Discourse App & Notifications Question

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The discussion revolves around the Discourse App and notification functionality. nsuchy inquires about the app’s limitations and the possibility of offering notification services for self-hosted forums. codinghorror responds that there are no plans to offer such services, and the app is a wrapper around the website providing native notifications and multi-site aggregation.

Regarding push notifications, awesomerobot mentions that Android already supports notifications, while iOS requires a native app. jomaxro clarifies that the Discourse Hub app is not a Progressive Web App (PWA) and that push notifications work via PWAs for all sites.

Stephen explains that self-hosted PWAs offer notifications on Android, but not on iOS until Apple allows native notifications. [teezett](/t/-/73879/3, /t/-/73879/5, /t/-/73879/7, /t/-/73879/9) explores the possibility of registering a self-hosted Discourse server for notifications and expresses difficulties in getting notifications to work on a self-hosted installation.

1

So I have two questions about the Discourse App.

  1. At some point will the app work like an app and not just a web browser list?
  2. Currently only Discourse hosted forums get notifications, I run a community that’s very privacy sensitive and my users don’t want big hosts / business having access to user data - we use a small host Frantech and don’t use Cloudflare / any big providers to handle user information. Any way that could change? Maybe offer it as a small service at low rate?
2

No, we have no plans to offer Google Play / Apple App Store paid notifications as a service. Also no to your point one, the app is a wrapper around the website that gives “native” notifications and multi-site aggregation services. It is what it is.

3

Would it be possible to register a self hosted discourse server at google play store for notifications?
How was this done for this discourse server?

4

On Android you can already get notifications see: Android live notifications are now in core!

iOS is a different story, you’d still need your own app.

5

No, @awesomerobot , it does not work in the PWA in Android:

6

The Discourse Hub app is not a PWA. Push notifications work via PWAs for all sites, regardless of if you’re hosted by us or not.

7

Regardless if the app is a PWA or not, how can i get it work with a self hosted installation of discourse?

8

Self hosted PWAs already offer notifications on Android.

They won’t work with iOS until Apple allows native notifications.

9

@Stephen the Notifications are offered in the Android App but it is not working

10

Ok, but we’re not talking about the android app.

A PWA is when you add a site to your homescreen. If the site is correctly configured then notifications will work.

If you’re using DiscourseHub then notifications will not work unless you are a hosted customer.