Overview

iOS push notifications are essential for driving sustained user engagement and retention in your iOS app. They empower you to deliver real-time updates, reminders, and personalized messages directly to your users, improving the overall user experience and stickiness of your app. By integrating OneSignal’s SDK with your app, you can take advantage of Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) to ensure your notifications are delivered seamlessly across iOS devices. This guide will walk you through integrating our SDK into your iOS app.

Requirements

• OneSignal app
• Xcode 14+
• Device running iOS/iPadOS 12+ or Xcode 14+ simulator running iOS 16.2+
• Configure your OneSignal app and platform

Configure your OneSignal app and platform

Required

If your team already created an account with OneSignal, ask to be invited as an admin role so you can setup the app. Otherwise, sign up for a free account at onesignal.com to get started!

Details on configuring your OneSignal app (click to expand)

You can setup multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Web, Email, SMS) within the same OneSignal App under Settings > Push & In-App. If you want to create a new app select New App/Website. If this is your first OneSignal app, you will see the next page.

Name your app and organization something recognizable, then select the platform to setup. You can always set up more platforms in this OneSignal App later within Settings > Push & In-App.

Click Next: Configure Your Platform.

To configure your app, follow the prompts based on the platforms you support.

• Android: Set up your Android Firebase Credentials
• iOS: p8 Authentication Token or p12 Push Notification Certificate
• Amazon: Generate an Amazon API Key
• Huawei: Authorize OneSignal to send Huawei Push

After you setup your credentials, click Save & Continue.

Choose your Apps Target SDK, the click Save & Continue.

Finally, you will be directed to install the SDK and provided your OneSignal App ID. Make sure to save your App ID as you will need it later.

If you need a teammate or your developer to assist, you can click Invite them to the app and select Done when finished.

Continue through the documentation to finish adding OneSignal to your app.

iOS setup

The following steps are required for adding push notifications to iOS notifications including images, Badges, and Confirmed Delivery.

1. Add Push Notifications capability to App Target

Ensure your project has the Push Notifications capability. This allows your app to register the push token, granting the ability to receive push notifications.

Select your project > your App Target > Signing & Capabilities. If you do not see Push Notifications enabled, click + Capability and add Push Notifications. See Apple's Enable the push notifications capability docs for more details.

2. Add Background Modes capability to app target

Ensure your app target has the Remote notifications background mode to allow a notification to wake your app and update it silently in the background.

Click + Capability again and add Background Modes. Then check Remote notifications. See Apple's Pushing background updates to your App for more details.

3. Add App Target to App Group

Ensure your app target is associated with an App Group to allow communication with the Notification Service Extension (next step). See Apple's Configuring app groups doc for more details.

If your app is already associated with an App Group, see Use custom App Group name.

Already using App Groups? (Click to expand...)

Use custom App Group name

By default, our SDK expects your App Group to be named in the specific format group.your_bundle_id.onesignal, but you can also specify a custom name.

Simply add a property named OneSignal_app_groups_key in your Info.plist and set its value to any valid container name.

If you do not have an App Group, click + Capability again and add App Groups.

In the App Groups capability click + and add the identifier in format:

group.your_bundle_id.onesignal

Using group. and .onesignal prefix and suffix is required if not using your own App Group.

For example, given the bundle identifier com.onesignal.MyApp, the container name should be set to group.com.onesignal.MyApp.onesignal then press OK.

❗️

Bundle identifier case-sensitivity

Pay special attention to use the same casing in your App Group container name as the bundle identifier. All other targets and apps part of the same container must also use the same casing in order to work correctly. Failing to ensure property casing could result in difficult to diagnose behaviors.

4. Add Notification Service Extension

The Notification Service Extension (NSE) allows your iOS application to receive rich notifications with images, buttons, and badges. It's also required for OneSignal's Confirmed Delivery analytics features. See Apple's Modifying content in newly delivered notifications docs for more details.

In Xcode Select File > New > Target...

Select Notification Service Extension then Next.

Enter the product name as OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension and press Finish.

Do not activate the scheme on the dialog that is shown after selecting "Finish".

