Sending Push Notifications to iOS from PWA

Question

I've got a Progressive Web App which made with Blazor WebAssembly and I was wondering if I can send push notifications to iOS devices? Although people said if works now on Safari on MacOS, Push API's website says that it does not support Safari on iOS.

• Do I need to wrap every web app if I target iOS? I don't have a MacBook, do I need to buy one just to achieve this?

• Also there are Firebase and Azure Notification Hub, Can't I just use their service to send notifications for iOS? Firebase's had only Objective-C and Swift examples.

• This also led to another question: Are notifications' way of transport is platform depended? I'm confused with cloud services' role on this.

Answer 1

It is here now, please check the official Safari release notes I have attached the link as well. Apple has just enabled web push notifications for Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) in iOS & iPadOS 16.4 beta 1.

Added support for Web Push in web apps saved to the home screen on iOS. Safari release notes link

Answer 2

As of today, in iOS 16.4, Web Push is available to web apps after being added to the home screen.

Sidenote: in the Safari experimental feature settings, Push API is still disabled by default, but they will work in a web app, if the web app is added to the home screen.

Answer 3

Push notifications have been announced for iOS 16.4 which should be released March 2023 and is currently available if you are part of their beta program.

I've written a tutorial showing how to implement them in a PWA.

Answer 4

I just want to let you all know: Apple will support push notifications for web apps! This news was published at the WWDC2022. Apple will release Web Push with Safari 16 on macOS (Ventura) in a few months (2022) and for iOS and iPadOS in 2023.

See: https://webkit.org/blog/12945/meet-web-push/

Answer 5

I have a workaround to propose. If the PWA can send messages to a server and store them in the db, the watch app can always pull from the same server and display information. This is not the desirable solution, but my work.

Answer 6

You have only three main options to get push notifications working on iOS for a PWA. In both cases, you must register an App ID on Apple Developer portal, with permission to the appropriate service. For Option 1, your registered App ID must have permission to Apple Wallet. For options 2 and 3, you must have permission to Push Notifications. In both cases, you should record your Bundle ID and Team ID in case you need it later.

• Option 1 (Easier): Use PassKit to set up a generic Apple Wallet pass, which can broker notifications that are very similar to native ones. Here's some documentation, and here's a working demo of how this can send push notifications to registered devices.

• Option 2 (Harder): Use Firebase Cloud Messaging or a package like Node-APN to send push notifications the "proper" way, signed with a P12 or P8 key from the Apple Developer Portal. This gets tricky mainly because you need the iOS device identifier, which is only exposed to applications installed natively. I'm afraid I don't have an answer on how to get this device ID from within a PWA, and without it, this method doesn't work.

• Option 3 (not a PWA): You can use an App ID with a provisioning profile and either a P12 or P8 key, similar to the previous option, but you wrap your application in Apache Cordova, and distribute it (either through the public app store, or using MDM software and via the private Apple Business Manager).

Those are your options. I have exhausted every possible avenue researching this, and I am confident that these will remain your only options through at least the next several months. It's possible we may see further support for Web Push or perhaps just a way to get the device ID from the web in the future, but until that time, this is it. There aren't any other ways to go about this presently.

Source: I architect and develop apps for major brands like Subway, Gartner, Morgan Stanley and PwC (among many others). My research is very recent, and includes direct communication with the head of WebKit at Apple, and also with one of the world's foremost PWA and iOS experts.