Do you know push notifications have a 90% delivery rate and 40% of users respond to them within an hour of notification? So it is evident that App push notifications are ideal in keeping users active and informed with content of interest regardless of the background state of the application. They may be attached to welcome messages, discounts, news alerts, or any other such things.
Apple also provides an Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) in order to support app developers. It enables developers to push notifications to their apps on iOS devices. This guide will be revealing everything about Apple Push Notification Service (APNs), its principle of operation, its application, best practices, and so on.
Part 1: What Does Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) Mean?
Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) is an Apple cloud service where third-party approved apps can send push notifications to Apple devices through a secure connection with a remote server. It enables app developers to provide notifications to installed apps when they are not in use by the user. The messages can be in the form of basic messages, alerts and updates, multimedia messages, or reminders.
APNs notifications may have a unique sound, a message, an updated badge, or show as silent alerts on the app. As an example, a newsstand application may provide alerts to the iPhone application user about breaking news. Nowadays, APNs is a component of the Apple ecosystem and is essential in mobile app communication to allow users to receive timely updates.
How Does APNs Work?
The principle of operation of the Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) follows these main steps:
- Registration: The app developer registers the app with Apple in order to utilize APNs. The registration entails the acquisition of the APNs certificate and its incorporation into the app server. This is a security certificate, which ensures only certified entities are allowed to send app notifications.
- Device Registration: After installing the app on the iPhone, the app registers itself with APNs. The app receives a device token on registration. This token is the address to such a device.
- Message Creation: A message is assembled upon the occurrence of an app event. The message may consist of content, sound, badge, and other data. After this, the app server forwards the message and the device token to APNs.
- APNs Message Reception: APNs is provided with a short message consisting of the device token and the payload. The device token assists APNs to send the notification to the appropriate device, whereas the payload is a property that is defined in JSON format and includes notification details and directives on how the device would notify the user.
- Message Routing: APNs forwards the message to the respective device with the help of the device token. Subsequently, the messages are presented on the device operating system as expected.
Therefore, this is the way APNs cleverly exploits the certificate, device token, and the JSON payload to accept and send push notifications to users of the apps.
APNs Supported Message Types
There are several different types of messages supported by Apple Push Notification Service (APNs):
- VoIP: Alert notification of incoming Voice-over-IP (VoIP) call
- Complication: The watchOS app has complications, whose information is provided in a notification
- File Provider: Initiation of a change to the File Provider extension
- MDM: Informs managing devices that it wants to connect with the Mobile Device Management server
- Alert: Notification which evokes user action (distinctive sound, text message, badge)
- Background: Background notification, without alerting the user
- Location: Notification requesting the position of the user
Appropriate notifications can be sent via APNs using the corresponding type of message.
Part 2: Apple Push Notification Service Use Cases and Best Practices
Apple Push Notification Service is widely used in many situations. The most important ones are the following:
1. User Behavior-Driven Notifications
APNs can be used to send user behavior-driven notifications. As an example, you can send users welcome messages after they have installed or registered to your app. In the same way, you can also provide discounts to users once they have items in the cart and are reluctant to complete the purchase. User behavior-based notifications are an excellent option to interact with users and improve their experience.
2. Service Change Notifications
APNs can also be used to deliver service change-based notifications. This may be connected with payment, logistics, and other such issues. Possibly, as an example, you can provide users with real-time information regarding the status of their order, or inform them when their credit card is expiring.
3. Location-Based Notifications
Location-based notifications can be sent using the user’s geographical information and APNs. You are able to suggest to users nearby cafes and hotels, among other such information, which the users can interact with. This will aid users to have a good experience with your app.
In brief, Apple Push Notification Service has limitless application scenarios. Other than that, here are some of the best practices that you can observe when sending out push notifications:
- Deliver individualized messages through actions and likes of a user to achieve the highest level of engagement.
- Timing of sending a notification should be appropriate, and frequent sending of notifications should be avoided.
- Be concise and useful in your notification (less than 100 characters).
- Notifications should be action-oriented.
Simply put, push notifications must be strategic when it comes to maximizing the results of APNs. You need to experiment with various strategies and highlight those that can best engage the users.
