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.
User Notifications
RSS for tagPush user-facing notifications to the user's device from a server or generate them locally from your app using User Notifications.
Posts under User Notifications tag
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Problem Statement
We are experiencing a critical and persistent issue preventing the successful signing and building of our iOS application. The core problem is that provisioning profiles, whether automatically generated by Xcode or manually created in the Apple Developer Portal, consistently fail to include the UIBackgroundModes entitlement, leading to a build failure.
Specific Question
Why are provisioning profiles generated via the Apple Developer Portal and/or Xcode's automatic signing process consistently omitting the UIBackgroundModes entitlement for our App ID, even when this capability is explicitly configured in Xcode? We seek guidance or backend intervention to ensure our provisioning profiles include the necessary entitlement.
Expected Outcome
We expect to be able to successfully build and sign our iOS application, with provisioning profiles that correctly include the UIBackgroundModes entitlement, allowing for proper implementation of remote notifications.
Observed Symptoms
Primary Build Error: Consistent build failure with the exact error message:
"Automatic signing failed: Provisioning profile 'iOS Team Provisioning Profile: com.scott.ultimatefix' doesn't include the UIBackgroundModes entitlement."
Missing Entitlement in Profile (Confirmed by Inspection): Direct inspection of downloaded .mobileprovision files (including those manually generated in the Developer Portal for com.scott.ultimatefix) consistently shows the absence of the UIBackgroundModes entry within the section of the Entitlements dictionary. The aps-environment key for Push Notifications is present, indicating Push Notifications are enabled, but Background Modes are not.
Certificates Correctly Recognized in Xcode: Our "Apple Development: Stephen Criscell Scott" and "Apple Distribution: Stephen Criscell Scott" certificates are correctly displayed and recognized in both Keychain Access and Xcode's Preferences > Accounts > Manage Certificates window (without "Not in Keychain" status). Furthermore, the Signing & Capabilities tab for the target in Xcode now correctly shows Signing Certificate: Apple Development: Stephen Criscell Scott.
Persistent Issue Across Resets: The problem persists despite extensive local cache invalidation, Xcode reinstallation, and even testing in a fresh macOS user account (which confirmed the issue was not user-specific).
I'm getting really frustrated with emails from my App users who believe they've been charged for a free in-app purchase when they haven't.
My App offers many in-app purchases of digital items and I give 4 of these away for free to let users get comfortable with how it works in-app.
Over the last couple of years I've had a steady increase in angry emails from users who accuse me of fraud by charging them for a free item. I couldn't figure out for a while what this was as they would leave a 1 star rating, delete the app and ignore my emails for more information.
Recently I had someone a bit more patient engage and explain it to me.
The purchase for some reason popped up on my notifications right when I bought the [Free Item in my app]. It was from a movie I bought and the bill was delayed.
The timing of that notification is what is misleading users about the free in-app purchase.
Can someone take note of this please and perhaps delay any payment notifications so they aren't sent when the in-app purchase is for FREE?
Thanks!
In the app we are developing, we update the device token upon app launch using didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken. Previously, after an iOS major update, if the app was left without being launched, users experienced an issue where notifications would not be received. Later, we confirmed that running didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken during app launch updates the device token and restores the ability to receive notifications.
Therefore, we believe that the device token may change due to an iOS major update. We want to understand the detailed conditions under which the device token is updated due to an iOS update:
Does the same issue occur after iOS minor updates as well?
Does it always happen during iOS major updates?
We reviewed the official documentation, but there was no detailed description of the device token update conditions. Additionally, we contacted Apple, but received no clear answers. If anyone has experienced the same situation, we would appreciate any information you can share.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Tags:
APNS
Notification Center
User Notifications
Dear Apple Developer Support Team,
I am writing regarding critical issues we are facing with Safari web push notifications in our application iLiveMyLife.io, which is severely impacting our ability to maintain reliable communication with our users.
