Implemented PUSH notifications for XenForo

Alpha1

Well-known member
The responsive design already makes XenForo great on mobile devices. We almost do not need an app. But one thing is missing: Instant PUSH notifications.

If XenForo would have PUSH notifications then users could be notified of new alerts , events on their mobile device, in their browser, etc. This keeps users up to date and pulls off site users back onto the website.

Possibly with the addition of mini-apps.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 177
This suggestion has been implemented. Votes are no longer accepted.
More details on what your 'this' is? Are you referring to your mobile post above?

Something to allow push notifications without Pushover or Pushbullet.

I'm not sure what exactly could be done but one idea that was mentioned was an app for each website. I'm not sure what is possible as I am not a programmer. But the idea of having an interface where the forum owner couild purchase the product, add their forum details, receive data to submit to Apple/Google and once approved have their very own forum app would be ideal. Is it possible to create an app template for Xenforo that we could then easily customize/pull data from XF forums and plug into the template so each owner would have their own app but each app would function exactly the same as anyone else, just would pull data from their sites.

Another idea would be to build a Tapatalk like app just for XF but I suspect that would be significantly more costly to develop? \

There have been ideas thrown out but the underlying theme was funding for development. Depending on that cost I would be willing to give a starting base of funding and fund raise for the rest (either here or through crowdfunding sites). I think this is a feature than many XF owners need, we just need to figure out how to do it without having the forum user have to download and customize any details. Essentially, they just download the app and login to the forum and away they go.
 
Something to allow push notifications without Pushover or Pushbullet.

I'm not sure what exactly could be done but one idea that was mentioned was an app for each website. I'm not sure what is possible as I am not a programmer. But the idea of having an interface where the forum owner couild purchase the product, add their forum details, receive data to submit to Apple/Google and once approved have their very own forum app would be ideal. Is it possible to create an app template for Xenforo that we could then easily customize/pull data from XF forums and plug into the template so each owner would have their own app but each app would function exactly the same as anyone else, just would pull data from their sites.

Another idea would be to build a Tapatalk like app just for XF but I suspect that would be significantly more costly to develop? \

There have been ideas thrown out but the underlying theme was funding for development. Depending on that cost I would be willing to give a starting base of funding and fund raise for the rest (either here or through crowdfunding sites). I think this is a feature than many XF owners need, we just need to figure out how to do it without having the forum user have to download and customize any details. Essentially, they just download the app and login to the forum and away they go.
I would pay an additional license fee for a XF mobile app, especially if the app was designed in a way that made it possible for plugin developers to tie their plugins to the app somehow (not a developer myself, and I know I'm oversimplifying it) - I'm referring to apps like Showcase by @Bob and others that are made for content. I am a big believer that forums need to evolve in a way that includes not only push notifications, but also allows more content to be shared directly from mobile devices, and soon.

If your forum members take photos using their phones, where are they more likely to share those photos? The road blocks and extra steps it takes to open a browser on the phone, navigate to your forum, click around and find the right place to post the photo in the forum, and then use the upload feature to click around and locate the photo on the phone can take WAY more time than clicking the Share button after you take that photo and selecting FB, knowing that some of the people in that forum are friends with you on FB anyway. Why go through the extra hassle of also sharing that content in a forum?

For some communities - take the car enthusiast communities for example - those photos signify what that member is working on at the moment with their car, and that is an extremely important community-building element that is starting to drop off in forums these days. People will share what they're doing with their cars on FB because it's FAR easier to do. I'm sure this is not a problem that is exclusive to the automotive community.

I've been talking with members of the site for several months about this, getting their feedback and taking notes. The consistent message coming back is that the forum will always be a great place for finding technical information, but that FB is becoming more preferred for engaging and networking with other car enthusiasts because of how simple it is to use, especially on a mobile device. And being a technical resource only is not going to keep a forum community thriving. 65% of my traffic views the site on a mobile device these days. I'm using a mobile friendly theme without Tapatalk (it doesn't work with many of the plugins on the site that set my community apart from other car sites). I would LOVE to have an app that is built by XF and made specifically for XF and can be extended by some of the talented plugin developers we have in this community. I'd pay an upfront license fee and a monthly fee for that.
 
Last edited:
I would pay an additional license fee for a XF mobile app, especially if the app was designed in a way that made it possible for plugin developers to tie their plugins to the app somehow (not a developer myself, and I know I'm oversimplifying it) - I'm referring to apps like Showcase by @Bob and others that are made for content. I am a big believer that forums need to evolve in a way that includes not only push notifications, but also allows more content to be shared directly from mobile devices, and soon.

If your forum members take photos using their phones, where are they more likely to share those photos? The road blocks and extra steps it takes to open a browser on the phone, navigate to your forum, click around and find the right place to post the photo in the forum, and then use the upload feature to click around and locate the photo on the phone can take WAY more time than clicking the Share button after you take that photo and selecting FB, knowing that some of the people in that forum are friends with you on FB anyway. Why go through the extra hassle of also sharing that content in a forum?

For some communities - take the car enthusiast communities for example - those photos signify what that member is working on at the moment with their car, and that is an extremely important community-building element that is starting to drop off in forums these days. People will share what they're doing with their cars on FB because it's FAR easier to do. I'm sure this is not a problem that is exclusive to the automotive community.

