Apple adds support for web push notifications to web apps on the home screen

Apple added support for push notifications from websites in iOS beta 1 and iPadOS 16.4. This only works with websites that have been added to the home screen. This means that these web apps function much more like actual installed applications.

Apple loses with this a promise in that it last June at the WWDC. After a user has added a site to his home screen, explicit permission must be given to show notifications before this actually happens. Even though the ‘app’ runs in Safari, the notifications do not come from the browser; it’s as if the site is an app with its own notifications. Just like other apps, such a web app can also receive a badge, with a counter of how many outstanding notifications the app offers.

Apple is late in supporting website notifications on this front. Other browsers and operating systems, including Apple’s Safari on macOS, have supported this for much longer.

According to Apple, the notifications behave like all other notifications. This means that they can be shown on the lockscreen, but also on an Apple Watch. In addition, they are subject to the rules that may be imposed by the focus mode.

Finally, Apple reports that third-party browsers can also take advantage of this feature. Currently, those browsers still have to use the Safari engine, making them effectively little more than reskins of Safari. However, there are signs that this will happen in the future could change.

Source: Apple