Press Don't Activate on the Activate scheme prompt.

Select the OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension target and General settings.

Set Minimum Deployments to be the same value as your App Target. iOS 15 or higher is recommended.

5. Add NSE Target to App Group

All targets that belong to a single App Group must use the same identifier. Select OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension > Signing & Capabilities > + Capability > App Groups, then add the same App Group identifier as your App Target.

Important: Use the exact same App Group name you set in step 3. Add App Target to App Group .

6. Copy NSE implementation

In the project navigator, select the OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension folder and open the NotificationService.swift or NotificationService.m file.

Replace its contents with the following code:

import UserNotifications
import OneSignalExtension

class NotificationService: UNNotificationServiceExtension {
    var contentHandler: ((UNNotificationContent) -> Void)?
    var receivedRequest: UNNotificationRequest!
    var bestAttemptContent: UNMutableNotificationContent?

    // Note this extension only runs when `mutable_content` is set
    // Setting an attachment or action buttons automatically sets the property to true
    override func didReceive(_ request: UNNotificationRequest, withContentHandler contentHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void) {
        self.receivedRequest = request
        self.contentHandler = contentHandler
        self.bestAttemptContent = (request.content.mutableCopy() as? UNMutableNotificationContent)

        if let bestAttemptContent = bestAttemptContent {
            // DEBUGGING: Uncomment the 2 lines below to check this extension is executing
//            print("Running NotificationServiceExtension")
//            bestAttemptContent.body = "[Modified] " + bestAttemptContent.body

            OneSignalExtension.didReceiveNotificationExtensionRequest(self.receivedRequest, with: bestAttemptContent, withContentHandler: self.contentHandler)
        }
    }

    override func serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire() {
        // Use this as an opportunity to deliver your "best attempt" at modified content, otherwise the original push payload will be used.
        if let contentHandler = contentHandler, let bestAttemptContent =  bestAttemptContent {
            OneSignalExtension.serviceExtensionTimeWillExpireRequest(self.receivedRequest, with: self.bestAttemptContent)
            contentHandler(bestAttemptContent)
        }
    }
}

#import <OneSignalExtension/OneSignalExtension.h>
#import "NotificationService.h"

@interface NotificationService ()

@property (nonatomic, strong) void (^contentHandler)(UNNotificationContent *contentToDeliver);
@property (nonatomic, strong) UNNotificationRequest *receivedRequest;
@property (nonatomic, strong) UNMutableNotificationContent *bestAttemptContent;

@end

@implementation NotificationService

// Note, this extension only runs when mutable-content is set
// Setting an attachment or action buttons automatically adds this
- (void)didReceiveNotificationRequest:(UNNotificationRequest *)request withContentHandler:(void (^)(UNNotificationContent * _Nonnull))contentHandler {
    self.receivedRequest = request;
    self.contentHandler = contentHandler;
    self.bestAttemptContent = [request.content mutableCopy];

    // DEBUGGING: Uncomment the 2 lines below and comment out the one above to ensure this extension is executing            
//     NSLog(@"Running NotificationServiceExtension");
//     self.bestAttemptContent.body = [@"[Modified] " stringByAppendingString:self.bestAttemptContent.body];

    [OneSignalExtension didReceiveNotificationExtensionRequest:self.receivedRequest
                       withMutableNotificationContent:self.bestAttemptContent
                                   withContentHandler:self.contentHandler];
}

- (void)serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire {
    // Use this as an opportunity to deliver your "best attempt" at modified content, otherwise the original push payload will be used.

    [OneSignalExtension serviceExtensionTimeWillExpireRequest:self.receivedRequest withMutableNotificationContent:self.bestAttemptContent];

    self.contentHandler(self.bestAttemptContent);
}

@end

At this step you will see an error, which we will resolve when adding the OneSignal package to the OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension Target.

SDK setup

This section will guide you through integrating OneSignal's core features. By the end of this section, you will have a basic integration with our SDK enabling you to trigger in-app messages and receive push notifications.

