What is a Push Notification Service?

A push notification service is a technology that an application uses to send messages to applications or users. You will have seen app notifications or alerts pop up on your mobile device. Those notifications are communication signals that came from the application server. The server, not the user, initiates the push notification exchange. Applications use push notifications for many reasons, for example, to make users aware of upcoming deals, to alert another application to an app event, or to trigger a behavior in a device. While mobile push notifications are a common channel for application-to-user push notifications, there are also web push notifications, wearable push notifications, voice push notifications, SMS push notifications, and more.

There are two main types of push notifications: application-to-application (A2A) and application-to-person (A2P).

A2A

A2A push notifications are sent directly from one application to another, commonly to notify the separate application of an event or activity. A2A push notifications include supply chain status updates, a change in information, and system alerts.

A2P

A2P push notifications are sent from an application or service to an individual user, on one or more channels. Some examples are news and alerts, promotional messages, and transactional messages.

For a push notification to happen, a publisher has to send it, a receiver has to consume these notifications and respond, and a service has to connect them. The relationship between these three parties is like this:

• A publisher uses an application server to send notifications
• A receiver agrees to receive push notifications
• Push notification providers use platform-specific push services to link a publisher to its receivers

For example, if you’re developing a mobile app, here are some common steps to consider if you want to start sending mobile push notifications.

Register the app with the push notification service

Connect your mobile application with the push notification service of the individual operating systems where your app is deployed. For example, you should design your app to connect with Apple Push Notification service (APNs) for iOS users and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for Android users. APN was the first mobile push notification service that allowed apps to create push notifications and deliver them to iOS devices. The same push messages and push notification strategy system were extended to Android users later with Firebase Cloud Messaging.

Register your app with the push notification service provider to gain access to the service API.

Process service tokens

Push notification providers maintain a connection with each app and associated mobile device that has registered with their services. When an app and mobile device register, the push notification service returns a device token. As a developer, you can process and use the tokens to send notifications to your users.

Start to send notifications

Your application server sends the content of a notification and device tokens to your push notification service API. Once the server has sent the request to the push notification service, the service sends the notification to your users’ devices.

The notification appears on the devices’ lock screens, notification centers, or app icons, depending on your users’ settings. Your users can then tap the notification to go to your app or website.

Here are some of the most common ways that organizations use push notifications on mobile devices.

Marketing campaigns

Push notifications are often used for marketing campaigns. Promotion details, discounts, new product launches, and other important updates are sent directly to your users’ devices.

Push notifications are an effective way to push campaigns and encourage your users to perform actions. For example, you can prompt users to download a new app, sign up for a service, or purchase products they like. Businesses can make use of web push notifications or mobile app push notifications, depending on the user’s device.

Successful push notification campaigns also help to bring back past customers.

Transactional notifications

Transactional push notifications work by alerting users whenever financial activity occurs in their accounts. For example, banks can send notifications to alert customers about deposits, withdrawals, account balance updates, and other changes to their accounts. This is especially useful for online banking customers, as apps can send mobile push notifications directly on a user’s devices.

Push notifications help customers stay on top of their finances and be aware of any suspicious activity. You can also use push notifications to send customers payment reminders and other alerts about upcoming transactions.

One-time passwords

Push notifications can deliver one-time passwords (OTPs), which let you authenticate user accounts. For example, when a user attempts to log in or make a purchase, you can send an OTP to the user on their mobile device, by email, by SMS, or by other methods. The user would then enter the OTP to complete the action, so you can verify the user's identity without storing sensitive information. OTPs are one factor of multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Emergency alerts

Government organizations can use push notifications to deliver emergency alerts to the public. These can be alerts about natural disasters as well as other emergencies, such as Amber Alerts, terrorist threats, and extreme weather warnings.

Medical services

Push notifications can send your users health information such as appointment updates, medication reminders, and test results. Additionally, push notifications can remind patients to take their medications or book follow-up appointments. Push notifications can inform related healthcare providers of patient updates.

Shipping updates

As a retailer or supplier, you can send push notifications to keep your customers updated on the status of their orders and to help manage your upstream and downstream supply chain. You can notify your customers of any changes in an order’s shipping status, such as when it is shipped, when it is out for delivery, and when it is delivered. Push notifications can also provide tracking numbers and estimated delivery times.

Customer feedback

Mobile push notifications can prompt your customers to provide feedback about a product or service. You can use them to ask customers to rate their experiences or leave comments about products or services. Additionally, you can use push notifications to conduct surveys and gain insights into your customers’ preferences and opinions.

Social media

If you run a social media application, you can send push notifications to your users about updates such as new posts and comments. When you send users a notification whenever new content is available, they can quickly access and engage with the latest news without manually checking for updates. Mobile push notifications work to boost interaction with apps, bringing idle users back to social media platforms.

Since the release of smartphones, push notification services have become essential to mobile apps. In 2009, Apple released the first version of its Apple Push Notification service (APNs) for iOS, which allowed app publishers to send messages to users without requiring the user to open the app. Google launched its push service in 2012 for the Android operating system. Your users expect push notifications from your mobile app, and they can help both you and your users.

Here are some benefits of using a push notification service.

Increased engagement

Push notifications are an effective way to engage your users. You can use push notifications to send your users relevant information, remind them to use your application, and prompt them to take advantage of features and promotions. Push notifications can have higher open rates than emails, SMS messaging, and chat applications.

Improved retention

You can use push notifications to create more targeted and relevant messaging for your users. For example, you can target users based on their past behaviors, locations, interests, and other factors. This can increase customer retention and revenue.

Greater user control

Your users might prefer push notifications to other communication methods because push notifications are easy to control as a user. Your users can opt in to receive push notifications and opt out when they want.

At Amazon Web Services (AWS), we offer Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) to support your push notification requirements.

Amazon SNS is a fully managed publish-subscribe (pub/sub) service for application-to-application (A2A) and application-to-person (A2P) messaging.

For A2A messaging, Amazon SNS provides push-based, many-to-many messaging for distributed systems, microservices, and event-driven serverless applications. For A2P messaging, Amazon SNS allows you to communicate with your customers using SMS texts, push notifications, and emails.

Here are ways you can benefit from using Amazon SNS:

• Integrate applications with first-in, first-out messaging
• Securely encrypt notification message delivery
• Capture and fan out events from more than 60 AWS services
• Send push notifications and SMS messages to customers worldwide

Get started with push notifications on AWS by creating a free AWS account today.