I've been talking with members of the site for several months about this, getting their feedback and taking notes. The consistent message coming back is that the forum will always be a great place for finding technical information, but that FB is becoming more preferred for engaging and networking with other car enthusiasts because of how simple it is to use, especially on a mobile device. And being a technical resource only is not going to keep a forum community thriving. 65% of my traffic views the site on a mobile device these days. I'm using a mobile friendly theme without Tapatalk (it doesn't work with many of the plugins on the site that set my community apart from other car sites). I would LOVE to have an app that is built by XF and made specifically for XF and can be extended by some of the talented plugin developers we have in this community. I'd pay an upfront license fee and a monthly fee for that.
I realize this reply is only partly related to the push notifications topic so I'm going to re-post it as a new thread.
 
Not like the "me want" list needs to be any longer, but hey, here's my vote too. I'd love to be able to ditch Tapatalk across our sites because the push notifications are just about the only real benefit it has right now.
 
Not like the "me want" list needs to be any longer, but hey, here's my vote too. I'd love to be able to ditch Tapatalk across our sites because the push notifications are just about the only real benefit it has right now.
Yeah, we ditched Tapatalk three years ago and haven't looked back. The only thing we miss are notifications.

I came across this today, and provided there were a very lightweight XF app to receive the notifications on the devices, I don't see it being all that hard to implement in XF:

https://developers.google.com/cloud-messaging/

XF could develop (or have a reliable third party develop) its own app, with the sole purpose of receiving notifications. (It would be another paid yearly license like Enhanced Search, etc.) There are "tester" apps for both Android and ios. And sample code up there to get a developer rolling on it. Even to my former-coder's eyes, it does not looks so difficult. The app for the devices would be more like a background process that processes notifications. A redesigned responsive theme could handle the rest, which also preserves our customizations and add-ons. No need for a full-blown app to replace the browser experience; you can open an app in Chrome like an "application" which lets it run without the browser frame. (I do that now on my phones and tablets.)
 
I expect that the pricing on Slavik's app will prove to be too step for the majority of those interested. The problem with XF is that the number of official addons is regularly growing and the combined cost of all the licences and renewals adds up significantly if you're using many/most of them already. Not an issue for large forums with a good revenue stream, but unfortunately it'll leave out the majority of those forum owners not so fortunate.
 
Last edited:

Important note: This App is not an official XenForo product.

There's the rub. :)

All we really need is an official app to display notifications pushed from the forum. Nothing more. A separate app removes all the custom user experience we design into our forums especially monetization. (Yes, I've already asked.) Many users are on tablets now, and some surf from their phones and tablets at work (our peak hours are the US "nine to five" office hours), and with our active trading community, we need our rating system and the other add-ons that go with it, so members are not cut off from functions they use daily.

With responsive, no apps are needed, and I never want to make anyone download an app to use our sites on mobile. A good mobile theme takes care of usability. (Alas, a good mobile theme has yet to be designed, unfortunately, and I feel it should be a part of the default XF system, or at least a secondary XF-created theme which provides a solid launching point for customizations.)

I can see a market for an app (some users like apps), but it is not for everyone. And, it is overkill for my simple desire to push a notification from forum to user. Such an app would be dead simple--receive a notification, and display it. If I had the money, and were still coding, I'd likely have done it by now as an add-on.
 
Interacting with end users is extremely important on current busy meta age. Because majority of all our our end users are constantly dealing with other things in their life.

Thats why interacting with your end user and gathering their attention back to your website is important. Push notifications are a needed function.

There are third party applications that can be used however we prefer to have this built in within Xenforo 2.0 so that we will not depend on a third party support for a critical feature like this.
 
http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/14/facechrome/

Facebook is using internal support in Chrome (and Chromium based browsers. I believe Firefox is also getting support for these) to deliver push alerts even if you do not have Facebook loaded in a tab. It works very well on desktop even. XenForo could do well integrating support for this tech assuming it is possible on user hosted environment.

Not possible yet, that support is only allocated to Facebook and a few other popular sites, currently.

Maybe in the future though.
 
Not possible yet
You are saying that a function that appears to be part of HTML5 requires approval from Google to work?

I checked with a Google developer who is involved in this particular area of web technologies and here is his response. He also points to this document for referral:

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/03/push-notifications-on-the-open-web?hl=en

But yeah, it does not appear to be something that might work for a lot of folks out of the box at this point of time. XenForo developers would of course have a better idea. They have been able to add support for technologies like 2FA so this could be the next best thing! Cheers.
 
Last edited:
I am not sure if it is available on user hosted installs... but IPS forum asked me permission for notifications. Also not sure if these are background/offline capable or not.
It's available on any IPS install (self hosted or SaaS). They finally got rid (I think) of that god-awful sound effect that happened every time one popped up. I don't think it works with all browsers though.
 
so are they supporting service worker thingy that allows you to get updates even when the forum is not active in any browser tab/window?
Pretty sure that theirs requires to be loaded in a browser tab/window - but it doesn't have to be the active one. I normally keep a TAZ, XF, WBB, IPS and my site(s) open in tabs.. and get alerts from the IPS site even if not active.
 
Top Bottom