v3-4 Client SDK Reference
Comprehensive reference of OneSignal’s SDK methods
The methods below require the OneSignal SDK versions 3 & 4.
It is recommended to upgrade to our latest version 5 SDKs for User Model APIs.
See Update to User Model for migration steps.
Initializing OneSignal
These methods serve as a reference and are just a single step in the set up process. Make sure to follow the steps for your particular configuration here:
We have a number of SDK’s with multiple options for initialization within. If you don’t see an init method listed for your particular environment, please follow the links above!
Debugging
setLogLevel
Method
Enable logging to help debug if you run into an issue setting up OneSignal. This selector is static, so you can call it before OneSignal init. For websites see Debugging with Browser Tools.
Parameters | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
logLevel | LOG_LEVEL | Sets the logging level to print to the Android LogCat log or Xcode log. |
visualLevel | LOG_LEVEL | Sets the logging level to show as alert dialogs. |
External User Ids
OneSignal creates and stores device & channel level data under a unique OneSignal Id called the subscription_id
(formerly calledplayer_id
). A single user can have multiple subscription_id
records based on how many devices, email addresses, and phone numbers they use to interact with your app/site.
You can combine subscription_id
records in OneSignal under a unique User Id called the external_id
.
See the External User Ids guide for more details.
If you have a backend server, we strongly recommend using Identity Verification with your users. Your backend can generate an identifier authentication token and send it to your site.
The OneSignal SDK setExternalUserId
method should be called when the user logs into the app/site and within the callback of the setEmail
and setSMSNumber
methods to link the records together.
If you have a backend server, we strongly recommend using Identity Verification with your users. Your backend can generate an identifier authentication token and send it to your site.
The OneSignal Android SDKs leverage cacheing on external_user_id
and Data Tags.
If setting external_user_id
through the Edit device API Endpoint, then use the same endpoint to remove the external_user_id
upon the user logging out of the app.
The removeExternalUserId
method will not work unless the external_user_id
is set first with the setExternalUserId
method on Android.
This is only applicable on the OneSignal Android Mobile App SDKs.
Tags
Data Tags are custom key : value
pairs of string or number data you set on users based on events or user data of your choosing. See Data Tags Overview for more details on what tags are used for.
See Data Tag Implementation for SDK Method details.
User Data
Methods to get the OneSignal Subscription ID, subscription status, prompt status and push token.
Use addPermissionObserver
or addSubscriptionObserver
to react to changes. For example, update your server when the user becomes subscribed or unsubscribed, and to get the OneSignal Subscription Id.
If you need to store the OneSignal Subscription Id within your backend, you can make a REST API call directly from the observer’s callback. The OneSignal observer fires only when there is a change (including not firing even if the app has been restarted). This helps ensure you are not making unnecessary network calls to your backend on each app restart if nothing changed.
Getting User Properties
Push Notification Properties
If getDeviceState() is called too early it will be null
or no available. Use to load your UI to the correct state. Such as showing a toggle button to enable notifications.
Notification Permission Statuses
Name | Status |
---|---|
0 - Not Determined | The user hasn’t yet made a choice about whether the app is allowed to schedule notifications. |
1 - Denied | The application is not authorized to post user notifications. |
2 - Authorized | The application is authorized to post user notifications. |
3 - Provisional | The application is provisionally authorized to post noninterruptive user notifications. |
4 - Ephemeral | For App Clips. The app is authorized to schedule or receive notifications for a limited amount of time. |
Email User Properties
SMS User Properties
User Data Change Events
Handling Notification Permission Changes
The onOSPermissionChanged
method will be fired on the passed-in object when a notification permission setting changes.
This includes the following events:
- Notification permission prompt shown (iOS)
- The user accepting or declining the permission prompt (iOS)
- Enabling or disabling notifications for your app in the App Settings and after returning to your app
Instance is given to your onOSPermissionChanged
method, which provides what the value was (“from”) and what the value is now (“to”).
Any object implementing the OSPermissionObserver
and/or the OSSubscriptionObserver
protocols can be added as an observer. You can call removePermissionObserver
to remove any existing listeners.
OneSignal uses a weak reference to the observer to prevent leaks.
Handling Subscription State Changes
- Web Push see
subscriptionChange
Event. - Email: see
addEmailSubscriptionObserver
Method. - SMS: see
addSMSSubscriptionObserver
Method.
The onOSSubscriptionChanged
method will be fired on the passed-in object when a notification subscription property changes.
This includes the following events:
- Getting a push token from Google or Apple
- Getting a subscription/user id from OneSignal
OneSignal.disablePush
is called- User disables or enables notifications
The instance is given to your onOSSubscriptionChanged
method which provides what the value was (“from”) and what the value is now (“to”).
Any object implementing the OSPermissionObserver
and/or the OSSubscriptionObserver
protocols can be added as an observer. You can call removePermissionObserver
to remove any existing listeners.
OneSignal uses a weak reference to the observer to prevent leaks.
setLanguage
Method
Language is detected and set automatically through the OneSignal SDK based on the device settings. This method allows you to change that language by passing in the 2-character, lowercase language code. See Supported Languages.
Privacy
setRequiresUserPrivacyConsent
Method
For GDPR users, your application should call this method before initialization of the SDK.
If you pass in true
, your application will need to call provideUserConsent(true)
before the OneSignal SDK gets fully initialized. Until this happens, you can continue to call methods (such as sendTags()
), but nothing will happen.
Consent Granted
If your application is set to require the user’s privacy consent, you can provide this consent using this method. Until you call provideUserConsent(true)
, the SDK will not fully initialize, and will not send any data to OneSignal.
