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There are a number of questions that I noticed in this space and it gives me a good idea of the notification space.

I found this Q&A informative and want to thank the folks for the discussion in that thread.

However there are still a few questions that are unanswered in my head.

(1) What exactly is a silent notification?

My understanding is notifications that contain this flag value equals 1 "content-available" : 1

In the Apple ecosystem (APNS) this would be realized with this attribute apns-push-type: background

(2) Can silent Notifications be turned-off? I read that it can't be turned off however at the same breath I see that if "Remote Notifications" are turned off in iOS, then they would not be received.

(3) Is it a good practice to send key events/notifcations as a silent notification (e.g Multi-factor authentication) or should they rely on regular push notifications?

From what i have read and observed:

  1. Silent Notifications are low priority ones
  2. They are not guaranteed Delivery

My conclusion (based on my search and reading) is silent-notificaiton should not be used for critical events.

I was hoping a best practice article/blog in this space from all the players (Apple, Google etc)however i see info in bits and pieces.

Happy to put one together an article/blog as a give back when I have all the info at hand as i work through these questions.

Appreciate inputs, links and advice.

References: [Pushing Background Updates to Your App] 2

Sending Notification Requests to APNs

Silent notifications works only when app in foreground

Manglu
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    No notifications are guaranteed delivery. One big issue is that if your app is terminated then it will not be launched to receive the silent notification. A regular notification's payload is displayed by iOS and if the user taps it then your app is launched. Remote notifications can't be turned off, but if you use a standard notification and the user has disabled the notification display, it is *like* they are turned off. Silent notifications will still be delivered to your app if it is not terminated. Low power mode may affect the delivery of silent notifications – Paulw11 Aug 30 '21 at 04:29
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    Silent notifications can be throttled though, so there deliver is "less guaranteed". A common use case for silent notifications was to use the payload to present a local notification. This is better achieved with a [notification extension](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/unnotificationserviceextension) – Paulw11 Aug 30 '21 at 04:33

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