Push Notifications and the Limits of Innovation

Thomas Karpiniec Part of DW18

Many types of app demand push notifications, such as messengers and social networks. Push notifications are also one of the most tightly controlled functions on Apple’s platforms. For “normal” development companies everything works fine. For volunteer developers or authors of decentralised software, the assumptions baked into push notifications limit the types of technology that we can create on iOS mobile devices. This talk discusses why push notifications are unusually crucial for new uses, provides examples of real-world workarounds, and invites the audience to see the mobile app ecosystem as more than the specific services Apple provides.