Web Push Notifications on iOS (iPhones and iPads)
The wait is finally over. Apple has confirmed that it will be bringing web push notifications support to iOS (iPhones and iPads) in early 2023. We have already seen bits and pieces of web push notifications embedded into iOS 15.4 beta but it was mostly non functional.
However, at the recently concluded WWDC Apple has confirmed the support for web push notifications on its mobile devices in early 2023 with iOS 16.
Marketers and developers have been waiting for Apple to add the required support from way back in 2015 when Chrome first adopted web push notifications. Since then, Mozilla Firefox, UC Browser, Edge, Yandex Browser, Opera have all enabled web push notifications apart from iOS. Even though Apple supports push notifications on all browsers on MacOS, they didn’t add the required underlying support for iPhones and iPads. At some point there was even a petition filed to force Apple to add the required web push support to iOS.
With the recent developments it is sure that Safari on iOS will support push notifications from websites when it goes live with other browsers joining in soon as they are basically shells created on Safari’s underlying architecture.
At present it is not known whether Apple will continue to use its own APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) for Safari on iOS as it does on the Mac or will it switch to the PushAPI spec as all other browser use.
Nevertheless, customers should rejoice at the fact that they will now have access to 50% more mobile devices without building an app for the platform. We are already testing every new beta build that comes out and will be ready once Apple adds the required support for web push on iOS.
