I'm observing that when a silent push notification is sent to our app, is is started up in the background for 30 seconds before being suspended until the app is launched by the user. This causes data to persist from the silent push notification to the user app launch. I couldn't find documentation on this behavior for silent push notifications, and was wondering if it's possible to have the app terminate after handling the silent push notification. Is there documentation on the general flow of silent push notifications as well? I'm able to handle the edge cases if the app has to be suspended until user launch, but just want to confirm that this is the expected behavior before I go about handling it this way.

Hello, We are facing issue that sometimes a voip notification gets delivered after it is expired. The issue can be simply demonstrated we set the device to flight mode, and after 20s we disable flight mode. We still receive the voip notification. We are setting the expiration header as following apns-expiry=0, so from my understanding it should not be delivered if the device was not able to receive the notification in the fist attempt. I have read following thread https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/778512, from which I understand this is a long standing issue. Hence my question is, is there any way how we can notify the call kit that the call is actually no longer valid, and do not display the call to the user at all? Currently we are forced to always display CallKit call when the notification comes, and some of our users are confused that they see a missed call which they did not have any chance to pick up. Please let me know if you need any more information. Best Regards, Adam Chlupacek

Is there anyway that I could use AVAudioSession, AVAudioPlayer or anything similar in Notification Service Extension? I am trying to implement Audio Playback in the Notification Service Extension to play specific audio file when receiving Notification regardless the app state(foreground, background or killed), but I am not able to activate audio session in Notification Service Extension. NSError *sessionError = nil; BOOL success = [[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback error:&sessionError]; success = [[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setActive:YES error:&sessionError]; if (!success) { NSLog(@"Error activating audio session: %@", sessionError); } Below is the error that I got when I am trying to run the code above in Notification Service Extension. Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=561015905 "Session activation failed" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Session activation failed}

We are developing a messaging app which sends End-to-End encrypted data. The application supports multiple types of E2EE data, including text messages and voice over IP calls. Apple's article titled “Sending End-to-End Encrypted VoIP calls” (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/callkit/sending-end-to-end-encrypted-voip-calls) states that the following steps are required to support E2EE VoIP calls: Request permission to receive remote notifications through the User Notifications framework Register for VoIP calls using PuskKit Add a Notification Service Extension target to your app. Add the com.apple.developer.usernotifications.filtering entitlement to the NSE target’s entitlements file. We have completed steps one through three. We are still missing the filtering entitlement. As of right now the system does not allow us to use reportNewIncomingVoIPPushPayload(_:completion:) method because of the missing entitlement.
 Below is a short description of how our messaging app works: User sends a message to another user. The message is encrypted on device and sent to our server. The server receives the message and sends a notification request to APNs if needed. The server cannot decrypt the message. As an additional security feature we do not pass the encrypted message in the notification payload. The notification payload only contains a localizable generic placeholder message string and default sound in the ‘aps’ dictionary part. Upon receiving a notification from our server, the NSE makes a request to our server and fetches the latest messages (encryption keys have already been exchanged between the participants of the conversation) and determines what to do next (display a banner, or pass a call to CallKit). E2EE VoIP calls are a core feature of our app, so it is imperative that we receive the filtering entitlement. Our capability request has been rejected twice now. The latest request was rejected because: Support for VoIP calls should be provided by PushKit. For more information, please consult the documentation page "Responding to Notifications from PushKit". We cannot support VoIP calls by solely relying on PushKit. Our server cannot make a distinction when to use ‘voip’ (call) and ‘alert’ (text message) apns-push-types. Therefore, the application must be able to use reportNewIncomingVoIPPushPayload(_:completion:) function, where com.apple.developer.usernotifications.filtering entitlement is needed. We have sent the above text to support two weeks ago and made yet another request. Has anyone been able to get the capability as of late? What are the magic words that need to be included in the capability request? Can someone here help us? We made the first request on 3rd of September so this process has taken two months. Our planned release date is coming up and the absence of the capability is holding us back. We already have a released desktop and Android versions so changing the server implementation is really not an option.

I have been working on adding a badge number count to my app, but have run into a really weird edge case. If I have a badge number on my app, delete the application and then re-install it, the badge number still persists on the app icon until I first open the app. I tried looking to see if there is a lifecycle method that is triggered upon uninstalling an app as well as if there is a specific userDefaults attribute to check in order to clear the badge, but I can't find any clear solutions. Does anyone know of a fix to this issue?

