Why not!
You can send a hidden push notification without any alert, banner or sound.
PHP CODE
without a text:
$payload['aps'] = array('badge'=> 0, 'sound' => 'default');
Without text and sound
$payload['aps'] = array('badge'=> 0);
and on your ios end you can make a condition for this:
//Receiving a Push Notification
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo
{
NSMutableDictionary *pushNotiFicationDict = [userInfo objectForKey:@"aps"];
NSLog(@":%@", pushNotiFicationDict);
if([pushNotiFicationDict objectForKey:@"alert"])
{
// when push notification has text
UIAlertView * alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"MESSAGE" message:[pushNotiFicationDict objectForKey:@"alert"]
delegate:nil
cancelButtonTitle:@"ok"
otherButtonTitles:nil];
[alert show];
}
else
{
// when push notification does not have text
}
}
But i think you can not perform any action if application is not running or running in background.