All push notifications go through APNS on apple. That’s Apple Push Notifications Service.

APNS requires the device to authenticate with it and can uniquely identify the device by an id. Its how it sends messages to devices.

Firebase cloud messaging acts the same way for true push notifications.

You don’t need to audit a device using APNS or FCM on Android to know that it is not anonymous.

Ya, for sure. My beef was just with people saying you can roll your own, but glossing over the reduced user experience and reliability if you do.

With those trade offs it’s absolutely doable and makes sense for certain situations.

Ya, it can be brutal on battery.

I worked on an app once where delivery was critical, so we gave them the option of the active service+websocket, but for them the trade off was acceptable.

Pushes can be pretty flakey given all the shenanigans OEMs do on the device, even when marked as high priority correctly.

And the even worse part is when OEMs reset battery saving flags the user had set to help pushes get through and they stop working one day because of it.

They don’t treat their people like shit, they treat them like slaves. In countries outside China at that.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3v5n7w55kpo

It’s actually not possible to build a push service like FCM or APNS on Android and have it function at the same level as FCM. FCM has special permissions to bypass certain device states on the device to ensure message delivery that nothing else can match.

The best you can do is approximate it with an always active websocket and a foreground service always running with battery optimizations disabled, but good luck not having that foreground service shut down on occasion as well. Devices are hostile to them for battery saving purposes. You’d have the best luck with a Pixel device though for something like that. You could also do some sort of scheduled background polling, but the device can be hostile to that as well, and it would eat more battery.

You don’t even need to audit a closed source app to know that Apple knows which devices its sending pushes to. It works because they know.

I think he thinks HE had to store the information, and if he isn’t the one storing it, it’s anonymous.

Except, on Android, you can also do it where only google stores the information and he doesn’t have to store any. And there are no user name or passwords or accounts involved to listen to specific channels like he claims.

You can collect this information, and you’d be able to write a more custom push service, but it isn’t needed at all, but Google and Apple will always know who is getting the messages.

Now GrapheneOS the privacy based Android OS is calling them out

https://bsky.app/profile/grapheneos.org/post/3lt2prfb2vk2r

He really must be thinking just about himself, and not that Apple had the info.

You left off the part where after you finish the bag of skittles the lay you off again.

Just figured I’d add Apples own documentation as well

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/registering-your-app-with-apns

Apple Push Notification service (APNs) must know the address of a user’s device before it can send notifications to that device. This address takes the form of a device token unique to both the device and your app. At launch time, your app communicates with APNs and receives its device token, which you then forward to your provider server. Your server includes that token with any notifications it sends.

No, you’re right, GOOGLE will take the device identifier, but him talking about how he would need to store it, and especially for channels where he talks about user names and passwords really makes me think that he thinks he personally has to do it, with his own backend storing it. (edit: The point is, that he doesn’t HAVE to do it this way. You can, and it gives you more control, but you can let Google do it all. It’s never anonymous with anyone though.)

Apple knows which devices have the app installed. They would be able to link that back to the device if it was demanded, even if it is a bit more obscured.

How do you suppose APNS knows which device to deliver the notification to?

Something that… links it to the device? Like, a unique ID that Apple can identify?

It sounds like he thinks HE has to store this information, which is simply incorrect. It will obviously be stored by Google in Firebase, and by Apple wherever that gets stored, but HE does not have to store it.

I write apps for a living. I have users subscribe and unsubscribe to channels, and at no point is there a user account with password involved in either iOS or Android. If you want the memory of which channels they have subscribed to to persist across uninstall/reinstalls or different devices, then yes, but for an app like this you don’t need to persist those settings.

At any point the government could subpoena who’s received pushes (or at least, who’s registered to) from both Google and Apple.

You don’t need a user account or password to receive a push notification.

You just need to have the app installed. The app can be configured by the developer to receive push notifications.

You can get a DrinkMate which can carbonate anything, no need to dilute. It has a built in pressure release, and is easily cleanable by design.

Don’t use a sodastream, it’s not meant for anything but water. It’d make a mess and be very hard to clean.

You wouldn’t be able to access twitch. You’d have to buy cable TV or an antenna for the free channels. Either way media wins via commercials.

LOL wasn’t expecting that.

Cop: WTF happened here?

Driver: It drove itself onto the tracks

Cop: Okay, but what about the other 49 feet of the 50 feet it’s on the tracks?

Driver: …

LOL right? Like deciding to see what the car will do ON RAILWAY TRACKS is absolutely fucking bonkers.

How the fuck do you let any level 2 system go 40 to 50 fucking feet down the railroad tracks.

We’re they asleep?

And their 1st stage is designed to be reusable, so we might have another reusable provide in the near future.

It might take a handful of launches to get there, but they are on that path.