Rich notifications

Rich notifications are push notifications with images, GIFs, and video. To enable this functionality, you must create a notification service extension—a type of extension that enables modification of a push payload before it is displayed. Refer to Apple’s UNNotificationAttachment for a list of supported file types and sizes.

Step 1: Creating a service extension

To create a notification service extension, navigate to File > New > Target in Xcode and select Notification Service Extension.

Ensure that Embed In Application is set to embed the extension in your application.

Step 2: Setting up the notification service extension

A notification service extension is its own binary that is bundled with your app. It must be set up in the Apple Developer Portal with its own app ID and provisioning profile.

The notification service extension’s bundle ID must be distinct from your main app target’s bundle ID. For example, if your app’s bundle ID is com.company.appname, you can use com.company.appname.AppNameServiceExtension for your service extension.

Step 3: Integrating rich push notifications

For a step-by-step guide on integrating rich push notifications with BrazeNotificationService, refer to our tutorial.

To see a sample, refer to the usage in NotificationService of our Examples app.

Adding the rich push framework to your app

• swift package manager
• cocoapods
• manual

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target 'YourAppTarget' do
  pod 'BrazeKit'
  pod 'BrazeUI'
  pod 'BrazeLocation'
end

target 'YourNotificationServiceExtensionTarget' do
  pod 'BrazeNotificationService'
end

# Only include the below if you want to also integrate Push Stories
target 'YourNotificationContentExtensionTarget' do
  pod 'BrazePushStory'
end

Using your own UNNotificationServiceExtension

If you need to use your own UNNotificationServiceExtension, you can instead call brazeHandle in your didReceive method.

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import BrazeNotificationService
import UserNotifications

class NotificationService: UNNotificationServiceExtension {

  override func didReceive(
    _ request: UNNotificationRequest,
    withContentHandler contentHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void
  ) {
    if brazeHandle(request: request, contentHandler: contentHandler) {
      return
    }

    // Custom handling here

    contentHandler(request.content)
  }
}

Step 4: Creating a rich notification in your dashboard

Your Marketing team can also create rich notifications from the dashboard. Create a push notification through the push composer and simply attach an image or GIF, or provide a URL that hosts an image, GIF, or video. Note that assets are downloaded on the receipt of push notifications, so you should plan for large, synchronous spikes in requests if you are hosting your content.