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Start Live Activity

post https://onesignal.com/api/v1/apps//activities/activity/

Remotely start a Live Activity.

Overview

This API lets you start a Live Activity by sending a Push Notification.

Path Parameters

activity_type

Required

Type: string

Description

Indicates which Live Activity to start.

Guidance

Use the structure's name in your app's Live Activity file that defines the attributes and state of the Live Activity.

Select your target audience

Before sending a message, you need to determine who should receive it. OneSignal offers three targeting options:

  1. Aliases & Subscription IDs: Send messages to specific users using unique identifiers such as external ids, OneSignal IDs, custom aliases, or subscription IDs
  2. Segments: Target predefined user groups based on attributes and behavior.
  3. Filters: Create custom targeting rules using user properties, such as tags, location, or activity.

📘

Only one targeting method per message

You can only use one targeting method per message. For example, you cannot combine alias-based targeting with filters in the same request.

Additionally, when sending push notifications using any of these methods, you can choose to Target specific platforms, limiting your message to one or more platforms (Android, iOS, Web).

Body Parameters

include_aliases

Type object

Description

Targets specific users based on their External ID or custom Aliases. You may include up to 20,000 Alias IDs per API call.

Provide one object of aliases to include.

  • User's External ID – external_id
  • OneSignal ID – onesignal_id
  • Custom alias name – some_custom_alias

Example

Send a message to the users identified by the External IDs "user1", "user2", and "user3" using the push channel.

{
  "include_aliases": {
    "external_id": [
      "user1",
      "user2",
      "user3"
    ]
  },
}

include_subscription_ids

Type string[]

Description

Targets users based on their Subscription ID. Include up to 20,000 IDs per API call.

Example

{
  "include_subscription_ids": [
    "1dd608f2-c6a1-11e3-851d-000c2940e62c"
  ]
}

included_segments

Type string[]

Description

The segments to target. Members of each segment will receive the notification unless they're also members of a segment specified in the optional excluded segments parameter. Users that are in multiple segments will only be sent the message once.

Example

{
  "included_segments": [
    "Active Users",
    "Inactive Users"
  ]
}

excluded_segments

Type string[]

Description

Segments to exclude from targeting. Overrides membership in any segment specified in the included_segments parameter.

Example

Target a message for customers who've spent $5K or more while excluding those deemed inactive, even if they are included in the segment "CLTV 5K".

{
  "included_segments": [
    "CLTV 5K"
  ],
  "excluded_segments": [
    "Inactive Users"
  ]
}

filters

Type object[]

Description

Filters allow you to dynamically define your message's audience based on their properties. They can be combined with "AND" and "OR" operators for complex targeting logic, enabling precise audience segmentation.

For performance reasons, a maximum of 200 entries can be used. The 200 entries limit includes the "field" entry and "OR" entries - each would count towards the 200 limit.

Filter performance:

  • Tag filters using an equality ("=") or "exists" operator are very fast.
  • Negation (eg. "!=" and "not_exists") is inherently more expensive to compute because it depends on how many tags per user are set. Upon request, it is sometimes possible for us to create a specific index on your application to address problems with negation.
  • Numeric ordering operators like "<" or ">" are slow by default. Note that upon special request, we can add a special index for specific tags to improve performance of these operators.
  • Filters on the "last_session", "session_count", and "country" fields are fast on their own or together, but when used with other filters such as tags can make the segment take longer to compute.

Available filters:

activity_id

Required

Description

A self-generated identifier uniquely identifies your Live Activity and associates devices with the event.

Guidance

  • Generate a unique activity_id to track and manage your Live Activity. This value is crucial for maintaining a consistent reference to the Live Activity across different devices and sessions. Consider using a UUID, CUID, or NanoID for this parameter.
  • Provide this activity_id when calling the iOS SDK method enterLiveActivity. This linkage is necessary for the iOS SDK to correctly handle and update the Live Activity.
  • Ensure that the activity_id is unique and consistently used for each Live Activity to avoid conflicts and ensure accurate tracking.

Example

{
  "activity_id": "217aae2b-42ee-4097-bc3f-b7a6e9d15b9b",
  ...
}

💡

Refer to this guide to learn more about starting and updating Live Activities.

event_attributes

Type: object

Description

The static data to initialize the Live Activity with.

Example

{
  "event_attributes": {
  	"awayTeam": "Celtics",
    "homeTeam": "Lakers"
  }
}

event_updates

Type: object

Description

The content to update a running Live Activity with. The object must conform to the ContentState interface defined within your app's Live Activity.

Guidance

Ensure that the event_updates object matches the ContentState interface exactly as defined in your Live Activity implementation. Inconsistencies can cause Live Activities to fail to display.

Example

In this example, the object includes fields such as quarter, homeScore, and awayScore, which should correspond to the fields defined in the iOS app's ContentState interface. 

{
  "event_updates": {
    "quarter": 1,
    "homeScore": 70,
    "awayScore": 78,
    "inTimeout": false
  }
}

name

Required

Type: string

Description

An internal identifier used to assist with your campaign's organization and management. This value is not displayed to the end user and serves solely for tracking purposes within your campaign tracking and analytics.

Guidance

The name should be meaningful and indicate the campaign's purpose or target audience.

Example


{
  "name": "Spring Sale Campaign"
}

contents

Required

Type object

Description

The notification content that is displayed in the main body of the notification.

Guidance

Equivalent to the contents parameter for Push Notifcations.

headings

Type object

Description

The notification's title.

Guidance

Equivalent to the headings parameter for Push Notifcations.

sound

Type string

Specify a custom sound file to play when the notification is received instead of the default sound.

Guidance

Equivalent to the ios_sound for Push Notifications.

stale_date

Type: number

Description

A Unix timestamp (in seconds) indicates when the Live Activity is considered outdated. Once this time is reached, the system updates the Live Activity to ActivityState.stale.

Guidance
Use this parameter to set an expiration time for the Live Activity, ensuring users do not see outdated information.
The Unix timestamp should be provided in seconds, representing the exact time the Live Activity should transition to a stale state.

Example

To set a stale date for January 1, 2025, at 00:00:00 UTC.

{
  "stale_date": 1735689600
}

💡

Refer to Apple's documentation to learn more about this paramater.

priority

Type: number

Description

The priority level affects how quickly a notification is delivered and processed, particularly in power-saving modes.

Guidance

The priority parameter determines the urgency and delivery behavior of the notification.

  • 10—Send the notification immediately. We recommend using this option while under development.
  • 5—Send the notification based on the device's current power considerations, balancing timely delivery with power efficiency. We recommend using this option for the majority of your notifications, reserving 10 for only the most critical messages.
  • 1—Prioritize the device's power savings over immediate delivery. Notifications will not wake the device and get delivered when it is more power-efficient.
  • If the priority is omitted, APNS defaults to a priority of 10.

Example:

Send a notification with a balanced priority.

{
  "priority": 5
}

💡

For more detailed information, refer to Apple's official documentation on APNs Priority Levels.

ios_relevance_score

Type: double

Description

A score you assign that determines the order in which your Live Activities appear when you start several Live Activities for your app.

Guidance

Higher scores make it more likely to be displayed when multiple activities are present.

💡

Refer to Apple's documentation to learn more about this paramater.

idempotency_key

Type: string

Description

A unique identifier used to prevent duplicate Live Activities if the same request is retried. Recommended for apps not using the OneSignal SDK.

Guidance

Idempotency_key is automatically handled when using the OneSignal SDK. Developers using the REST API directly should implement their own logic to generate and reuse this key on retries.

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