 Logo | |
| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. |
|---|---|
| Target platform(s) | iPhone OS 3.0 and newer,OS X Lion and newer,Safari 7.0 and newer |
| Status | Active |
| License | Closed-source |
| Website | https://developer.apple.com/notifications/ |
Apple Push Notification service (APNs), previously known asApple Push Service (APS), is a platformnotification service created byApple Inc. that enables third party application developers to send notification data to applications installed on Apple devices. The notification information sent can include badges, sounds, newsstand updates, or custom text alerts. It was first launched withiOS 3 on June 17, 2009. APNs support for local applications was later added to theMac OS XAPI beginning with the release ofMac OS X 10.7 ("Lion"). Support for website notifications was later added with the release ofMac OS X 10.9 ("Mavericks").
Apple announced the service on June 9, 2008 with an original stated release for that September; however, as stated byScott Forstall at the iOS 3.0 preview event on March 17, 2009, the rollout was delayed after a decision to restructure the APNs for scalability purposes due to the allegedly "overwhelming" response to the announcement of the APNs. At both events, Forstall stated thatpush notifications better conserve battery thanbackground processes (which are used inpull technology) for receiving notifications.[1]
APNs was first launched together with iOS 3.0 on June 17, 2009.[2] The release of iOS 5.0 included aNotification Center, adding support for receiving and reading local notifications in a single place.[3]
APNs was also added as an API to Mac OS X 10.7 ("Lion") so that developers could begin updating their third-party applications and start utilizing the service.[4][5] Support was later improved inOS X 10.8 ("Mountain Lion") with the introduction of a Notification Center. As with iOS 5.0, the improvement allowed users to manage and read their received notifications in a single location.[6][7] The release ofOS X 10.9 ("Mavericks") includedSafari 7.0, which added support for accepting and receiving APNs notifications from websites that the user granted permission to.[8][9]
In December 2023, concerns arose regarding a potential privacy and surveillance loopholes involving push notifications delivered through APNs.US Senator Ron Wyden revealed, through a letter to theDepartment of Justice, that both the US government and foreign law enforcement could demand user data from Apple related to push notifications.[10]
In 2014, the maximum size allowed for a notification payload sent through the binary interface was increased from 256 bytes to 2 kilobytes. In December 2015, a newHTTP/2 provider API was released by Apple, effectively replacing the now-legacy binary interface. The maximum notification payload size allowed using the HTTP/2 API is 4 kilobytes.[11] Apple shut down the legacy binary API at the end of March 2021.[12]
The HTTP/2 provider for APNs uses TCP port 443 as the main port of communication, but developers are also allowed to use TCP port 2197 if outbound access to port 443 is blocked by firewalls.[13]
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