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.
Notifications
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I created a Notification Service Extension to display profile images in place for the app image (i.e. iMessage).
I send a remote push notification via Firebase Functions, and in the payload, the relevant profile image url string. The profile image url string in the payload is successfully delivered as it appears in my console log and AppDelegate didReceiveRemoteNotification function.
My problem is the profile image does not replace the default app icon image in the remote push notification.
Below is my configuration. Any guidance would be appreciated!
Main target app: the info plist contains NSUSerActivityTypes = [INSendMessageIntent]. The Communications Notifications capability is enabled and "Copy only when installing" in Build Phases Embed Foundation Extensions
Notification Service Extension plist: contains NSExtension > NSExtensionAttributes > IntentsSupported > INSendMessageIntent.
Notification Service Extension class code:
var contentHandler: ((UNNotificationContent) -> Void)?
var bestAttemptContent: UNMutableNotificationContent?
override func didReceive(_ request: UNNotificationRequest, withContentHandler contentHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void) {
self.contentHandler = contentHandler
bestAttemptContent = (request.content.mutableCopy() as? UNMutableNotificationContent)
guard var bestAttemptContent = bestAttemptContent else { return }
guard let fcmOptions = bestAttemptContent.userInfo["fcm_options"] as? [String: Any],
let attachmentUrlAsString = fcmOptions["imageURL"] as? String else {
contentHandler(bestAttemptContent)
return
}
if let attachmentUrl = URL(string: attachmentUrlAsString) {
var senderNameComponents = PersonNameComponents()
senderNameComponents.nickname = bestAttemptContent.title
let profileImage = INImage(url: attachmentUrl)
let sender = INPerson(personHandle: INPersonHandle(value: "1233211234", type: .unknown), nameComponents: senderNameComponents, displayName: bestAttemptContent.title, image: profileImage, contactIdentifier: nil, customIdentifier: nil, isMe: false)
let receiver = INPerson(personHandle: INPersonHandle(value: "1233211234", type: .unknown), nameComponents: nil, displayName: nil, image: nil, contactIdentifier: nil, customIdentifier: nil, isMe: true)
let intent = INSendMessageIntent(
recipients: [receiver],
outgoingMessageType: .outgoingMessageText,
content: "Test",
speakableGroupName: INSpeakableString(spokenPhrase: "Sender Name"),
conversationIdentifier: "sampleConversationIdentifier",
serviceName: nil,
sender: sender,
attachments: nil
)
intent.setImage(profileImage, forParameterNamed: \.sender)
let interaction = INInteraction(intent: intent, response: nil)
interaction.direction = .incoming
interaction.donate(completion: nil)
if #available(iOSApplicationExtension 15.0, *) {
do {
bestAttemptContent = try bestAttemptContent.updating(from: intent) as! UNMutableNotificationContent
} catch {
contentHandler(bestAttemptContent)
return
}
}
contentHandler(bestAttemptContent)
} else {
contentHandler(bestAttemptContent)
return
}
}
}
There's plenty of articles out there about programatically grouping push notifications. However I have tried setting the thread-id in the push payload when sending a push, or setting the threadIdentifier for a received push in a notification service extension to be the same for several pushes.
But if within the iPhone Settings / Notifications the user selects to display pushes as List and turns off Notification Grouping, then each notification resulting from the push appears on its own separately.
Is there something other than thread-id/threadidentifier that is used to programmatically group them? If not then whats the point of these as grouping and display is actually under the control of user.
Hi,
Regarding the announcement about the Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) Server Certificate Update, I wanted to clarify whether it will impact my app’s push notification setup.
I use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) to send push notifications to iOS devices, and in my Firebase project settings, I have configured an APNs Authentication Key under the Apple app configuration tab (Firebase Console > Project Settings > Cloud Messaging > iOS app configuration).
The authentication key I am using was generated from Apple Developer > Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles > Keys.
Since I am using this authentication method instead of APNs certificates, are there any changes I need to be aware of due to the APNs server certificate update, and do I need to update anything in my current configuration to ensure push notifications continue to work?
