Feedback Service

Apps don’t live forever. Users add, remove, and replace applications on their devices all the time. From an APNS point of view, it’s pointless to deliver notifications to devices that no longer host your application. As a push provider, it’s your duty to remove inactive device tokens from your active support list. As Apple puts it, “APNS monitors providers for their diligence in checking the feedback service and refraining from sending push notifications to nonexistent applications on devices.” Big Brother is watching.

Apple provides a simple way to manage inactive device tokens. When users uninstall apps from a device, push notifications begin to fail. Apple tracks these failures and provides reports from its APNS feedback server. The APNS feedback service lists devices that failed to receive notifications. As a provider, you need to fetch this report on a periodic basis and weed through your device tokens.