Issue Description:
We are experiencing persistent problems with Safari push notification tokens expiring or becoming invalid without any notification to our server. This creates several critical issues:
Users stop receiving notifications without any indication of failure
Our notification delivery system has no way to detect token expiration
The expiration appears to happen frequently (seemingly almost daily in some cases)
There is no reliable mechanism to re-establish push communication without users manually revisiting the app
Technical Impact:
Our messaging functionality becomes completely unreliable
We must resort to email or SMS as fallback mechanisms, which is not feasible for a real-time communication platform
This makes building any reliable messaging application on Safari practically impossible
The Broader Context:
What makes this situation particularly challenging is that all potential alternative browser APIs that could help address this issue appear to be deliberately disabled or restricted in Safari:
Background Service Workers don't function in the background on iOS Safari
Background Sync API is not supported
WebSockets cannot operate when the app is closed
There's no way to programmatically check the validity of push tokens
The combination of these limitations creates a situation where developers have no viable technical path to build reliable notification systems for PWAs on Safari. This appears to be a systematic restriction rather than individual API limitations.
Requested Information:
Is there a recommended approach to detect Safari push token expiration?
Are there alternative notification mechanisms for PWA applications on Safari that offer more reliability?
Is there documentation on the lifecycle of Safari push tokens that could help us implement proper handling?
Are there plans to improve the Web Push API implementation in Safari to address these reliability issues?
Could you clarify if these limitations are intentional design decisions or technical constraints that might be addressed in future updates?
Business Impact:
This issue fundamentally undermines our platform's core functionality. For a collaborative tool, reliable notifications are essential - users cannot collaborate effectively if they miss updates because their push tokens silently expired. The current state creates confusion among our users, who don't understand why they suddenly stop receiving notifications.
Any guidance or assistance you could provide would be greatly appreciated. We're committed to providing an excellent experience on Safari, but the current push notification limitations make this extremely challenging.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Best regards,
Ilya
We are currently developing a WebAPI service that uses APNs (HTTP/2) to send push notifications to iOS devices.
(Using PushSharp's HTTP/2 support)
The WebAPI service is running on IIS using .net framework 4.8 and c#.
The connection to APNs is always maintained, and the connection is checked every 30 minutes using a dummy token Ping.
KeepAlivePeriod = 30 minutes and KeepAliveRetryPeriod = 10 seconds have also been set.
However, the following issues are occurring.
Although the Ping sent immediately before was successful, a TimeoutException occurs in the notification request sent a few minutes later.
There is no explicit disconnection notification from APNs, and the connection appears to be silently disconnected.
Once a TimeoutException occurs, it occurs frequently afterwards.
Below is an excerpt from the log.
Apple Notification Failed for some unknown reason 1-1: One or more errors occurred.
Apple Notification Failed for some unknown reason 1-2:System.TimeoutException: The operation timed out.
In light of this issue, I would like to be advised on the following two points.
Are there any official specifications regarding the lifecycle and expiration date of APNs HTTP/2 connections?
Even if pings are sent periodically, is there a timeout or other setting that disables the connection on the APNs side?
What are the conditions that would cause APNs to silently terminate a connection?
For example, could this be due to inactivity, TLS restrictions, network maintenance, etc.?
If you have any official documentation or technical guidelines to improve the reliability of this system, we would appreciate it if you could share them with us.
Thank you in advance.
Back story: I'm developing an app that communicates with a personal medical device. We use critical alerts when we have hardware issues that could result in harm to the patient. The audio file is a 30 second file to make sure the patient is aware. If the app is open when they occur, we pop up a modal message in the app. When the user dismisses the notice, we call UNNotificationCenter::removeDeliveredNotifications(withIdentifiers:) to remove the critical alert and also to stop the audio file that is playing.
This normally works fine. However we discovered that if the patient leaves critical alert enabled but disables notifications for our app, that we can still post the critical alert and it goes off. However when the user dismisses the message, the removeDeliveredNotifications call does not work. I did some debugging and if call getDeliveredNotifications with this permission combination, it return 0 (normally it would return 1).
Does anyone know of another way to remove the critical alert in this situation? (or should I be submitting this as a bug?)