We are trying to figure out a strange issue. Our app has not changed for at least 10 months but my devices and the QA tester device have all stopped receiving push/call notifications for twilio voip The twilio credential and apple voip services certificate are in date and valid It is pointing to the correct bundle id and topic (not changed configuration for years) token passed in to TwilioVoiceSDK.register() is retrieved from PKPushRegistry as per guide Running locally the Twilio Voice SDK successfully registers and retrieves APNs token What is interesting is if I log in with exactly the same client account on an iOS 18.5 device (and an older iPad) call notifications work perfectly (I have made sure all focus modes/dnd are off and notification settings are identical) The only changes myself and QA have made recently is minor iOS 18 version updates - 18.6.2 and 18.7.1 These now receive Invalid device token from APNs when Twilio attempts to create a call/voip notification for the user identity Our devices sometimes switch environments test/prod so I installed the app cleanly on a borrowed 18.6.2 device and got the exact same issue We have tested on these devices most of the year with no issues. I have been in touch with twilio support and added code to explicitly unregister and re register on an affected device to clear any bindings but it didn't help. Have apple made any changes in PushKit or token behaviour for later versions of iOS 18? Thanks

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.

We are observing an issue where the iOS Notification Service Extension (NSE) is terminated by the system during startup, before either didReceive(_:withContentHandler:) or serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire(_:) is invoked. When this occurs, the notification is delivered without modification (for example, an encrypted payload is shown to the user). System logs frequently contain the message “Extension will be killed because it used its runtime in starting up”. During testing, we observed that CPU-intensive operations or heavy initialization performed early in the extension lifecycle — especially inside init() or directly on the main thread in didReceive often cause the system to kill the NSE almost immediately. These terminations happen significantly earlier than the commonly observed ~30-second execution window where the OS normally invokes serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire(_:) before ending the extension. When these early terminations occur, there is no call to the expiry handler, and the process appears to be forcefully shut down. Moving the same operations to a background thread changes the behavior: the extension eventually expires around the usual 30-second window, after which the OS calls serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire(_:). We also observed that memory usage plays a role in early termination. During tests involving large memory allocations, the system consistently killed the extension once memory consumption exceeded a certain threshold (in our measurements, this occurred around 150–180 MB). Again, unlike normal time-based expiration, the system did not call the expiry handler and no crash report was produced. Since Apple’s documentation does not specify concrete CPU, memory, or startup-cost constraints for Notification Service Extensions or any other extensions beyond the general execution limit, we are seeking clarification and best-practice guidance on expected behaviors, particularly around initialization cost and the differences between startup termination. NSE Setup: class NotificationService: UNNotificationServiceExtension { static var notificationContentHandler: ((UNNotificationContent) -> Void)? static var notificationContent: UNMutableNotificationContent? static var shoudLoop = true override func didReceive(_ request: UNNotificationRequest, withContentHandler contentHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void) { NotificationService.notificationContentHandler = contentHandler NotificationService.notificationContent = request.content.mutableCopy() as? UNMutableNotificationContent NotificationService.notificationContent!.title = "Weekly meeting" NotificationService.notificationContent!.body = "Updated inside didReceive" // Failing scenarios } override func serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire() { NotificationService.shoudLoop = false guard let handler = NotificationService.notificationContentHandler, let content = NotificationService.notificationContent else { return } content.body = "Updated inside serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire()" handler(content) } }

Hi Apple Team, we reiceved the following message. Hello, We’re reaching out with a final reminder that the Certification Authority (CA) for Apple Push Notification service (APNs) is changing. APNs updated the server certificates in sandbox on January 21, 2025. APNs production server certificates will be updated on February 24, 2025. To continue using APNs without interruption, you’ll need to update your application’s Trust Store to include the new server certificate: SHA-2 Root: USERTrust RSA Certification Authority certificate. Our web service sends token-based push notifications directly to the Apple Push server. For testing: https://api.development.push.apple.com:443 In production: https://api.push.apple.com:443 We have never installed any certificates for using APNs. Do we need to take any action regarding this message, or can we ignore it?

Issue: I am making an application that stores data locally from notifications fired from the server. Everything works fine in the foreground but the background is having problems with not being triggered when notifications are fired. So we tried firing 2 notifications at the same time, including default and silent types. But the problem continues to arise on ios 18, when firing multiple times like that, the trigger is not handling all notifications, leading to data loss. I tried on ios 15 and it worked fine. Environment: Device or Simulator: Iphone 11 pro max (iOS 18.3.2 Steps to Reproduce: Open app, allow received notification. Move app to background mode or terminate app. Sent 2 notifications: a. Default notification payload: { "aps": { "content-available": 1 }, ”notification”: {…}, “alert”: {..}, “data": "some_value" } b. Silent notification payload: { "aps": { "content-available": 1 }, ”data": "some_value" } What I've Tried: Trigger notification in function: application(_:didReceiveRemoteNotification:fetchCompletionHandler:) Handle write data to local storage in above function, put it in background thread also. Thanks in advance!

