Comment by hackernudes
2 days ago
Let's see if I can figure this out...
"Declarative Web Push" is a web browser javascript API to subscribe to events from an HTTP server. It is similar to the "Web Push" API but changed to be better for mobile devices in a few ways.
Both the old Web Push and this new Declarative Web Push APIs use "the same Apple Push Notification service that powers native push on all Apple devices". I don't know if that means an Apple server actually listens for the notification from the HTTP server or if the device itself maintains the connection to the server.
It seems that for iOS this API only works on websites that are pinned to the home screen (i.e. not a notification from a site open in safari as a browser). These pinned websites work more like apps.
Is there something similar like this on Android? Either for pinned apps or from the browser? In other words, is there a reliable and efficient way to get notifications to an android phone without having to sign up for any service?
> I don't know if that means an Apple server actually listens for the notification from the HTTP server or if the device itself maintains the connection to the server.
In the case of Apple's ecosystem, the device maintains a connection to the Apple Push Notification service (APNs). The website POSTs notifications to APNs, which forwards them on to the user's device. The user's device then wakes up a local Service Worker for that website in order to process the incoming payload and display a notification.
Declarative Web Push makes the very last step unnecessary.
(It's the same on Android but using Firebase Cloud Messaging instead of APNs. Mozilla also runs a push service and its source is at https://github.com/mozilla-services/autopush-rs/)
> Is there something similar like this on Android?
It works out of the box on Android (without adding to the homescreen or installing as PWA). For iOS, you need to tap the "share" button in safari, scroll down, and "Add to homescreen".
If you want to test this out (on either platform), you can try my PWA where I implemented this (https://lockmeout.online). In the users settings, you can even add several devices (browser, phones etc.) and send a test notifications to either a single or all devices. Installation instructions for iOS and Android are there (since it is a PWA, you just need to press the right buttons in the browser, there is not actual installation). PWAs can also be installed on Desktop (Chrome and Safari).
Btw. the PushNotification API is not device/vendor specific. I use the same code to send out notifications for mobile (iOS, Chrome Android) and Desktop (safari, firefox, chrome etc.). I also do not use any third party for sending, but do it from my server. And hell yeah, not having to create these clumsy serviceworkers will simplify my code a lot.