The VoIP realm is defining new milestones of success every year. Leveraging VoIP Push Notification, VoIP-based communication has set a benchmark for performance, cost effectiveness, and quality of calls. Tailored VoIP development services are available for businesses that are interested in building sustainable and comprehensive platforms. Certainly, building powerful communication and collaboration tools using VoIP has become a new trend in the global telephony industry.
As the popularity of voice over internet protocol increases, the demand for hybrid solutions also increases. For example, the integration of a CRM solution, an IP PBX solution, an AI technology tool, etc. is pretty common. Moreover, custom VoIP development also includes the integration of multiple communication tools or mechanisms. For example, developing VoIP based communication tools for smartphone users with VoIP application development services is a common phenomenon.
In the case of VoIP and mobile app conjunction, companies develop smart apps. These apps use SIP calling features to provide the advantage of VoIP based communication. In addition to that, they provide the flexibility and mobility benefits of a smartphone. In short, the advantages of using VoIP communication are doubled.
It must sound fascinating to combine two different technologies to develop custom VoIP communication solutions. However, it is quite challenging. Certainly, all technologies are not compatible with VoIP. Moreover, some quality or technical restrictions make it difficult to make functionalities work accurately. One feature that is really interesting and useful, but challenging to integrate is VoIP push notification on the iOS app for VoIP calling.
In this blog post, we are going to cover more details on VoIP push notifications on iOS and how you can implement them successfully in detail.
So without any further delays, let’s jump into this fascinating topic and learn more interesting details about it.
1. Understanding Push Notification
In simple words, a push notification is a mechanism to send an important message to the device of users. This device can be a smartphone or mobile phone. To trigger this application, there are different server side applications available. Moreover, developers can also use SDK for client side push notifications.
There are various instances of sending push notifications to clients. For example, push notifications are sent to provide an update for an upcoming app version upgrade alert. Moreover, the app can also send a push notification to give an alert on the due date for the invoice. In short, any important message is sent via push notifications.
There are Three Different Types of Push Notifications Such as:
Background Notifications: When the app is not actively running, background notifications are delivered to the device.
Foreground Notifications: These types of apps are delivered when the user is actively using the app.
Silent Notifications: Certainly, these notifications are silent in nature because they don’t send any alerts. Whenever a user opens the app, he or she can check these notifications.
2. Understanding VoIP Push Notification
Similar to conventional push notifications, the role of VoIP push notifications is similar, too. However, push notifications specifically work for real time communication apps to give an alert to the device for an incoming message in real time.
For example, if a device is offering voice or video calls or conference calls, then VoIP push notifications send alerts to the users about incoming calls. Unlike traditional push notifications, VoIP push notifications don’t send just a message, but they take an added step. Certainly, it wakes up the device with the push notification to alert the user to attend the real time communication. This feature makes real time communication possible. This feature works even when the app is active or not. Therefore, it helps in building a powerful and real time communication app.
To make VoIP push notifications work, it is necessary to implement them correctly. Certainly, VoIP software development companies implement push notifications using the right protocols. For example, to implement VoIP push notifications, developers use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). Moreover, to implement these notifications in Apple devices, the Apple Push Notification Service (APN) is used.
3. Major Challenges in Implementing VoIP Push Notifications on iOS
Implementation of VoIP push notifications on iOS devices is quite challenging compared to Android devices. Therefore, it is necessary to learn about the major challenges developers face during VoIP push notifications on iOS.
Strict Background Execution Policies and Compliances
For iOS devices, there are stern policies related to executing background code to keep batter and system performance better. Therefore, developers offering VoIP development services have to focus on striking a balance between making functionalities work and still following the compliances set by Apple. As a result, it creates challenges in making VoIP apps run in the background and sending VoIP push notifications to the users on receipt of the call.
Bandwidth and Latency
Any VoIP functionality works better only if the device has an active internet connection. Firstly, if the device does not have an active internet connection, then it will not work properly. Secondly, if bandwidth is low, then VoIP push notifications will not work efficiently.
User Permission
For iOS device users, you have to take exclusive permission to send them VoIP push notifications. Possibly, customers find it irritating to receive notifications with a doubt that you may send sales and promotional messages. Moreover, customers don’t give device permissions easily, which requires clarification on why someone should let you send a notification. However, customers also don’t read long explanations. As a result, it becomes quite challenging to get user permission to send VoIP push notifications.
Security Concerns
Apple is quite concerned about the security and privacy of users. As a result, there are several restrictions imposed by the platform to make apps secure. Moreover, it is necessary to keep communication secure for users. VoIP is easy to intercept if developers have not implemented security features. Therefore, it becomes challenging to develop an app that is highly secure.
Other Technical Challenges
Apple has several policies and technical restrictions that make it challenging to build a seamless app with a VoIP push notification feature. For example, background refresh is necessary to fetch data and content periodically. However, it can drain battery life and performance of the device. Therefore, developers have to face challenges because Apple has strict policies related to battery life and device performance optimization.
