Skip to main content

iOS APNS Payload

The iOS payload is relatively simple. Using the payload you can set:

  • alert title
  • alert body
  • badge number
  • custom sound name
  • category (for actions)
  • content available flag for background notifications
  • any custom data payload

The simplest payload just contains an alert message, badge number and sound.

{
    "aps" : 
    {
        "alert" : "You have a notification",
        "badge" : 1,
        "sound" : "default"
    }
}

To show an alert with a title and a body you can expand the alert text into an object. Also to show actions you can set the category to match a category you created on your Service

{
    "aps" : 
    {
        "alert" : {
            "title" : "Game Request",
            "body" : "Bob wants to play poker",
        },
        "badge" : 1,
        "sound" : "default",
        "category" : "INVITE_CATEGORY"
    }
}

To send a silent (background) notification you add the content-available field. You should not send an alert as part of a background notification. If you do you may receive additional notification events.

{
    "aps" : {
        "content-available" : 1,
        "sound" : ""
    },
    "custom-key" : "custom-value"
}

More details here: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/Chapters/TheNotificationPayload.html