Push Notifications for Chat Apps

Push Notifications for Chat Apps

Chat is the hardest push use case: latency matters, badges must stay accurate, and group mentions need different priority than DMs. Wanilla supports all of it through a single JS API.

Direct Messages

High priority APNs delivery (apns-priority: 10) with the sender's name and message preview. Tap deep-links into the conversation thread via the navigation bridge.

Group Mentions

Use a custom payload key to differentiate mentions from regular group activity. Most users want only mentions, not every message — make this a default setting in your app.

Badge Counts

Send the unread count in the badge field. Wanilla's native shell updates the app icon automatically. To clear, send badge: 0 on read.

Typing & Presence (Silent Push)

Use content-available: 1 for ephemeral state updates that don't need a banner. Your web app receives a JS event and can update the UI in the background.

Connect this to your existing chat backend in under an hour. Start with the push notifications pillar.

Going further: chat apps grow fastest through invitations. referral and affiliate tooling shows how to design the invite mechanics that pair with your push re-engagement.