In addition to that, seamless integration of CallKit is another challenging job that developers offering VoIP application development services need to manage. Furthermore, policies to get app store approval for listing a VoIP app are crucial and challenging jobs.
Read our blog post sharing a Complete Guide on Callkit. It shares how you can save battery life of VoIP calls using Callkit for iOS.
4. Key Solutions to Overcome Implementation Challenges
As mentioned earlier, it is difficult to build seamless VoIP push notifications for iOS users. We have already had a look at the major challenges. So, now let’s look at the possible solutions to help you overcome these challenges.
Meet Compliances for Background App Running Policies
There are several tricks to optimizing apps to meet policies imposed by Apple to run an app in the background. For example, the intelligent implementation of background app refresh helps tackle this challenge. Moreover, efficient task scheduling and silent push notification implementation are quite helpful in making the app more performance driven. Moreover, these practices will help in meeting compliance related restrictions of iOS.
Facing Bandwidth and Latency Related Challenges
Experienced developers who have been offering custom VoIP development can help in meeting this challenge with ease. Certainly, there are tried and tested methods that can help you work on this challenge seamlessly. For example, developers can perform audio codec optimization. Moreover, developers can work on the data compression part to reduce the load on the internet. Furthermore, they can also work on data packet prioritization. As a result, even with low bandwidth and latency, users can enjoy seamless voice and video calling on their iOS devices.
Be Clear and Conscious
Certainly, it is challenging to obtain user permission to send VoIP push notifications. However, it is not impossible. Developers can create a concise, explicit, and creative message that asks users to give permission while signing up. As a result, you can get explicit permission.
Security and Protection
It is necessary to work on reliable delivery of VoIP push notifications. Moreover, this process needs to be completely secure. Experienced developers can use encryption methods to make VoIP push notifications and VoIP calling completely secure. In addition to that, developers can also implement an SSL certificate and redundancy mechanisms. Furthermore, two-way authentication and similar security features can help in making the overall app completely secure.
Resolution to Deal with Other Challenges
The strict policies of Apple are often a big challenge to face as we have discussed in this blog post. However, you can keep walking shoulder to shoulder with application development and Apple’s policies. Moreover, experienced developers also help in the seamless implementation of Callkit and other features. Furthermore, knowing all policies to get listed on the Apple store is another important key to success while developing a VoIP communication app with a VoIP push notification feature.
5. Top Tips to Successfully Implement VoIP Push Notifications
You already have the solutions to deal with major challenges that may come your way while developing VoIP push notifications. However, you may want to get apt knowledge on how to stay victorious while developing apps. Certainly, we have top tips for you. These tips will be your guiding light to build a seamless app that can go through all challenges and still come out with flying colors.
Stay Aligned with Apple’s Guidelines
It is fundamental to follow all the guidelines imposed to list and run an app on iOS devices. Therefore, to make VoIP push notifications work on iOS, you have to read all policies related to that. Moreover, Apple has some exclusive policies for VoIP based apps, background running features, and more. Therefore, it is necessary for you or your developer to learn all these policies carefully. Moreover, it is necessary to align your development process with Apple’s guidelines.
Use Apple Push Notification (APN) in Your Favor
You might have some preferences for implementing VoIP push notifications in traditional ways. However, you must be platform specific while developing custom apps or features for iOS users. For example, APN is one of the features available to iOS developers. You can use this feature to implement VoIP push notifications on iOS. As a result, you can meet performance guidelines. Moreover, you can seamlessly implement VoIP push notifications.
Quality Assurance is a Must
It is necessary to invest in professional app testing and quality assurance. You must check the functionality of your VoIP push notification on iOS for different devices and versions. This will help you ensure that it can deliver a seamless experience to all users.
Monitoring and Improvement
Apple’s policies and user demands are likely to change. Therefore, you must monitor these criteria to keep updating the app. Moreover, you must monitor the success rate of push notification delivery. Furthermore, you need to focus on monitoring app performance, network performance, the responsiveness of the server, and other performance criteria. In addition to that, you must also focus on improving the performance of the app by working on affected areas.
Concluding Note
Apple users are the prime target of many businesses because they are ready to pay for premium services and the quality apps. Therefore, several VoIP service providers invest in developing excellent communication apps for iOS users. However, there are several challenges related to VoIP push notification implementation on iOS, which is a fundamental feature of any VoIP app. Therefore, it is necessary to be aware of all major challenges and solutions. Moreover, it is also inevitable to know the best practices to overcome these challenges.
Along with details shared in this blog post, you can also take the help of experienced iOS developers. Certainly, these developers need to have experience in the successful implementation of VoIP push notifications on iOS. As a result, you can sit back, and the hard work is managed by your developers.
If you are looking for options for VoIP software development companies that can help you develop and list your app with VoIP push notifications on iOS, then your search ends here. To learn more about our VoIP development services, contact us.