Part 3: Why Use Third-Party Apple Push Notification Service
The direct application of Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) will provide complete control but comes with high maintenance, scaling, and allocation of resources challenges. Outsourcing services would be beneficial in reducing these burdens and allowing you to concentrate on the main functionality of your app and the user experience. The following are the primary reasons as to why they should be considered:
Less Complicated Code and Faster Development
- APNs implementation consists of error control, retry logic, and server infrastructure, which may be time-consuming and resource-intensive.
- Third-party service providers make it easy to set up with user-friendly interfaces, error handling, and automatic retry functionality, allowing your team to concentrate on developing the app rather than maintaining a backend.
Scalability and Cost-Effectiveness
- Handling the notifications of an increasing number of users may be costly in terms of server and infrastructure.
- A large portion of third-party services provide tiered pricing, such as free services, and automatically scale, making services cheaper and less cumbersome.
Increased Features and Durability
- Other features, like analytics, user segmentation, and A/B testing, are frequently advanced features offered by third-party services without additional development work.
- They are also suitable for enhancing delivery reliability and supporting swift problem resolution, ensuring an unproblematic experience for developers and users.
Note: There is still a need to have a $99 membership to the Apple Developer Program when utilizing a third-party push service.
Part 4: Best Apple Push Notification Service Provider – FCM vs. EngageLab
At this point, when we have already noted the utility of using third-party Apple push notification services, the question arises of which service provider to use. Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) and EngageLab are the two most popular in this regard. The advantages of the two push notification services are briefly compared below:
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) and EngageLab Comparison
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM):
- iOS Mobile Push Notifications: Basic iOS notification support with no precise preview and little rich media support.
- Push API: API has limited user segmentation, no end-user time zone or multi-language push, and has a complicated API library.
- Push Analytics: It does not take into account device granularity of the message lifecycle check. Is able to use the Firebase feature to process push callbacks but must access Firebase Analytics in order to perform more detailed data audits.
- Technical Support: This is primarily in the form of public forums or support; most questions are not responded to.
- Pricing: FCM is free of charge initially. But there are also more expenses for data storage, image hosting, and analytics, with separate pricing schemes for other products.
EngageLab App Push Service:
- Mobile Push Notifications: iOS notifications are compatible with all types of notifications and come with rich media and real-time delivery confirmation.
- Push API: It provides good user segmentation, multi-language code samples, timed tasks, and the ability to deliver based on end-user time zones.
- Push Analytics: It offers a Dashboard API which supports querying of statistical data, multi-dimensional metrics of data, message lifecycle queries that are device-granular, and push callbacks.
- Technical Support: Provides manual customer care 7/24 multi-language free support with English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese documentation support.
- Free Solution: Provides a free trial of Apple push notification service with all features, free of charge for 30 days. In addition, the fees are based on real usage.
Why Choose EngageLab’s App Push Service?
Based on the comparison of Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) and EngageLab above, it is evident that the App Push Service provided by EngageLab has greater features and is cheaper than Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) service.
The highlights of EngageLab features given herein further demonstrate that this is the best app push service:
- High Delivery Rates: APNs, FCM, and self-built channels, as well as enhanced message delivery rates.
- Varying Notification Formats: Select the types of notification (notification bar, full-screen, or customized).
- Full Data Analysis: Process message funnel data to increase the reach to users.
- Smart and Precise Push Notifications: Simple SDK integration within 3 minutes and will guarantee higher retention and involvement of users.
- Targeted Notifications: Notifications that are targeted depending on user behaviors, tags, and profiles, i.e., welcome messages, targeted offers, etc.
In brief, EngageLab is a complete solution to be a rich and sophisticated app push service provider.
Conclusion
Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) is an ideal cloud service to use in interaction with users of apps through real-time notifications. The fact that it supports various forms of messages and offers a secure means of informing users makes it an indispensable marketing strategy in 2024. Nevertheless, a third-party Apple push notification service is better to choose to make it easier to use and access more advanced features.
As the discussion above demonstrates, EngageLab is the perfect app push notification service provider because of its outstanding list of features. So, it is high time to act.
Get EngageLab App Push Service now, with a 30-day free trial, and start off on the journey of increasing the user engagement of your app.
