiesd 0> acknowledges incoming message with guid E19D7D04-12A0-4F1B-B33C-F6BF57EE2EFF tracingUUID (null) default 11:01:59.064063+0100 liveactivitiesd Received message: topic: Topic(unsuffixed: "com.****.****test"); channelID: nil; token: Optional(128 bytes); eventType: start(SessionPushNotifications.IncomingMessage.EventType.StartParameters(attributesType: "SWAutomaticTripRecorderActivityAttributes", attributesData: 20 bytes, inputs: [])) for environment: development default 11:01:59.064198+0100 liveactivitiesd Received push event for com.****.****test::pushToStart default 11:01:59.064232+0100 liveactivitiesd Adding push-to-start budget for com.****.****test::pushToStart default 11:01:59.064273+0100 liveactivitiesd Acquiring keep-alive with reason: Database default 11:01:59.064296+0100 liveactivitiesd Keep-alive reasons: ["Database": 1, "Received message": 1] default 11:01:59.064313+0100 liveactivitiesd Acquiring keep-alive with reason: Database default 11:01:59.064330+0100 liveactivitiesd Keep-alive reasons: ["Database": 2, "Received message": 1] default 11:01:59.064342+0100 liveactivitiesd Reduced budget for com.****.****test::pushToStart to: 9 default 11:01:59.064358+0100 liveactivitiesd Topic com.****.****test.push-type.liveactivity has remaining budget for pushToStart of 9 default 11:01:59.064369+0100 liveactivitiesd Topic com.****.****test.push-type.liveactivity has not used any budget for activity default 11:01:59.064436+0100 liveactivitiesd Scheduling wake to re-evaluate push subscription budgets at 2025-03-19 11:01:59 +0000 default 11:01:59.064547+0100 liveactivitiesd Earliest nonwaking date from task "Push server budget timeout expiration": 2025-03-19T12:01:59+01:00, finalWakeTarget: 2025-03-19T12:01:59+01:00 3599.999696 default 11:01:59.064593+0100 liveactivitiesd Earliest waking date from task "Push server budget timeout expiration": 2025-03-19T12:01:59+01:00, finalWakeTarget: 2025-03-19T12:01:59+01:00 3599.999651 default 11:01:59.064620+0100 liveactivitiesd Scheduling nonwaking task for: 2025-03-19T12:01:59+01:00 in 3599.999622s default 11:01:59.064659+0100 liveactivitiesd Scheduling waking task for: 2025-03-19T12:01:59+01:00 in 3599.999584s default 11:01:59.064671+0100 liveactivitiesd Acquiring keep-alive with reason: wake scheduling default 11:01:59.064692+0100 liveactivitiesd Keep-alive reasons: ["Database": 2, "Received message": 1, "wake scheduling": 1] default 11:01:59.064734+0100 liveactivitiesd Scheduling waking task for adjusted date: 2025-03-19T12:01:59+01:00 in 3599.999508s default 11:01:59.064768+0100 liveactivitiesd xpc_activity_register: com.apple.sessionkit.wake, criteria: dictionary default 11:01:59.064843+0100 liveactivitiesd Received pushToStart notification for com.****.****test::pushToStart default 11:01:59.064955+0100 liveactivitiesd Keep-alive reasons: ["Database": 2, "Received message": 1] default 11:01:59.064979+0100 liveactivitiesd Publishing event: timestamp: 2025-03-19 08:58:21 +0000; activityIdentifier: F432AB2F-1799-4437-B54B-6D9D70A0B260; eventType: start(SessionPushNotifications.PushEvent.EventType.ActivityStartParameters(attributesType: "SWAutomaticTripRecorderActivityAttributes", attributesData: 20 bytes, contentSourceRequests: [ActivityKit.ActivityContentSource.Request.push(request: ActivityKit.PushActivityContentSource.Request.push, target: ProcessDescriptor.Request("com.****.****test")), ActivityKit.ActivityContentSource.Request.process(target: ProcessDescriptor.Request("com.****.****test"))]))
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110
Mar ’25
Smart Adaptive Volume & Brightness - Say Goodbye to Noise & Visual Pollution!