Thanks in advance!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Tags:
APNS
App Store Server Notifications
Notification Center
User Notifications
Hi team,
I'm developing a feature that's collecting the device locations for home security app.
We've been following
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/creating-a-location-push-service-extension
apns-push-type set to location.
apns-priority set to 5.
during testing, we found that the device's notification extension cannot be triggered after device going into lock screen for 10 mins.
Wonder should we set the priority to 10? Thanks!
Good morning all!
We are facing a specific case dealing with push notifications to iOS devices.
In my scenario:
I turn off my device's internet
Send multiple push notifications via server using Firebase.
I turned ON my device's internet again.
I only see the last push notification I sent.
This is an expected scenario?
There is any documentation that supports this statement?
Thank you all!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Tags:
App Store Server Notifications
Notification Center
User Notifications
APNS
I’m receiving notifications from all third-party apps that I use however, most of the time there is no sound or haptics with the notification. In some cases, very seldomly I will receive a sound when a notification comes in, but that’s only with one of the many third-party apps that I use. I’ve spoken to Apple about this when this whole problem started during an update that you guys rolled out sometime between September and November 2024. They blamed it on the app programmers but I think at this point we all know that it’s Apple’s inability to accept that the problem is on their end. I never had problems receiving notifications from any of the apps prior to that.
I guess my question is will Apple ever fix this or are they going to sweep it under the rug and pretend like it doesn’t exist?
I'm experiencing issues with didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken not being called on iOS 18.1.1. Here's what I've tried:
Basic Setup:
Properly configured UNUserNotificationCenter
Requested permissions with requestAuthorization(options:)
Registered for remote notifications with registerForRemoteNotifications()
Environment:
Xcode 16.3
iOS 18.1.1 (physical device)
Firebase (tried with and without it)
Troubleshooting:
Verified provisioning profile includes Push Notifications
Confirmed APNs certificate is valid
Disabled Firebase's method swizzling
Tested on a clean project (works fine)
Checked device logs (no relevant errors)
Code Snippet:
// In AppDelegate.swift
public func application(_ application: UIApplication, didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken deviceToken: Data) {
let tokenParts = deviceToken.map { data in String(format: "%02.2hhx", data) }
let tokenString = tokenParts.joined()
print("📱 Device Token: \(tokenString)")
// Store the token for your backend
UserDefaults.standard.set(tokenString, forKey: "deviceToken")
// Send to backend
Task {
do {
try await APIService.shared.setDeviceToken(tokenString)
} catch {
print("❌ [AppDelegate] Failed to send device token to backend: \(error)")
}
}
}
public func application(_ application: UIApplication,
didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]? = nil) -> Bool {
// IMPORTANT: First handle push notification registration
UNUserNotificationCenter.current().delegate = self
// Request notification permissions
self.requestNotificationPermissions()
// Register for remote notifications
DispatchQueue.main.async {
UIApplication.shared.registerForRemoteNotifications()
}
return true
}
private func requestNotificationPermissions() {
UNUserNotificationCenter.current().requestAuthorization(options: [.alert, .badge, .sound]) { granted, error in
guard granted else {
print("❌ Notification permission not granted")
return
}
print("✅ Notification permission granted")
}
}
SIM toolkit DISPLAY message is not displayed.
Use case:
SIP MESSAGE SMS Deliver (SC to MS) - 200 OK
SIP MESSAGE RP-ERROR (MS->NW):111:Protocol error, unspecified
Concatenated messages (2pcs) are resent over NAS and Deliver reports received from UE.
User is not notified of SIM toolkit message.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
The system calendar when showing a calendar event shows a relative timestamp on the notification versus all other apps which have a timestamp of when the notification was sent.
Is there a way to set the timestamp to be relative? I am currently working on a calendar app and we should be able to use the same system that apple uses for its own calendar.
Post about this on stack overflow from someone else a few years ago
We are facing an issue: push notifications are not being received. We are using the Marketing Cloud SDK for push notifications.
On install, the app correctly registers for push notifications. We pass the required information to Marketing Cloud — for example, contact key, token, etc. Marketing Cloud also confirms that the configuration is set up, and we have tried sending push notifications with proper delivery settings.