I am developing an application that uses NetworkExtension (Local PUSH function) And VoIP(APNs) PUSH.
Nowadays, I found a problem on this app doesn't handle incoming call of Local PUSH when receiving a Local PUSH after receiving an APNs PUSH.
My confimation result of my app and server log is below.
11:00 AM:
my server(PBX) requests a VoIP(APNs) PUSH notification to the APNs.
But my app does not receive the VoIP(APNs) PUSH.
At this time, my app is running on LAN (Wi-Fi without internet connection), as a result, NetworkExtension was running. so I think this is normal behaviour.
14:55:11 PM:
There is an incoming call from the my server(PBX) via local net, and NetworkExtension calls iOS API(API name is reportIncomingCall).
However, iOS does not call the delegate didReceiveIncomingCallWithUserInfo for the reportIncomingCall.
14:55:11 PM:
At almost the same time, iOS calls the delegate cdidReceiveIncomingPushWithPayload of VoIP PUSH.
(instead of call the delegate didReceiveIncomingCallWithUserInfo for the reportIncomingCall?)
And the content of this VoIP(APNs) PUSH was the incoming call at "11:00 AM".
In other words, the VoIP(APNs) PUSH at 11:00 AM is stuck inside iOS, and at 14:55:11 PM, from NetworkExtension reports it.
I feel there is a problem on iOS doesn't handle incoming call of Local PUSH when receiving a Local PUSH after receiving an VoIP(APNs) PUSH.
Would you tell me Apple's opioion about this?
If this is known problem, Please tell me about it.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Tags:
APNS
User Notifications
PushKit
Push To Talk
Hello,
We are currently facing a persistent issue where Apple Push Notifications (APNs) are no longer being delivered to devices. This is not an intermittent problem — push notifications have completely stopped working. We are using PushSharp.Apple (Version 4.0.10.0) to send the notifications.
Current Behavior (Failing):
Every notification request appears to be processed successfully from the server side.
However, the APNs client receives a 0-byte response, and the server closes the connection.
Devices do not receive the notifications at all.
Logs from Current (Failing) State:
APNS-Client[1]: Connected (Batch ID=1)
APNS-Client[1]: Sent Batch, waiting for possible response...
APNS-Client[1]: Received 0 bytes response...
APNS-Client[1]: Server Closed Connection...
APNS-Client[1]: Disconnected (Batch ID=1)
For Reference – Successful Log From Earlier (When Notifications Worked):
APNS-Client[1]: Connected (Batch ID=1)
APNS-Client[1]: Sent Batch, waiting for possible response...
APNS-Client[1]: Received -1 bytes response...
Push Notification Successfully Sent to Device
Any help, suggestions, or experience with similar issues would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!!
We are reaching out to report a critical issue we are facing with Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) for our application. Since yesterday, push notifications have stopped working, and we are consistently encountering connection reset errors when attempting to connect to Apple’s push notification servers.
The issue specifically involves the following endpoints:
gateway.push.apple.com – 17.188.170.74
feedback.push.apple.com – 17.188.178.87
These connections were functioning properly until yesterday. No changes have been made on our end, and we have verified our server configurations.
We kindly request your assistance in investigating this matter. Please confirm whether there are any known issues or restrictions related to the above IPs or endpoints that could be affecting our service.
This issue is impacting our production environment and affecting user experience, so your prompt support would be greatly appreciated.
requestUrl:https://api.storekit-sandbox.itunes.apple.com/inApps/v1/notifications/test
method:Post
responseCode:200
testNotificationToken:06beba6c-7587-44f6-a4b8-f12b11db6061_1745832671126
Request environment:
①APP from: TestFlight
②Apple acount : Sandbox account
③Apple originalTransactionId: 2000000907966801
App Store sandbox server notification configuration is fine(https://*.com/v2/apple_refund_notify), I have tried many times, but have not received any notification from Apple. Is this API not working?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Tags:
App Store Server Notifications
User Notifications
Version: iOS 18.1 and later (works as expected on iOS 18.0 and earlier)
Area: SpringBoard / Notification Center / App Icon Rendering
Description: When changing the app's alternate icon using UIApplication.setAlternateIconName(_:completionHandler:), the icon is updated correctly on the Home Screen and App Switcher. However, in Notification Center, the old app icon is still shown for notifications, even after the change has completed. This issue only occurs on iOS 18.1 and later. In iOS 18.0 and earlier, Notification Center correctly reflects the updated icon.
