Silent push vs no silent push

• With silent push
  In-app and inbox messages become available immediately, even while the app is in the background or killed.
• Without silent push
  In-app and inbox messages become available only after the app is launched.

This directly impacts UX:

• In-app messages
  Without silent push, an in-app will appear several seconds after launch, typically after the user already started doing something and that leads to poor experience.
• Inbox unread counts / badge
  Without silent push, unread counts are known only after launch. App icon badge cannot be updated while the app is in background.

Silent pushes ensure messages are ready at app open, which is the ideal moment.

Silent pushes ON

Silent pushes OFF

What to be careful about

Analytics inflation

Silent pushes wake the app in the background, which analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics, Amplitude) often count as new sessions. As a result, enabling silent pushes can inflate session counts.

Solution

• Initialize analytics disabled
• Enable only when the app becomes active (didBecomeActive).

Unintended network requests

Silent pushes wake the app in the background. If the apps trigger “on launch” network requests, this can cause a large spike in backend traffic.

Solution

• Do any network requests when the app becomes active, not just when it’s launched.