Push Notifications for the React Native Module

Before setting up push notifications in your app, you need to configure push services in the Airship dashboard. See iOS Channel Configuration for APNs setup and Android Channel Configuration for FCM setup.

Platform Setup

Before you can send and receive push notifications, you need to configure your app for the platform(s) you’re targeting.

iOS

Android

Configure Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) to enable push notifications on Android.

FCM Setup

HMS Setup

1. Follow Huawei’s documentation  to set up the HMS SDK.

    Note

   Airship requires HMS Core Push SDK 6.3.0.304 or newer.

2. Add airshipHmsEnabled=true to the app’s gradle.properties.

Notification Configuration

Configure the notification icon and accent color in your takeOff config:

Airship.takeOff({
    default: {
        appKey: "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_APP_KEY",
        appSecret: "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_APP_SECRET"
    },
    site: "us",
    android: {
        notificationConfig: {
            icon: "ic_notification",
            accentColor: "#00ff00"
        }
    }
});

See the React Native Setup guide for complete takeOff configuration options.

Enable User Notifications

The Airship SDK distinguishes between user notifications (visible to users) and silent push notifications (background data delivery). User notifications require explicit permission from the user.

By default, user notifications are disabled. Enable them when you want to show visible notifications to users.

Basic Enablement

The simplest way to enable user notifications is with setUserNotificationsEnabled():

await Airship.push.setUserNotificationsEnabled(true);

This will prompt the user for permission if not already granted. However, it does not provide feedback on whether the user accepted or denied the permission.

Async Enablement with Fallback

For more control over the permission flow, use enableUserNotifications() which returns the permission result and supports a fallback option:

// Enable with system settings fallback
const granted = await Airship.push.enableUserNotifications({
  fallback: PromptPermissionFallback.SystemSettings
});

if (granted) {
  console.log('Notifications enabled');
} else {
  console.log('Notifications denied');
}

The SystemSettings fallback option will prompt the user to open system settings if permission is denied on iOS or denied silently on Android. This gives users a second chance to enable notifications if they initially declined.

Checking Notification Status

To check if user notifications are currently enabled:

const enabled = await Airship.push.isUserNotificationsEnabled();

For more detailed status information, use getNotificationStatus():

const status = await Airship.push.getNotificationStatus();
console.log('Are notifications allowed:', status.areNotificationsAllowed);
console.log('Is opted in:', status.isOptedIn);

To monitor notification status changes in real-time:

Airship.addListener(EventType.PushNotificationStatusChangedStatus, (event) => {
  console.log('Notification status changed:', event.status);
  console.log('Is opted in:', event.status.isOptedIn);
});

Getting the Registration Token

To get the platform-specific push token (APNs token on iOS, FCM token on Android):

const token = await Airship.push.getRegistrationToken();

For more advanced event handling and token updates, see Handling Notification Events.