Hello everyone in the iOS Devolution community! I'd like to share a suggestion that I believe would bring an unprecedented level of intelligence and comfort to the daily iPhone experience: Smart Adaptive Volume & Brightness. The Problem We Aim to Solve How many times has your iPhone rung too loudly in a quiet environment, embarrassing you in a meeting or waking someone up? Or, the opposite, you missed an important call on a busy street because the volume was too low? And what about screen brightness? It's a constant adjustment: too bright in the dark, hard to see in the sun. Currently, we have to manually adjust volume and brightness, or rely on Auto-Brightness (which only works for the screen) and Focus modes, which can be a bit "all or nothing." This leads to interruptions, frustration, and that feeling that your phone isn't really adapting to you. The Solution: Smart Adaptive Volume & Brightness My proposal is for iOS to use the iPhone's own sensors to dynamically adapt notification and ringtone volume, and screen brightness, to the environment we're in. How it would work in practice: Environmental Scan Before Ringing/Displaying: When a notification (call, message, app alert) is about to be delivered, and even before it makes a sound, the iPhone would briefly activate its sensors. The microphone would read the ambient noise level (in decibels), but without recording audio or analyzing any content. Just the "noise" of the surroundings. The ambient light sensor would assess the light intensity around the device. Intelligent and Coordinated Adjustment: Based on these combined readings of noise and brightness, iOS would make the adjustments: In noisy and bright environments (e.g., on the street during the day): The ringtone volume would be automatically increased to ensure you hear it, and the screen brightness would also be raised to facilitate viewing in strong light. In quiet and dark environments (e.g., cinema, bedroom at night): The volume would be discreetly reduced to avoid disturbances, and the screen brightness would be dimmed for your visual comfort and to avoid bothering others. Adjustments would be gradual, adapting to any type of environment (office, cafe, etc.). User Control: Of course, we'd have the option to enable or disable "Smart Adaptive Volume & Brightness" in the settings. We could also define minimum and maximum limits for these automatic adjustments, ensuring the iPhone adapts to our personal comfort levels. This feature would complement existing Focus modes, operating within the permissions of any active Focus. The Benefits for the User Goodbye to Inconvenient Interruptions: No more startling loud rings in quiet places. Never Miss a Call Again: In noisy environments, your iPhone will adapt to be heard. Constant Visual Comfort: The screen will always be at the ideal brightness, without blinding you in the dark or disappearing in the sun. Smoother Experience: Fewer manual adjustments, more time to focus on what matters. Guaranteed Privacy: The use of microphones and sensors would be strictly for environmental measurement, without recording or analyzing personal data. I believe this feature would bring a new level of intelligence and usability to iOS, making the iPhone even more intuitive and adapted to our daily lives. What do you all think of this idea?
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92
Jun ’25
AWS SNS False Success Delivery
We operate a social network application, SportsYou with over 3 million monthly active users and are experiencing significant issues with push notification delivery through APNs. We have a large number of users reporting they are not receiving push notifications. Our infrastructure uses AWS SNS integrated with APNs to deliver notifications. However, AWS CloudWatch consistently reports successful delivery (Success response), even though users confirm they never received the notifications. Because we receive success responses from AWS SNS, our system does not attempt to recreate or refresh the device endpoints. This leaves us unable to detect or recover from these delivery failures automatically. This issue is widespread and inconsistent. It affects users across multiple variables including different iOS versions, different device models, and different versions of our application. We cannot identify a clear pattern that would help us isolate the root cause. With millions of active users, even a small percentage of delivery failures represents thousands of users experiencing a degraded service. This is significantly impacting user engagement and satisfaction. We need guidance on how to properly diagnose this issue and ensure reliable notification delivery to our users. Specifically, we'd like to understand why we're receiving success responses when notifications aren't being delivered, and what steps we can take to detect and prevent these failures.
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180
Oct ’25
Which apns errors should cause us to remove the tokens from our server's db?
Having some discussion about when we should clear out a token from our servers. Docs say: Don’t retry notification responses with the error code BadDeviceToken, DeviceTokenNotForTopic, Forbidden, ExpiredToken, Unregistered, or PayloadTooLarge. You can retry with a delay, if you get the error code TooManyRequests. The way I see it is that with the exception of PayloadTooLarge, all other errors means you should remove the token from your server. Either because: The token is no longer good The token is good, but this is just not the right: environment (sandbox vs production) topic (the token is from a different bundle id or developer team) target (app vs live activity appex) Do I have it right? Extra context: when using the "JSON Web Token Validator" tool, a colleague reported that a 410 -Expired token (from couple days back) was still valid today. This raises questions about when tokens should actually be deleted and how these error codes should be interpreted. Also is it possible for the docs to get updated for us to explicitly know if a token should get removed and not leave it for interpretation?
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150
Nov ’25