Location Data
setLocationShared
Method
Disable or enable location collection (defaults to enabled if your app has location permission).
Note: This method must be called before OneSignal initWithLaunchOptions
on iOS.
isLocationShared
Method
Return a boolean that indicates location shared state (defaults to true if your app has location permission).
promptLocation
Method
Recommended: use OneSignal’s In-App Message Soft-Prompt before displaying the Native Alert. Details: Location Opt-In Prompt.
Prompts the user for location permissions to allow geotagging from the OneSignal dashboard. This lets you send notifications based on the device’s location. See Location-Triggered Notifications for more details.
Make sure you add location permissions in your AndroidManifest.xml
and/or info.plist
.
On Android, you need to add the location dependency
Finally, don’t forget to call the prompt location method
Push Notifications
Push Prompting
iOS requires prompting users for permission to show push notifications that make sound and “pop-up” on the screen. iOS also supports Provisional Push Notifications which are delivered directly to the device’s notification center.
Android 13+ requires prompting users for permission to show push notifications. This is different behavior from previous Android versions. More details in our Android 13 Push Notification Developer Update Guide.
You can display this prompt using the OneSignal SDK in 2 ways:
- Recommended: use OneSignal’s In-App Message Soft-Prompt before displaying the Native Alert. Details: Prompting for Push Permissions Guide.
- Programmatically Trigger the Native Alert Prompt with the OneSignal SDK
promptForPushNotifications
method.
Notification Events & Payload
OneSignal Provides methods for handling notifications received and clicked/opened events. Details and discussion on implementation and Notification Payload in SDK Notification Event Handlers.
To send notifications to users, we recommend using the Create notification REST API docs, or Messages Dashboard.
postNotification
Method
Recommended for scheduling notifications in the future to the current user.
You can only use include_player_ids
as a targeting parameter from your app. Other target options such as tags
and included_segments
require your OneSignal App REST API key which can only be used from your server.
See the Create notification REST API POST call for a list of all possible options.
Parameter | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
parameters | JSONObject, NSDictionary*, JSONString, Callback | Contains notification options, see our Create notification POST call for all options. |
clearOneSignalNotifications
Method
Android only. iOS provides a standard way to clear notifications by clearing badge count. There is no specific OneSignal API call for clearing notifications.
disablePush
Method
The user must first subscribe through the native prompt or app settings. It does not officially subscribe or unsubscribe them from the app settings, it unsubscribes them from receiving push from OneSignal. You can only call this method with true to opt out users from receiving notifications through OneSignal. You can pass false later to opt users back into notifications.
EnableVibrate
& EnableSound
Methods
These methods were designed for Android but stopped working in Android 8+ due to a breaking change. To customize going forward, use Android Notification Categories (Channels).
unsubscribeWhenNotificationsAreDisabled
Method
Only available on Android Native SDK. If notifications are disabled for your app, unsubscribe the user from OneSignal.
Use case: if notifications are disabled for your app and you still want background notifications to work, pass in false.
setLaunchURLsInApp
Method (iOS)
This method can be used to set if launch URLs should be opened in safari or within the application. Set to true
to launch all notifications with a URL in the app instead of the default web browser. Make sure to call setLaunchURLsInApp
before the setAppId
call.
Parameter Type | Description |
---|---|
Bool | Boolean indicates if launch URLs should be opened in safari or within the application. |
Live Activities
Live Activities are a type of interactive push notification. They were designed by Apple to enable iOS apps to provide real-time updates to their users that are visible from the lock screen and dynamic island.
Live Activity support comes with OneSignal iOS SDK version 3.12.3 or above.
Permission
Live Activities do not need explicit user approval. A developer may start and update a Live Activity via any method without an explicit prompt (unlike Notification Permission or Location Permission). Live Activities appear with the iOS Provisional Authorization UI.
Developer Guidelines
As with any iOS development, we recommend Apple’s developer guidelines.
According to Apple’s guidelines, applications should give users the option to opt-in to Live Activities. For example, an app can give a user an option to start a Live Activity through it’s UX, such as as a button or in-app. Live Activities must be started when the application is in the foreground.
Enter a Live Activity
Entering a Live Activity associates an activityId
with a live activity temporary push token
on OneSignal’s server. The activityId is then used with the OneSignal REST API to update one or multiple Live Activities at one time.
Parameter | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
activityId | String | A customer defined identifier that gets assisted with the temporary push token on OneSignal’s server. When the customer uses the update endpoint they will send this activityId to specify which push tokens they would like to update. NOTE: activityId cannot contain any / (forward slash) characters. |
token | String | A Live Activity temporary push token. |
enterliveActivity
usage with context:
Exit a Live Activity
Exiting a Live activity deletes the association between a customer defined activityId
with a Live Activity temporary push token
on OneSignal’s server.
exitliveActivity
usage
In-App Messages
In-App Messages do not require any code to get started, but if you would like to setup custom triggers to display the In-App Message under certain conditions and track IAM lifecycle events, we have SDK methods for you!
See our In-App Message SDK Methods for details.
OneSignal’s Mobile and Web SDKs provide methods for collecting emails, logging out emails, and tracking email subscription changes.
See the Email SDK Methods guide for more details.
If you have a backend server, we strongly recommend using Identity Verification with your users. Your backend can generate an Email authentication token and send it to your app.
SMS
OneSignal’s Mobile and Web SDKs provide methods for collecting phone numbers, logging out phone numbers, and tracking sms subscription.
See the SMS SDK Methods guide for more details.
If you have a backend server, we strongly recommend using Identity Verification with your users. Your backend can generate an SMS authentication token and send it to your app.