Remote notifications

A push starts outside your app

Everything so far runs because the learner opened PawWalk. A push notification is different: your server tells Apple's APNs (Apple Push Notification service) to deliver a message to a specific device, and it shows up whether PawWalk is running or not — "Your walker is 5 minutes away" while the phone is in a pocket.

Getting there takes three steps: (1) ask the learner for permission, (2) register with APNs to get a device token — an address for this one install of the app on this one device, (3) send that token to your server so it knows where to push.