1. Add SDK

Add our SDK using Swift Package Manager or CocoaPods. There are 4 libraries included. If you do not want In-app messages and/or Location-triggered notifications you can omit those libraries.

target 'your_project_name' do
  pod 'OneSignal/OneSignal', '>= 5.2.9', '< 6.0'
  pod 'OneSignal/OneSignalInAppMessages', '>= 5.2.9', '< 6.0'
  # If your app does not use CoreLocation, you can remove this:
  pod 'OneSignal/OneSignalLocation', '>= 5.2.9', '< 6.0'
  # Your other pods here
end

target 'OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension' do
  pod 'OneSignal/OneSignal', '>= 5.2.9', '< 6.0'
  pod 'OneSignal/OneSignalInAppMessages', '>= 5.2.9', '< 6.0'
  # If your app does not use CoreLocation, you can remove this:
  pod 'OneSignal/OneSignalLocation', '>= 5.2.9', '< 6.0'
end

Add SDK with Xcode Package Dependencies

Add a package by selecting File > Add Package Dependencies... and entering the URL to the OneSignal iOS SDK repository:

https://github.com/OneSignal/OneSignal-iOS-SDK

Add OneSignalExtension to the OneSignal NSE target then choose which features of the SDK to leverage by adding the desired libraries to your main app target.

Refer to Apple's Add a package dependency doc for more information on package dependencies.

2. Initialize SDK

Now that we have all our prerequisites and the SDK is installed, we can call initialize in our AppDelegate.

import SwiftUI
import OneSignalFramework

@main
struct YOURAPP_NAME: App {
    @UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor(AppDelegate.self) var appDelegate
    
    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ContentView()
        }
    }
}

class AppDelegate: NSObject, UIApplicationDelegate {
    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) -> Bool {
       // Remove this method to stop OneSignal Debugging
       OneSignal.Debug.setLogLevel(.LL_VERBOSE)
        
       // OneSignal initialization
       OneSignal.initialize("YOUR_ONESIGNAL_APP_ID", withLaunchOptions: launchOptions)

       // requestPermission will show the native iOS notification permission prompt.
       // We recommend removing the following code and instead using an In-App Message to prompt for notification permission
       OneSignal.Notifications.requestPermission({ accepted in
         print("User accepted notifications: \(accepted)")
       }, fallbackToSettings: true)

       // Login your customer with externalId
       // OneSignal.login("EXTERNAL_ID")
            
       return true
    }
}

import UIKit
import OneSignalFramework

@UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
  
func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: 
[UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
  
  // Remove this method to stop OneSignal Debugging
  OneSignal.Debug.setLogLevel(.LL_VERBOSE)
  
  // OneSignal initialization
  OneSignal.initialize("YOUR_ONESIGNAL_APP_ID", withLaunchOptions: launchOptions)
  
  // requestPermission will show the native iOS notification permission prompt.
  // We recommend removing the following code and instead using an In-App Message to prompt for notification permission
  OneSignal.Notifications.requestPermission({ accepted in
    print("User accepted notifications: \(accepted)")
  }, fallbackToSettings: true)
  
  // Login your customer with externalId
  // OneSignal.login("EXTERNAL_ID")
  
  return true
}
  
// Remaining contents of your AppDelegate Class...
}

#import <OneSignalFramework/OneSignalFramework.h>

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
  
  // Remove this method to stop OneSignal Debugging  
  [OneSignal.Debug setLogLevel:ONE_S_LL_VERBOSE];
  
  // OneSignal initialization
  [OneSignal initialize:@"YOUR_ONESIGNAL_APP_ID" withLaunchOptions:launchOptions];

  // requestPermission will show the native iOS notification permission prompt.
  // We recommend removing the following code and instead using an In-App Message to prompt for notification permission
  [OneSignal.Notifications requestPermission:^(BOOL accepted) {
    NSLog(@"User accepted notifications: %d", accepted);
  } fallbackToSettings:true];
  
  // Login your customer with externalId
  // [OneSignal login:@"EXTERNAL_ID"];
  
  return YES;
}

Testing

This guide will help you verify that your OneSignal SDK integration is functioning correctly. You'll test push notifications, subscription management, and in-app messaging.