The issue is that after some time, the device gets automatically opted out in the Marketing Cloud portal. When we consulted their team, they said this is caused by the “DeviceTokenNotForTopic” error received from APNs. I have verified the certificates and bundle ID from my end — everything looks correct.
Device: iPhone 15, iPhone 17
iOS: 18.7.2, 26.1
Hello Apple Support Team,
We are using auto-renew plans in our app
We have set the webhook URL in our App Store Connect account to get the Store server notification to get the auto renew data for an user
The issue is when a user purchases any auto-renew plan at the auto-renew time, we are getting null data from the Apple side.
We have printed the log's data to check what data are coming from the Apple webhook. we have attached our logs data please check it and let me know what can we do to resolve this
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Tags:
Subscriptions
App Store Server Notifications
App Store Server Library
I've added a Notification Service Extension as a target to my React Native iOS app following Apple's official documentation. After completing all the setup steps as outlined in the documentation, the notification titles remain unchanged - notifications are arriving without any modifications, suggesting the extension isn't functioning properly.Testing Details:
Sending notifications via Apple Push Notification Console
Tested on iPhone 16 Pro Max (physical device)
Tested on iPhone 15 Pro simulator
Both show the same issue - no title modifications
The extension appears to not be executing at all.
Has anyone encountered similar issues with Notification Service Extensions in React Native projects, or can suggest troubleshooting steps to verify the extension is properly configured and running?
I'm trying to provide custom localized descriptions for the iOS notification permission popup in my app, which supports multiple locales. To achieve this, I'm using InfoPlist.strings files per locale with the following keys:
NSUserNotificationsUsageDescription
NSUserTrackingUsageDescription
The issue I'm facing is that NSUserTrackingUsageDescription is working correctly across all tested locales, but NSUserNotificationsUsageDescription only works for some locales.
Locales tested:
Working: ja, tr, fr-CA
Not working: fr-BE, nl-BE
In each case, the correct localized NSUserTrackingUsageDescription appears, but the NSUserNotificationsUsageDescription falls back to the default or does not appear as expected in fr-BE and nl-BE.
I'm using Xcode 16 and testing on both iOS 18 simulator and physical devices, and the issue is consistent across both.
Any insights on whether this is a known issue in iOS or if there are additional steps needed for NSUserNotificationsUsageDescription to localize properly would be greatly appreciated.
I am trying to retrieve delivered notifications using UNUserNotificationCenter.getDeliveredNotifications(completionHandler:), but I have encountered an issue:
Notifications triggered by UNTimeIntervalNotificationTrigger or UNCalendarNotificationTrigger appear in the delivered list.
However, notifications triggered by UNLocationNotificationTrigger do not appear in the list.
Here is the code I use to fetch delivered notifications:
UNUserNotificationCenter.current().getDeliveredNotifications { notifications in
for notification in notifications {
print("Received notification: \(notification.request.identifier)")
}
}
The notification is scheduled as follows:
let center = UNUserNotificationCenter.current()
let content = UNMutableNotificationContent()
content.title = "Test Notification"
content.body = "This is a location-based notification."
content.sound = .default
let coordinate = CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 37.7749, longitude: -122.4194) // Example coordinates
let region = CLCircularRegion(center: coordinate, radius: 100, identifier: "TestRegion")
region.notifyOnEntry = true
region.notifyOnExit = false
let trigger = UNLocationNotificationTrigger(region: region, repeats: false)
let request = UNNotificationRequest(identifier: "LocationTest", content: content, trigger: trigger)
center.add(request) { error in
if let error = error {
print("Error adding notification: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
Why does getDeliveredNotifications not return notifications that were triggered using UNLocationNotificationTrigger?
How can I retrieve such notifications after they have been delivered?
How to create a Notifications Settings button in the Notification Settings similar to Facebook Notification Settings that will lead users to the app's internal settings page?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
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'}
when I implementation the UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate
func userNotificationCenter(_ center: UNUserNotificationCenter, didReceive response: UNNotificationResponse, withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping () -> 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?
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?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
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!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications