Safari push notifications coming to macOS and iOS

[alternadiv]

@Chris D - A long time ago we talked about why Safari doesn't support push notifications for XF (and just about everything else).

Last night I was looking through Safari Technology Preview's experimental features and saw "Built-In Web Notifications" and "Push API".

I enabled the push API and tried XF. XF actually gave the "enable push notifications?" notice at the bottom of the forum. And in account preferences, the push notification button was no longer grayed out. But when I clicked it, nothing would happen and it then did gray out.

Is this Safari at least moving in the right direction to support the web push you need? Would this even be something you could support early? I obviously don't know much about how it works behind the scenes but seeing the XF push notice made me excited for a second.

 

[Chris D]

I will need to look into it but this looks promising. XF may need adjustments before it will work though and it may need to wait until… a future version.

 

[alternadiv]

YES!

 

[Chris D]

XF may need adjustments before it will work

Currently the main issue appears to be that while permission is granted to allow notifications for a given site, Safari doesn't actually accurately report that back.

That's a Safari issue, more than an XF issue. You can see the same on various Web Push API samples; permission is granted but it never appears to be.

(Side note: There is a Permissions API experimental feature too but enabling that has no effect).

To clarify comments surrounding a future version, it is feasible, though not entirely certain, that the web push library we use might need changes in order to work with Safari and maybe iOS in future. If that is the case, XF 2.2 may be constrained and not be able to upgrade to the version that includes those changes.

XF 2.3 is already using a higher version because we're able to due to increased PHP requirements (7.2.5 and above).

Early days but this certainly is encouraging. Interestingly the addition is not mentioned in any of the previous 10 or so WebKit change logs that I checked. This could also mean that the powers that be either didn't intend to include it, or they know it's incomplete.

The timing of all of this, however, could well mean that we're looking here at features which may become stable in macOS 13 and iOS 16. Though it would be nice if it ended up being in a second-point release rather than a headline feature of a major release.

 

[alternadiv]

Early days but this certainly is encouraging.

Despite it not really working out yet, I agree and I’m excited anyway. Thanks for looking into it that quickly.

 

[Lee]

This is indeed a great step in the right direction. I am recently converted to iOS (iPad and iPhone) and really do miss my web push notifications.

 

[Chris D]

Thought I'd give the web push library developers a heads up:

Web push coming to Safari on macOS 13 (in 2022) and Safari on iOS 16 (in 2023) · Issue #347 · web-push-libs/web-push-php

I don't want to unduly get anyone's hopes up but it appears as though Safari Technology Preview (Release 137) has a number of experimental feature flags that may be interesting: Built-In Web Notifi...

github.com

 

[alternadiv]

Safari Technology Preview Release Notes | Apple Developer Documentation

Learn about changes for Safari Technology Preview releases and Web Inspector for macOS.

developer.apple.com

New update today. Not sure if relevant though.

 

[Chris D]

Alas, no changes.

 

[alternadiv]

Safari Technology Preview Release Notes | Apple Developer Documentation

Learn about changes for Safari Technology Preview releases and Web Inspector for macOS.

developer.apple.com

New release. Dunno if anything good.

 

[Chris D]

Nothing good mentioned and no changes to the behaviour so far.

However... iOS 15.4 dev beta was released too.





This is in the same functional state as Safari Tech Preview on macOS (it doesn’t work) but, my god, I actually think it’s happening. Soon.

 

[alternadiv]

As a Mac/iPhone user for years, I think my personal forum would have at least 5,000 more posts than it does now, solely from me, if I had push notifications this whole time.

Soon.

 

[RobinHood]

Nothing good mentioned and no changes to the behaviour so far.

However... iOS 15.4 dev beta was released too.

View attachment 264026View attachment 264027View attachment 264028



This is in the same functional state as Safari Tech Preview on macOS (it doesn’t work) but, my god, I actually think it’s happening. Soon.

My goodness, I'll be absolutely gobsmacked if they do enable this without having to use a native app.

 

[BassMan]

Yes! Looking forward to this.

 

[BassMan]

iOS 15.4 Beta Suggests Apple to Support Push Notifications From Web-Based Apps

Apple is working on bringing web-based notifications to iOS, addressing a long-time concern of developers of web-based apps who have been unable to...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Just so I'm clear, is this more than just allowing a push notification via Safari (i.e. in-browser only)? Meaning this would actually allow a push notification to the device itself, not some weird other process...

 

[Chris D]

Yes. Native notifications direct to your device’s Notification centre.

 

[DragonByte Tech]

This is terrible news, now no-one is going to want to buy the add-on I created for macOS push notifications.

I mean, no-one has bought it thus far since you need an Apple Developer Certificate, a Mac to generate the payload, plus it doesn't work with iOS, but now even fewer than no-one is going to buy it.

 

[Chris D]

Not only that but I want a refund!

 

[alternadiv]

This is terrible news, now no-one is going to want to buy the add-on I created for macOS push notifications.

I mean, no-one has bought it thus far since you need an Apple Developer Certificate, a Mac to generate the payload, plus it doesn't work with iOS, but now even fewer than no-one is going to buy it.

I remember when I inquired. And then you explained to me how it would work. And then I...