- Steps to reproduce:
Create an iOS app with alternate app icons configured in the Info.plist.
Use UIApplication.shared.setAlternateIconName("IconName") to change the icon at runtime.
Send a notification.
Pull down Notification Center and observe the icon shown beside the notification.
- Expected Behavior:
Notification Center should reflect the updated (alternate) app icon immediately after the change.
- Actual Behavior:
Notification Center continues to display the old (primary) app icon. The new icon appears correctly on the Home Screen and App Switcher. Restarting the device does cause Notification Center to update and reflect the correct icon, which suggests a cache or refresh issue in SpringBoard or Notification Center.
- Notes:
Issue introduced in iOS 18.1; not present in 18.0.
Reproduces on both physical devices and simulators.
Occurs with both scheduled local notifications and remote notifications.
Restarting the device updates the Notification Center icon, but this is not a viable user-facing workaround.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Tags:
Swift
APNS
User Notifications
Notification Center
When changing the app's alternate icon using UIApplication.setAlternateIconName(_:completionHandler:), the icon is updated correctly on the Home Screen and App Switcher. However, in Notification Center, the old app icon is still shown for notifications, even after the change has completed. Rebooting or change the device's language causes the correct icon to appear.
This issue only occurs on iOS 18.1 and later. In iOS 18.0 and earlier, Notification Center correctly reflects the updated icon.
Could you provide insights into how iOS caches notification icons and how we can force a refresh for all users?
I’m using Appnotic from my server to send notifications for an emergency service, where it is critical that notifications are delivered immediately.
My payload looks like this:
"aps": {
"alert": "Test alert",
"sound": {
"critical": 1,
"name": "sound.wav",
"volume": 0.5
},
"content-available": 1,
"category": "alert"
},
"topic": "com.fireservicerota.FSR-Primary-Alerting",
"custom_payload": {
"id": "11",
"type": "alert",
"incident_id": 23434,
"incident_response_id": 2652343,
"expiration_time": "2024-06-06T16:59:05+01:00"
}
}
I already have the critical alert entitlement and background processing enabled. Everything seems fine when debugging, but I’m experiencing issues:
• Some notifications never arrive
• Around 60% of notifications arrive with noticeable delay
Since this is an emergency app, delivery speed is crucial. What could be causing this inconsistency?
We are observing an weird behaviour where a user uninstalled the app back in February (more than a month ago) but APNs is still accepting push notifications are returning success responses.
We know that using APNs response codes for uninstall tracking is not reliable and that Apple will use fuzzy schedule to invalidate tokens.
However, showing successful responses for month+ old tokens seems a bit misleading and results in wasted token processing for both us and Apple.
Could you please confirm that invalidation (or fuzzy schedule) could take more than months to invalidate tokens on the APNs side? Is that expected or is this a bug somewhere?
I am checking if the user taps on the firebase push notification and get the payload.
override func userNotificationCenter(_ center: UNUserNotificationCenter, didReceive response: UNNotificationResponse, withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping () -> Void) {
let userInfo = response.notification.request.content.userInfo
os_log("notification tapped %{public}@", log: OSLog.push, type: .info, userInfo)
handleNotificationPayload(userInfo as! [String: AnyObject])
setFlutterLinkClickedVariable()
}
My use case is in app terminated state when push notification is tapped, get the link from payload and navigate to corresponding screen based on the link. This is working when there is only one push notification. When there are multiple push notifications with different links in the payload, only the first notification I tap works. Rest of the notifications just launches the app and does not navigate because the link is not set.
