Push Notifications - how do they work?

[max2]

Are they local or online based ?

 

[usagora]

I'm not sure I understand the question. A push notification is simply a notification that you receive from an app when you're not using it. What triggers the notification could be web-based (e.g. a new email arrives on the server and the Mail app detects it and pushes a notification to you that you have a new Email) or local (e.g. a reminder comes due and the Reminders app pushes a notification to you that it's due). Does that help?

 

[max2]

I'm not sure I understand the question. A push notification is simply a notification that you receive from an app when you're not using it. What triggers the notification could be web-based (e.g. a new email arrives on the server and the Mail app detects it and pushes a notification to you that you have a new Email) or local (e.g. a reminder comes due and the Reminders app pushes a notification to you that it's due). Does that help?

Yes thank you.

 

[MacCheetah3]

Both.

e.g. a reminder comes due and the Reminders app pushes a notification to you that it's due

Definitely a good local notification use. The Reminders app can also locally generate a notification if you setup a location/geofence trigger (e.g., “Remind me when I arrive…”).

Examples of remote notification use would be for weather alerts, breaking news, and game invites.

It’s possibly also important to note that Apple is still the intermediary, presumably for security, etc. In other words, remote push notification details (i.e., payload) are generated by a company’s (i.e., third-party) server but that’s handed off to Apple’s Notification service/system, which delivers the notification/alert to (a) device(s). Then the APIs display the notification/alert, add/update the icon badge, and/or play a notification sound.