"As we announced in October, the Certification Authority (CA) for Apple Push Notification service (APNs) is changing. APNs will update the server certificates in sandbox on January 20, 2025, and in production on x date, 2025. To continue using APNs without interruption, you’ll need to update your application’s Trust Store to include the new server certificate: SHA-2 Root : USERTrust RSA Certification Authority certificate. To ensure a smooth transition and avoid push notification delivery failures, please make sure that both old and new server certificates are included in the Trust Store before the cut-off date for each of your application servers that connect to sandbox and production. At this time, you don’t need to update the APNs SSL provider certificates issued to you by Apple." As we are using firebase for receiving notifications and azure notification hub, I read that there is nothing we as developers need to do and will be handled by the providers right?

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

i hava a app using Gateway.push.apple.com to push Notifications,but it is not working sine last month, i test the api show push Notifications success but my device can't receive the Notifications ,is this api not working anymore ? but why the api show push Notifications success ?

Hi, We have a use case where our app needs to send repeated push notifications (both normal and critical alerts) to inform the user about a critical device state and grab their attention. Since iOS doesn’t allow us to schedule local notifications beyond 30 seconds, I need to send multiple pushes from the server side. My questions are: Is there any documented limit on how many push notifications can be sent back-to-back before Apple starts throttling or restricting them? Are critical alerts treated differently from normal notifications in terms of delivery restrictions or frequency limits? Is there a recommended approach for handling scenarios where repeated urgent notifications are necessary to keep the user informed? I want to make sure I’m following Apple’s guidelines and not risking rejection during review.

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?

Here are some questions we received and answers: Q1: Is there a limit to the number of alarms that can be scheduled using AlarmKit? There is no set number as a limit, but this does not mean you can schedule a limitless number of alarms. Depending on device state, available resources, etc., the device may impose a limit, and restrict an app trying to schedule too many alarms simultaneously. When you hit a limit and not able to schedule more alarms, you will receive the maximumLimitReached error. Q2: Will the scheduled alarms persist after system or app events that may terminate an app, for example, a reboot, force quit, or app crash? Yes, all alarms are expected to persist regardless of app or device state changes, once they are successfully scheduled. Q3: Will alarms work if scheduled by an app that is hidden, or requires a passcode or Touch ID/Face ID to launch? Hidden or passcode required apps do not work with AlarmKit. Currently, any scheduled alarms by such apps will silently fail. Q4: When an alarm is dismissed (either by swiping or pressing the power button), can an app detect this action and execute code in response? What about force closed apps? When an alarm is dismissed, the stopIntent set in the AlarmConfiguration is called. Any code in the perform method of this AppIntent would execute. Q5: Is there a focus mode that AlarmKit cannot break through? No. AlarmKit alarms can break through all focus modes. Q6: What is the expected behavior when alarms from multiple apps overlap? Which one gets priority? Which alarm would get activated when multiple alarms are scheduled for the same time is non-deterministic. There is no way to guarantee which app or which alarm will "win". Q7: What do pressing the physical buttons do when an AlarmKit alarm is active? Any physical button that causes a reaction from AlarmKit will stop the currently alerting alarm. Q8: If there are multiple alarms active at one time, which ones do physical buttons interact with? Pressing a physical button will dismiss all currently alerting alarms Argun Tekant /  DTS Engineer / Core Technologies Change History: 2025-08-15: First posted

The iOS documentation shows notification actions buttons with the text center aligned: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/declaring-your-actionable-notification-types But there's no apparent way for an app to control this. The buttons are controlled and rendered by the system and the text is always left aligned. Is there some way to get the text center aligned?

Hi All, im working on a project to send a push notification in CarPlay. Current accepted by apple entitlements is driving. Are custom actions / buttons allowed/supported in CarPlay notifications?

Hello Everyone, I somehow missed to renew the APNS Certificate, I am new to Apple Ecosystem, I can not see the expired or any Certificates under Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles Can anyone help me with this!

I'm having trouble displaying the Apple Wallet pass logo on iOS 18 when a notification occurs. It works on iOS 17 but not on iOS 18 (tested on versions 18.1 and 18.3). I ensured the Wallet pass icon sizes are correct: icon.png → 29×29 icon@ 2x.png → 58×58 icon@ 3x.png → 87×87 Questions: Has Apple changed any requirements for displaying Wallet pass logos in iOS 18? Are there new size, format, or metadata constraints?