I am getting the link from the payload and invoking flutter code which sets the link in the user defaults (shared preferences) and when the app launches in the home screen it checks for this variable and navigates accordingly.
func handleNotificationPayload(_ payload: [String: AnyObject]) {
if let link = payload["link"] as? String {
setFlutterLinkVariable(link)
}
}
override func application(_ application: UIApplication, didReceiveRemoteNotification userInfo: [AnyHashable : Any], fetchCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping (UIBackgroundFetchResult) -> Void) {
os_log("app did receive remote notification %{public}@", log: OSLog.push, type: .info, userInfo)
handleNotificationPayload(userInfo as! [String : AnyObject])
completionHandler(.newData)
}
Currently when there is only one push notification it works because the link is set from the above method. The click delegate is not calling. I did set the delegate in application(:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions).
UNUserNotificationCenter.current().delegate = self
application.registerForRemoteNotifications()
How to solve this issue? Thanks.
I’m building a companion app that connects to a custom hardware hub (IoT device) used for home safety monitoring. The hub is installed in homes and is responsible for triggering critical alerts like fire alarms, motion detection, door sensor activity, and baby monitor events.
Current Architecture:
The hub initially connects to the app via Bluetooth (BLE) for provisioning (to get Wi-Fi credentials).
Once provisioned, the hub switches to Wi-Fi and communicates with the app via a WebSocket connection to stream real-time event updates.
What I’m Trying to Achieve:
My goal is to maintain background communication with the hub even when the app is not actively in use, in order to:
Receive real-time updates from the hub while the device is locked or the app is in background.
Trigger local notifications immediately when critical sensor events (e.g., fire, motion) occur.
Ensure persistence across backgrounding, app swipes (force close), and device reboots, if possible.
What I'm Observing:
On iOS, WebSocket connection is suspended or dropped shortly after the app goes to the background or is locked.
Even though the I've scheduled periodic fetches, notifications are delayed until the app is reopened, at which point all missed WebSocket messages arrive at once.
If the app is force-closed or after reboot, no reconnection or notification happens at all.
Key Questions I Have:
Since the hub is initially provisioned via BLE, and could potentially send BLE flags or triggers for key events, can I use bluetooth-central mode to keep the app active or wake it up on BLE activity?
Once the hub switches to Wi-Fi and uses WebSocket, is it possible to combine BLE triggers to wake the app and then reconnect to the WebSocket to fetch the full event payload?
Is there a legitimate and App Store-compliant way to maintain a connection or background task with:
BLE accessory triggers followed by
Real-time data processing via Wi-Fi/WebSocket?
Would this use case qualify as a "companion device" scenario under iOS background execution policies?
What is the best practice for handling this kind of hybrid BLE + WebSocket alerting flow to ensure timely user notifications, even in background/locked/force-closed states?
Any advice, documentation links, implementation patterns, or examples from similar companion device apps would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Core OS
Tags:
User Notifications
Background Tasks
Core Bluetooth
I want to implement a feature where a custom notification sound file is downloaded from the server when the app is first launched and stored locally on the device. When a push notification arrives, the stored sound should be played in all app states, including foreground, background, and terminated (killed) state.
Does anyone have an idea on how to implement this in iOS? Specifically, I am looking for guidance on:
1)Downloading and storing the sound file securely on the device.
2)Using the locally stored file for push notification sounds.
3)Ensuring the sound plays correctly in all states, including when the app is not running.
Topic:
Community
SubTopic:
Apple Developers
Tags:
APNS
User Notifications
Sound and Haptics
Notification Center
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.
Dear Apple support team,
I have some questions for you about this topic: I'm designing an app that need to send a notification like a classic clock alarm timer to the user, let's say each and every 25 minutes of cellphone usage, ofc only if the device is being used. The thing is that when my app is put to background, then Apple will shut it down after 30-60secs.
I was thinking to send a silent push notification to my app just so I can wake it up for an instant just so it can shoot a local notification, and then keep in the background totally inactive. That means I'll have to send to my app around 3 silent push notifications x hour. Do you think it is a problem for you? or it's ok to do that? Let me know your experience on this matters,
Thanks a lot for your time, A.