1

I am implementing a webrtc app using twilio platform (for both ios and android). To be consistent with iOS 10, I need to integrate the CallKit which is activted in response to an external notificationn, such as a VoIP push notification. I was wondering which platform is better (e.g Amazon SNS, PubNub, Parse etc) would be better for implementing the push notification in back-end (I use node.js).

Note: I have seen some discussion/question regarding pubub vs SNS (e.g What is advantage and disadvantage of using pubnub over Amazon Simple Notification Service (sns)?). But those discussion are pretty old (3 years ago). In addition, they do not address/cover Callkit!

user2867237
  • 457
  • 1
  • 5
  • 20
  • [What is advantage and disadvantage of using pubnub over Amazon Simple Notification Service (sns)?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20843632/what-is-advantage-and-disadvantage-of-using-pubnub-over-amazon-simple-notificati) – bain Aug 05 '19 at 13:31

1 Answers1

2

tl;dr - use OneSignal, stay away from SNS

I haven't tried pubNub, but implementing VoIP Push notifications with SNS in Node was pretty straightforward. You need to pay close attention that you're signing the SNS platform application with the correct certificate. Using the aws npm module was a breeze.

Two things I didn't like about SNS:

  1. If SNS fails to send to an endpoint, it'll disable that endpoint, which can make testing pretty frustrating. The same behavior happens with normal push notifications as well. That can happen quite often with QA devices, which undergo frequent factory resets, or where the tested app is being repeatedly uninstalled/reinstalled.
  2. Compared to other push notifications services, getting proper metrics from SNS is a real pain. Yes, you should be able to connect SNS them to CloudWatch, but the result is very basic and years behind the standards that other providers (like Parse or OneSignal) have been offering for free.

UPDATE June 2018

OneSignal now supports VoIP Push notifications. I would definitely recommend using their services as they are free and are vastly superior to SNS.

whyp
  • 603
  • 5
  • 14