Start building faster with OneSignal. Explore quickstarts, SDKs, messaging channels, API references, and advanced features like Journeys and Live Activities.

OneSignal Documentation

OneSignal is a platform for sending push notifications, emails, in-app messages, and SMS campaigns via a single API, Journey Builder, and a dashboard.

OneSignal

Quickly set up your OneSignal organization, add apps, configure messaging channels, and start sending messages to your users. Learn about users, subscriptions, tags, segments, and analytics to maximize your engagement.

Quickstart guide

Best practices and technical steps for migrating to OneSignal from providers like Firebase, including SDK integration, phased rollout, user import, and testing guidance.

Migrating to OneSignal

Learn how to set up Push, In-App, Email, SMS, and Live Activities in OneSignal to create an effective multi-channel messaging strategy. Explore each channel’s benefits, setup steps, and best practices to optimize user engagement.

Channel setup

Learn how to use iOS Live Activities with OneSignal to deliver real-time updates directly to the lock screen and Dynamic Island. Enable seamless tracking for events like sports scores, deliveries, and more.

Live Activities

Create personalized, automated omnichannel messaging flows with OneSignal Journeys to drive engagement, conversion, and retention.

Journeys overview

Common examples to get your journey started.

Journey examples

Create and manage dynamic user segments in OneSignal to target personalized messaging based on activity, location, tags, and more.

Segments

Define custom events to trigger Journeys based on user behavior.

Custom events

Import or update users in OneSignal using CSV uploads, REST API, or manual entry. Supports email, SMS, tags, and more for seamless user onboarding or migration.

Import

Access comprehensive SDK and API documentation for OneSignal, including mobile and web setup guides, in-depth SDK references, analytics configuration, and user model migration support.

Developers

Authenticate External User IDs, SMS, and emails sent to OneSignal.

Identity verification

Complete API reference for OneSignal Web SDK v16 with initialization, user management, push notifications, slidedown prompts, and debugging methods. Learn how to implement web push notifications, manage user subscriptions, and integrate email/SMS features.

Web SDK reference

Learn how to set up Live Activities on your iOS app with OneSignal to display real-time updates.

Live Activities developer setup

Learn how to implement Live Activities in OneSignal's Wrapper SDKs like React Native, Flutter, Unity, Cordova, and more, with support for Push To Start and Default Live Activity Type.

Cross-platform Live Activity SDK setup

Create and update dynamic, real-time notifications on Android devices using OneSignal Live Notifications. Deliver continuously updated content inside a single notification, simulating iOS Live Activities for Android.

Android live notifications

Learn how to integrate OneSignal into your macOS app, whether using Mac Catalyst or direct API access. Step-by-step guidance for configuring platforms, installing the SDK, and sending push notifications.

macOS app setup

Complete guide for integrating OneSignal push notifications into your Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app using Windows Push Notification Service (WNS) and OneSignal's REST API

Windows app setup

Complete guide to implementing OneSignal push notifications for standalone Apple watchOS and Android Wear OS applications, including setup instructions and API integration.

watchOS & Wear OS Support

How to check what OneSignal is doing in your app.

v3-4 SDK Capturing a Debug Log

Security feature to authenticate your external user ids and emails sent to OneSignal.

v3-4 SDK Identity Verification

Common questions about GDPR and handling data with OneSignal

v3-4 SDK Handling Personal Data

Showcasing implementation techniques and messaging best practices for using OneSignal effectively.

Video Tutorials

An overview of messaging and strategic best practices specific to the gaming industry.

Gaming industry

Messaging and strategic best practices tailored for the financial / fintech industry.

Financial / fintech industry

An overview of messaging and strategic best practices specific to the news and media industry.

News and media industry

Learn how to recover lost sales with abandoned cart notifications using OneSignal. This guide walks you through tagging, segmenting, and messaging users who leave items in their cart.

Abandoned cart example

Learn how to create abandoned cart reminder templates with OneSignal using custom data or data tags, and deliver them through email and push notifications.

Abandoned cart dynamic content

Learn how to build an in-app activity feed using OneSignal's REST API, Event Streams, or on-device logic to track and display user notification history.

Create activity feed

Learn how to use OneSignal to send push notifications for social actions like likes, follows, and invites, as well as for user-to-user direct messages.

Social Activity

Learn how to target outdated app versions with OneSignal In-App Messages using version-aware triggers to prompt users to update. Includes segmentation strategy and setup guidance.

Target outdated app versions to encourage app updates

One powerful use of in-app messages is to increase App Store reviews from users who enjoy using your app, while simultaneously reducing friction.

Get more app store reviews

In-app message walkthrough

Learn how to send transactional messages like OTPs, billing updates, and reminders using OneSignal’s API with personalized data via push, email, or SMS.

Transactional messages

Implement a fallback strategy with OneSignal to ensure critical messages are delivered via email or SMS when push notifications fail. Learn how to set up cross-channel messaging using Journeys, APIs, and segmentation for reliable user engagement.

Fallback messages: Email or SMS when push is unavailable

Learn how to target users with location-based messages using OneSignal. Set up segments by country, coordinates, or geofencing with optional integrations like Radar.

Location-based messages

Learn how to automatically tag Web Push subscribers based on the page they opted in from and use those tags to create segments or trigger automated messaging campaigns in OneSignal.

Track web push subscriptions by page topic

Learn how to automatically track page visits by topic and use custom tags to send highly relevant Web Push notifications with OneSignal.

Track topic interest for smarter targeting

Track and segment users based on notification clicks and topics using OneSignal Data Tags.

Tag users with notification data

Guide users to enable location tracking in your mobile app using a soft pre-prompt in OneSignal before triggering the native Android or iOS location permission request.

Request location permissions with in-app messages

Target users based on their data tags with tag substitution

Personalize in-app messages

Build a multi-page in-app survey using Carousel, Button Click Actions, Outcomes, and Tags for analytics and segmentation.

Create a survey to ask for feedback

Identify and target Android devices from manufacturers known to block push notifications when apps are swiped away, and use in-app messages to educate users on enabling proper settings.

Target certain Android manufacturers and devices

Learn how to implement a custom user preference center in your app or website using OneSignal APIs to manage notification topics, frequencies, channels, and data privacy settings.

Preference center

Examples of email and SMS verification messages using OneSignal, including one-time passwords, magic links, and double opt-in flows with templates and API examples.

Send verification, magic link, OTP, and double opt-in messages

How to implement an image carousel in OneSignal iOS push notifications using Swift.

iOS: Image Carousel Push Notifications

Learn about OneSignal's REST API capabilities, security requirements, rate limits, retries, and how to send notifications, manage users, apps, and segments programmatically.

REST API Overview

Understand OneSignal's API and application rate limits, including per-endpoint thresholds and messaging limits based on your subscribed user count. Learn how to avoid triggering limits and what to do if your app is disabled.

OneSignal Documentation

Essential Concepts