Push Notifications — The Right Way
Expo notifications, APNs, FCM, permission handling, and building a notification strategy that doesn't annoy users
16 min readmobile, push-notifications, expo, apns, fcm
Push notifications are the most powerful engagement tool in mobile development. They're also the most abused. A well-timed, relevant notification brings users back to your app. A poorly timed, irrelevant one gets your app deleted.
This lesson covers the technical implementation of push notifications with Expo, the underlying infrastructure (APNs and FCM), and the strategy that determines whether your notifications help or annoy.
How Push Notifications Work
The notification flow involves three parties:
Your Server → Push Service (APNs/FCM) → User's Device → Your App- Your app registers with the OS for push notifications and receives a device token
- Your app sends that token to your server
- Your server sends a notification payload to Apple's Push Notifi
This lesson is part of the Guild Member curriculum. Plans start at $29/mo.