Push notifications

NativeExpress uses OneSignal  to register devices and send push notifications on iOS and Android.

Permission during onboarding

The app initializes OneSignal at launch without requesting permission. The last onboarding screen explains notifications, then calls requestPushPermission() when the user chooses to enable them.

If you remove that screen, add a permission action elsewhere. Initialization alone does not ask the user. A user who has already denied permission may need to enable notifications in their device settings.

Identify a user

On sign-in, identifyPushUser() passes the Supabase user ID to OneSignal as its External ID. This lets your backend address the user across their subscriptions. The wrapper also adds their email when one is supplied.

Configuration

Set EXPO_PUBLIC_ONE_SIGNAL_APP_ID after completing platform setup. Without it, the wrapper’s functions return without initializing OneSignal or requesting permission. The app still runs, but it cannot receive OneSignal push notifications.

The app already includes the OneSignal native module and Expo config plugin. app.config.js selects the APNs mode from the EAS build profile: the production profile uses production mode, while other profiles and local builds default to development. ONESIGNAL_MODE can override that selection.

Files

• src
  • services/push.ts - OneSignal wrapper
  • app/(public)/onboarding/notifications.tsx - Permission primer
  • provider/SessionProvider.tsx - User identification
  • app/_layout.tsx - Initialization
• app.config.js - OneSignal plugin and APNs mode

Use another push provider

App code imports initializePush(), requestPushPermission() and identifyPushUser() from src/services/push.ts. To replace OneSignal, implement those functions for your provider and update its native dependencies and config plugins.