Check mobile subscriptions

1. Launch your app on a test device.
2. You should immediately see the native push permission prompt because of the requestPermission method added in the initialization step above.
3. IMPORTANT: Before responding to the prompt, check your OneSignal dashboard:
   • Navigate to Audience > Subscriptions.
   • You should see a new entry with status "Never Subscribed".

4. Return to the app and tap "Allow" on the permission prompt.
5. Refresh your OneSignal dashboard Subscription's page.
6. The subscription's status should now show "Subscribed".

Setup test subscriptions

Test subscriptions are helpful for testing a push notification before sending a message.

Next to the subscription, click Options (three dots button) and select Add to Test Subscriptions.

Name your subscription so you know its your device and can find it in the Test Subscriptions page.

Create a test users segment

To test push and in-app messages faster, navigate to Audience > Segments > New Segment.

Name the segment Test Users (the name is important because it will be used later) and add the Test Users filter. Click Create Segment when finished.

Send test push via API

Test sending a push notification via our API.

In your OneSignal dashboard, navigate to Settings > Keys & IDs. Copy the following code into your terminal, replacing YOUR_APP_API_KEY and YOUR_APP_ID with the correct IDs found in Keys & IDs.

curl -X \
POST --url 'https://api.onesignal.com/notifications' \
 --header 'content-type: application/json; charset=utf-8' \
 --header 'authorization: Key YOUR_APP_API_KEY' \
 --data \
 '{
  "app_id": "YOUR_APP_ID",
  "target_channel": "push",
  "name": "Testing basic setup",
  "headings": {
  	"en": "👋"
  },
  "contents": {
    "en": "Hello world!"
  },
  "included_segments": [
    "Test Users"
  ],
  "ios_attachments": {
    "onesignal_logo": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11823027?s=200&v=4"
  },
  "big_picture": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11823027?s=200&v=4"
}'

Check images and confirmed delivery

If all setup steps were completed successfully, the test devices should receive a notification with an image included:

After the message is received, in your OneSignal dashboard, go to Delivery > Sent Messages and click on the message to see the message report.

You should see the confirmed stat, meaning the device received the push.

If on our Professional plan or higher, you can scroll down to the Audience Activity section to see the confirmed delivery for individual devices:

Send an in-app message

In-app messages are a great way to communicate information at specific points while users are in your app.

1. Close or background your app on the device.
2. In your OneSignal dashboard, navigate to Messages > In-App > New In-App.
3. Find and select the Welcome message.
4. Set your Audience as the Test Users segment we used previously.

5. Add any quick customizations you want.

6. Verify the Trigger is set to On app open.
7. Under Schedule > How often do you want to show this message? select Every time trigger conditions are satisfied.
8. Click Make Message Live so it is available to your Test Users each time they open the app.

8. After the in-app message is live, open your app. You should see it display:

If you did not see the in-app message:

Make sure you started a new session.

In step 1, we mentioned you need to close or background your app on the device. This is because users must meet the in-app audience criteria before a new session starts. In OneSignal, a new session starts when the user opens your app after it has been in the background or closed for at least 30 seconds. For more details, see our guide on how in-app messages are displayed.

Put the app into the background or close it. Wait 30 seconds, then open the app again. It should appear.

Make sure you are still in the Test Users segment.

If you uninstalled the app and re-installed it or testing on a different device, make sure to set the new subscription as a test subscription. Then try again. See Subscriptions for more details.

📘

Still having issues?

Follow Getting a Debug Log while reproducing the steps above. This will generate additional logging that you can share with support@onesignal.com and we will help investigate what's going on.

👍

Testing complete!

You have successfully setup the OneSignal SDK and learned important concepts like:

• Gathering Subscriptions, setting Test subscriptions, and creating Segments.
• Sending Push with images and Confirmed Delivery using Segments and our Create message API.
• Sending In-app messages.

Continue with this guide to identify users in your app and setup additional features.

User identification

Previously we demonstrated the concept of Subscriptions by creating a mobile subscription. Now we will take a look at how to identify Users across all their subscriptions including how to create email and sms subscriptions via the SDK.

