Interactive Notifications

Interactive notifications allow users to take actions directly from the notification without opening your app. You can add buttons to notifications that perform specific actions when tapped.

Standard Interactive Notifications

Airship provides built-in interactive notification types with pre-configured action buttons. See Built-In Interactive Notification Types for available types and button configurations.

To use a standard interactive notification type, specify the category ID in your push payload. The notification will automatically display the appropriate action buttons.

Custom Interactive Notification Categories

You can define custom notification categories with specific actions tailored to your app’s needs.

Create a Custom Category

// Define an action for the category
let categoryAction = UNNotificationAction(
    identifier: "category_action",
    title: "Action!",
    options: [.authenticationRequired, .foreground, .destructive]
)

// Define the category
let category = UNNotificationCategory(
    identifier: "custom_category",
    actions: [categoryAction],
    intentIdentifiers: [],
    hiddenPreviewsBodyPlaceholder: "Sensitive Content Hidden",
    options: []
)

// Register the custom category
Airship.push.customCategories = [category]

// Define an action for the category
UNNotificationAction *categoryAction = [UNNotificationAction 
    actionWithIdentifier:@"category_action"
                    title:@"Action!"
                  options:(UNNotificationActionOptionForeground |
                           UNNotificationActionOptionDestructive |
                           UNNotificationActionOptionAuthenticationRequired)];

// Define the category
UNNotificationCategory *category = [UNNotificationCategory 
    categoryWithIdentifier:@"custom_category"
                   actions:@[categoryAction]
         intentIdentifiers:@[]
                   options:UNNotificationCategoryOptionNone];

// Register the custom category
UAirship.push.customCategories = [NSSet setWithArray:@[category]];

Action Options

When creating notification actions, you can specify the following options:

• .foreground / UNNotificationActionOptionForeground: Opens the app when the action is tapped
• .destructive / UNNotificationActionOptionDestructive: Displays the action button in red (use for destructive actions like “Delete”)
• .authenticationRequired / UNNotificationActionOptionAuthenticationRequired: Requires the device to be unlocked before the action can be performed

Hidden Preview Placeholder

The hiddenPreviewsBodyPlaceholder parameter specifies placeholder text that will be shown instead of the notification’s body when the user has disabled notification previews for your app. This is useful for sensitive content that shouldn’t be displayed in notification previews.

Handle Action Responses

When a user taps an action button, handle the response in your notification callback:

Airship.push.onReceivedNotificationResponse = { response in
    if response.actionIdentifier == "category_action" {
        // Handle the action
    }
}

UAirship.push.onReceivedNotificationResponse = ^(UNNotificationResponse *response) {
    if ([response.actionIdentifier isEqualToString:@"category_action"]) {
        // Handle the action
    }
};

Related Documentation

• Getting Started with Push Notifications