How Do Push Notifications Work with the Genuin SDK?
Why Push Notifications Matter
Push notifications are essential for keeping your users engaged, informed, and returning to your app. With the Genuin SDK, you can deliver timely updates, community highlights, event alerts, and personalized content notifications, even when users aren’t actively using your app. This direct communication channel helps drive retention, participation, and overall community growth.
How does the SDK’s handling of push notifications impact your application and users?
Drives Re-engagement:
Timely alerts about relevant community and content activity encourage users to return to your app.
Enables Direct Navigation:
When a user taps a push notification, the SDK helps your app interpret the notification data to take the user directly to the specific content mentioned in the notification.
Creates a Cohesive Experience:
The transition from tapping a notification to engaging with the content within your app feels integrated and native.
Boosts Content Discovery:
Notifications draw attention to new and relevant content that users might otherwise miss.
By integrating push notification handling via the Genuin SDK, you create an effective channel to re-engage users and guide them directly into the heart of your integrated communities.
Core Content: The Push Notification Flow with the Genuin SDK
Push notifications initiated by Genuin or via your configured provider through the Brand Control Center (OneSignal, Firebase Cloud Messaging, Pusher Beams, Expo Push), follow a standardized flow. The platform sends alerts using platform-specific services (e.g., Apple Push Notification Service for iOS or Firebase Cloud Messaging for Android/Flutter). Your application receives these OS-level notifications, and the Genuin SDK then steps in to interpret and enable specific in-app behaviors.
Below is the general end-to-end process:
1. Platform Push Setup
You first configure your application and backend to receive standard push notifications for your target platforms using native tooling (e.g., APNS setup for iOS, Firebase integration for Android/Flutter).
2. Device Token Registration
Your application obtains a unique device token from the platform’s push service.
This token must be passed to the Genuin SDK, enabling Genuin’s backend to send notifications specifically to that device.
3. Notification Delivery
Genuin’s backend sends push notifications triggered by user activity or key community events.
Each notification carries a payload that includes Genuin-specific metadata describing the event or content.
4. SDK Processing
When the application receives a push notification, you forward its payload to the Genuin SDK’s handler methods.
The SDK interprets the Genuin metadata (e.g., community ID, post ID, event type).
5. In-App Action
Based on the SDK’s interpretation, your application can perform actions such as:
- Displaying relevant content
- Updating UI elements
- Most commonly: navigating the user to a specific screen within the Genuin-powered experience
(often using deep linking via Handling Deep Links with the Genuin SDK)
The Genuin SDK provides helper methods to simplify:
- Step 2 → Device token registration
- Steps 4 & 5 → Payload processing + content-driven navigation
These abstractions let you implement Genuin-specific notification behavior cleanly within your app.
Specs & Limitations
- Requires prior setup of standard platform push notifications (APNS/FCM) within your application.
- The Genuin SDK processes the notification payload and facilitates in-app navigation; it does not provide a built-in UI for viewing notification history.
- Implementation details, method names, and code signatures differ for each SDK (iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, Web).
Platform-Specific Implementation Guides
- Handling Push Notifications with the Genuin iOS SDK
- Handling Push Notifications with the Genuin Android SDK
- Handling Push Notifications with the Genuin Flutter SDK
- Handling Push Notifications with the Genuin React Native SDK
- Handling Notifications with the Genuin Web SDK