Assign External ID

Assign users an External ID to reference them using your backend's identifier. The External ID should be readily available in your app and map to other 3rd party systems you may be using to identify users. This is especially important for Integrations.

Set the External ID with our SDK's login method each time they are identified by your app.

📘

Subscription ID, OneSignal ID, & External ID

OneSignal generates unique read-only IDs for subscriptions (Subscription ID) and users (OneSignal ID).

As users download your app on different devices, subscribe to your website, and/or provide you email addresses and phone numbers outside of your app, new subscriptions will be created.

Setting the External ID via our SDK is highly recommended to identify users across all their subscriptions, regardless of how they are created.

Add data tags

Data Tags (or just "tags") are used to set user properties and track events. They enable Message Personalization and more unique Segmentation allowing for more advanced use cases.

Set tags with our SDK addTag(s) methods and see our Tags guide for more details.

In this example, the app has added the user's current in-game level as a tag called current_level set to a value of 6:

We can create a segment of users that have a level of between 5 and 10, and use that to send targeted and personalized messages:

Add email and/or SMS subscriptions

Earlier we saw how our SDK creates mobile Subscriptions to send push and in-app messages. You can also reach users through emails and SMS channels by creating the appropriate subscriptions.

When users provide consent to receive additional communication types, use our SDK addEmail method and addSms method to create these subscriptions.

Best practices for multi-channel communication

• Obtain explicit consent before adding email or SMS subscriptions.
• Explain the benefits of each communication channel to users.
• Provide channel preferences so users can select which channels they prefer.

After adding subscriptions under and External ID, you can view all channels associated with each user in the OneSignal dashboard Audience > Users > Find their External ID or using the View user API.

Privacy

If you want to prevent OneSignal from collecting user data until user consent is provided, you can implement the setConsentRequired() method. When you or the user is ready to send our servers data, call the setConsentGiven() method.

See our Privacy & security docs for more details including Data Collected by the OneSignal SDK and Handling Personal Data.

Prompt for push permissions

While we showed the requestPermission method earlier in the setup code, we recommend a more strategic approach to asking for push permissions.

Instead of prompting immediately on app open, use in-app messages to explain the benefits of push notifications before requesting permission.

For best practices and implementation details, see our Prompt for push permissions guide.

Listen to push, user, and in-app events

The SDK provides several event listeners for you to hook into. See our SDK reference guide for more details.

Handling push clicks and foreground events

Track when users interact with push notifications using the addClickListener method. This is helpful for Deep Linking.

Control notification behavior when your app is in the foreground using the addForegroundLifecycleListener method with preventDefault to conditionally decide to display it or not.

If you want to customize the notification before it is displayed to the user, see the Mobile Service Extensions docs for details.

Listening to user state changes

Track when the External ID is set with the addObserver() method for user state . This is a good place to collect the OneSignal ID and/or Subscription ID if needed.

Track the user's specific interaction with the push permission prompt with the addPermissionObserver() method.

Track when the push subscription status changes with the addObserver() method for push.

Listen and handle in-app message events

Track when and how the user interacts with in-app messages with the addClickListener() method for in-app. This is a good place for Deep Linking with in-app messages or doing something custom when specific elements are clicked.

If you are interested in tracking the in-app message lifecycle from before it is displayed to after it is dismissed, use the addLifecycleListener() method.

Advanced

Review the Mobile push setup doc to make sure you are setting up all the features. Common examples:

• Migrating to OneSignal from another service – If you are moving to OneSignal or need to use multiple push SDKs in your app.
• Deep Linking – Direct users to specific app content when interacting with notifications.
• Integrations – Setup Mixpanel, Amplitude, HubSpot, Segment, and more!
• Mobile Service Extensions – Customizing the notification before it is displayed.
• Action buttons – Add custom actions to your notifications instead of just opening the app.
• Multi-language messaging - How to send messages in different languages.
• Identity Verification – Prevent bad actors from impersonating your users.
• Custom Outcomes – Track user actions from notifications, such as purchases.
• Live Activities – Another messaging channel to update iOS users in real time.