We've all been there: you have built a great web app, optimized for mobile, but you have to build a native or hybrid web app just to send push notifications.
Fortunately, thanks to the new standards, like the Push API, Service Workers and Web Notifications, you don't have to build an app only to have the ability to send push notifications. Now websites can send push notifications directly, even when the user is not surfing the website.
Awesome! The problem is that web push notifications work on Android, but not on iOS! Developers can't do anything about it, only Apple can do something. However Apple, maybe for its economic interests in the App Store, has not added web push notifications to iOS, and thus is slowing down the progress of the web.
Because we don't want Apple to become the new Microsoft and Safari the new Explorer, let's ask Apple to do something. BTW: Microsoft has already announced that will support the Push API on Edge. Update: Now all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge and others, support the Push API: the only major browser that doesn't support it is Safari.
What can you do?
Go to the WebKit bug tracker and leave a comment:
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=182566
If you have an Apple Developer Account you can also use the Apple Bug Tracker to suggest new features and improvements.
- Go to https://bugreport.apple.com/ and sign in with your developer account
- Click "Report a new bug"
- Enter the following information and click "Submit"
Title:
Add support for Web Push Notifications to iOS / Safari
Summary:
Please provide a way to send push notifications from websites to Safari, in particular on iOS.
I ask you to consider the addition of the following features:
1. Add support for the Push API (https://www.w3.org/TR/push-api/), Service Workers (https://www.w3.org/TR/service-workers-1/) and Web Notifications (https://www.w3.org/TR/notifications/) to iOS Safari. Alternatively, if you really have concerns about power consumption or Service Workers, add at least support for push notifications through APNs, as you already do for Safari desktop. In any case, I think that a standard technology like the Push API should be preferred to other proprietary methods.
2. Even if Safari desktop already supports push notifications through a proprietary protocol, I ask you to support the new standard (W3C Push API). I really appreciate the fact that Safari desktop was the first browser to support push notifications, when there wasn't a standard yet, but now it's time to move forward.
3. Provide a way for other browsers (e.g. Chrome) that run on iOS to support web push notifications. In particular, update your SDK to allow browser manufacturers to support the Push API, Service Workers and Web Notifications on iOS.
Thank you!
What are you seeing an issue with?
Safari
What kind of issue are you reporting?
Suggestion
Steps to Reproduce:
N/A
Expected Results:
N/A
Observed Results:
N/A
Safari Version/Build & Platform (incl. Version/Build):
All