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Why and how to use push notifications in progressive web apps

  • January 4, 2024
  • ~4 min read

Why and How to Use Push Notifications in Progressive Web Apps (PWA)?

Over the years, technology has improved and so has the utility of push notifications. They play a pivotal role not only in mobile or web user engagement but for progressive web apps.

What makes them stand out? Well, they're easier, more cost-effective, and quicker to implement than native apps. Plus, they offer enhanced functionality, engaging users seamlessly across various devices. Imagine experiencing an app-like feeling without the need for installation on your mobile phone. These notifications bring added value for both users and businesses.

Curious to learn how progressive apps work and what the requirements are to set up push notifications? Read this blog!

person looking at mobile notifications

Is Push Notification Supportable in PWA?

You might be aware of push notifications. These are small messages that pop up on the user’s device screen, either sharing an update or asking users to take a specific action.

Push notifications are supported on both the web and mobile. On web-based push notifications, allows you to connect users, whether or not they are surfing your website.

In other words, you can engage users directly without needing their personal details or a separate application. This feature of push notifications helps businesses increase engagement and conversion. Similarly, you can leverage push notifications for mobile users.

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Does iOS Support Push Notification and PWA?

The answer is not 100% yes because there are limitations. Push notifications in PWA are available for iOS 16.4 and above versions. However, this is still considered an experimental feature in Safari on iOS.

Besides this, users need to explicitly grant permission for their PWA to send them notifications. You'll need to display a clear and concise opt-in prompt within your app.

How to set Up Push Notification in PWA?

Maintaining progressive web apps is quite easier than with native apps. These apps are easy to develop and install on any device. They can be directly launched from a browser and installed on a phone as an icon. An advantage of PWA is that it is always up to date.

Progressive apps don't require much space on any device. Most significantly, these apps can be run without the internet or on a slow network.

Apart from these, Google also promotes the use of PWA by providing tools to evaluate their performance. Not only this but having a PWA also improves your SEO and can help you rank higher on SERP results.

Certainly! Here's a guide to the elements you need to set up push notifications for a Progressive Web App (PWA):

Get a secure HTTP connection:

To protect your PWA and data, you must host your web application over HTTPS. This is a fundamental requirement for push notifications.

A secure connection helps protect the integrity and confidentiality of the information transmitted between the server and the user's device.

A service worker:

Implementing a service worker is crucial for handling push notifications in a PWA. The Service Worker is a JavaScript file that runs in the background, separate from the main browser thread. It enables your application to perform tasks like caching, network interception, and background synchronization.

For push notifications, the service worker listens for push events and handles the display of notifications, even when the web app is not open.

A push notification service:

To send push notifications, you need a push notification service. This service acts as an intermediary between your server and the user's device.

We will suggest Notifly, which provides a single API for all types of notifications. Further, the dashboard helps you manage and send push notifications.

After integrating a push notification service, you'll obtain credentials (such as API keys) that you'll use to communicate with the service. This ensures that your server can trigger push notifications to be sent to users through the Service Worker.

User permission:

User permission is a critical aspect of push notifications. Before sending notifications, your PWA must request and get permission from the user. This is typically done using the Notifications API.

Remember to request permission at an appropriate time, such as after the user has interacted with your application and understands why notifications are beneficial.

By incorporating these elements into your PWA, you'll be on your way to delivering effective and engaging push notifications to your users.

Key Takeaway

We hope you find this blog insightful. As explained, push notifications are a powerful tool for businesses to engage, retain, and convert users. Integrating them with progressive web apps can bring you more significant and fruitful results.

However, when implementing, ensure to meet the basic requirements to use push notifications in PWAs. Most importantly, use them wisely because overusing push messages can make users mark them as spam. Further, leverage Notifly to keep track of the performance of your notifications on multiple devices, hassle-free.

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