Top Steps to Mastering iOS Push Notifications
Milan Koradiya
15th Oct, 2020
Technology has evolved over the years. New means of marketing businesses have emerged like social media marketing, email marketing, newsletters, daily mail and such. But, the effectiveness of the tools keeps fading as time goes by. At present, one of the best ways to market your brand is through Push notifications. It lets you connect to the audience in real-time and retain time for a longer duration.
Being a top iOS app development company in USA, our dedicated iOS developers are master of effective iOS push notification. That’s why we came up with this article in order to give you a depth insight into how to mastering iOS push notification.
If we talk specifically about iOS, the features regarding push notifications can be confusing. The iOS offers an array of features for the same and finding out which one will suit your app might be a tedious task. Below listed are a few steps which will help you master push notifications in iOS Swift 5. They work for both local and remote notifications.
Importance of iOS Push Notification:
Do you know?
In June 2009, Apple launched the first push services in its OS, called APNs, Apple Push Notification Services. Later on, Google released Google Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) in 2010. Also, Google introduced “Rich Notification” that includes images and call to action (CTA) buttons in the push notification.
Mastering iOS Push Notifications
Understanding Terms:
Alerts and Notifications are two terms that may sound to do the same job but perform different functions. Notifications can be in different forms like text, images, sounds, badges or other attachments. They have better visibility or form when compared to Alerts. It increases user engagement and retention rates.
Alerts are technically the text/written form of notifications that may appear on your lock screen or the notification bar when you unlock the phone. In recent years, Apple added functionality to the alerts i.e., alerts have a title, subtitles and the main body. This change in the structure offers clarity and better reading visibility to the audience.
In Android, it can be difficult to place subtitles as its placement isn’t compatible. So, you should map out the title and subtitle fields to your text in iOS push flow and the text boxes in Android. Ensure that the subtitles and titles don’t exceed a single line of text or they may get clipped. You can cover multiple lines under the body field.
Sounds:
Audio or sound plays an important role in grabbing the user’s attention. iOS has a default sound for its notifications. You can use it by setting the sound to ‘default’. You can create custom notification sounds for your app to make things interesting. Ensure that you include it with your app bundle while submitting it to the app store. If the device is in silent mode, it will vibrate when a notification arrives.
Creating a sound for your app can be a challenging task for iOS push notification firebase. You may select a sound that incorporates your brand values and represents your vision. If you don’t want to go into deeper meanings, you can select a unique sound that will let users identify your brand.
Example: Facebook and Snapchat have their own sound for notifications which instantly helps us recognize the app.
Customized Content Extensions:
You can add extensions to your notifications for the app. Alerts have a viewing system, where if you long-press the Apple push notification, it shows the whole text or attachment. Adding such custom extensions will let users download extra information. You can utilize background fetch to pre-cache the content for your extension.
Notification Threads:
When you work with iOS, you will find that it adds all the notifications into the notification centre as a single thread by default. This is advantageous for people who receive a lot of notifications regularly for better management. Let’s say you have a messaging app. You would have a thread for every conversation. A conversation with your friend’s group will not be mixed with the family group.
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One of the best features that iOS offers is hiding your notification content when the device is locked. You can always enable/disable the option, whichever suits you. This is done to ensure your privacy with the data. If you have a messaging app, you may just show the number of messages or number of attachments to build curiosity. This offers users with more context rather than showing all the content.
Work with Professionals like Auxano Global Services
Understanding and mastering iOS push notifications can be easy theoretically. Even if you do understand all the features, you may have a difficult time opting for the best features for your app. You can hire iOS app developers to seek expert help.
Auxano Global Services is one of the top mobile app development companies in the USA. With years of experience, we know what customers want and how you can deliver it to them. We work rigorously to engage with customers and offer promising results. For more assistance, you can contact our customer care team.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Push notification and how it works?
What is the Rich Notification?
What are the benefits of using iOS push notification?
Which is the best iOS app development company?
Do you provide maintenance and support after iOS app development?
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About The Author
Milan Koradiya
As the Android Team Lead, Milan Koradiya possesses immense expertise in Android app development. He is a creative thinker and holds a great vision when it comes to planning a project. His management and technical skills have been a significant contribution to the company. He has an all-embracing hands-on experience in trending technology as well, such as Flutter, Kotlin, Xamarin, React Native, and Ionic.