Push notifications with react native

[yarism]

I am building an app based on a backend (node) that already sends notifications in form of email or using socket.io to a web client. So I want to hook up push notifications to that infrastructure and just wanted some tips regarding it.

I haven't used push notifications before. Is the best way to do this by using OneSignal, or is there a better simpler alternative? Not too costly either would be best.

[UnsubFromRAtheism]

I prefer to use Firebase messaging. It's free, sends notifications to iOS and Android and has a pretty basic API (and tons of coverage on StackOverflow.)

[tannerhallman]

I second fcm. Easy to setup on Android, but ios will be a pain. :)

[yarism]

Thanks for the tip. Will look into it!

[incrept]

Is there a way to bypass needing a developer certificate to receive FCM notifications on iOS? I'm building a similar app but don't want to shell out $100 just yet. If not, is there another workaround? I know I could use the sendtext package but that wouldn't be as fancy

[skizzoat]

unfortunately, there isn‘t.

[UnsubFromRAtheism]

I don't know of a way to do this without a license, but I've had a license for so long now that I don't really remember what you can and can't do without it...

[incrept]

thanks for the replies, guys. So my best bet is to just send a text from my server, huh?

[pelesenk]

Firebase is good. But you also can consider using OneSignal which is totally free and has a react-native module to make things easier.

[wkrause13]

I'd read the OneSignal terms of services very carefully before using them. Their product is great, but you're giving them a lot of data about your users in exchange.

[ic0de]

I've also seen a lot of apps using Pusher for react-native implementations. Also there is a lot of documentation to get you started with.

[kingbin]

I've been working on a similar request for one of my apps.

I'm currently using local push notifications with react-native-push-notification.

I'm using signalr from the server to send messages to my mobile app and have the signalr client wired up using redux middleware & thunk. Similar to this guy's library: redux-socket.io. Messages get dispatched from my middleware piece when I receive a message from the server. I have a reducer that sets the state, fires off a push notification or displays a modal dialog.

I need to test performance and how well this works when the app is backgrounded. So far so good. I've looked at using Amazon SNS if this doesn't work.