Mobile Push Notifications

A standard push notification opens the app to whatever screen was last active, or to the home screen. A deep-linked notification opens the app at a specific, predefined destination: a booking, a product, a feature, or an action. The notification payload includes a URL or structured route that the app's deep link handler resolves to a specific screen.

The practical difference is engagement. A notification that takes the user directly to the relevant content converts significantly better than one that requires the user to navigate there manually.

Rather than building a separate notification service that polls for changes, we integrate notification triggers directly into the backend operation where the event occurs. When a payment is confirmed, the payment handler calls the notification service. When a booking is updated, the booking service fires the notification. The notification is part of the business operation, not an afterthought.

This approach means notifications fire at exactly the right moment, with exactly the right context, because they are triggered by the authoritative source of the event rather than a polling process that may lag behind.

We build a custom workflow action in HubSpot that accepts a target screen or feature as a parameter alongside the notification content. When HubSpot triggers the action (based on contact lifecycle stage, deal pipeline event, or any other enrolment criterion), the notification is sent with a deep link payload that routes the user to the specified destination.

The HubSpot team configures when and why the notification fires. The deep link target is set in the workflow action parameters. The user taps the notification and arrives at exactly the screen the campaign intended. This is part of our HubSpot mobile integration service.

Custom URI schemes (e.g. myapp://booking/123) are simple to implement but have weaknesses: they only work if the app is installed, they can be intercepted by other apps that register the same scheme, and they have limited support in some contexts (email clients, web views). Universal Links on iOS and App Links on Android are HTTP URLs (e.g. https://yourapp.com/booking/123) that the operating system routes to the app when it is installed, or to the website when it is not. They are more reliable, more secure, and handle the "app not installed" fallback gracefully.

We implement Universal Links and App Links as the primary deep link mechanism, with custom URI scheme fallbacks where necessary.

This is called a cold-start deep link, and it requires specific handling. When the app launches from a notification tap, it needs to resolve the deep link before the normal startup navigation runs, not after. We implement the correct launch handling in the React Native app so the user is routed to the target screen as part of the startup sequence, not navigated away from the home screen after a brief flash.

We also handle authentication gates: if the target screen requires the user to be logged in, the app authenticates first, then navigates to the intended destination.

The delivery mechanism (whether that is a direct APNs/FCM integration, Azure Notification Hubs, or another aggregator) is chosen based on the architecture and scale requirements of the specific project. The delivery layer is infrastructure; our focus is on the trigger logic, the deep link architecture, and the HubSpot integration that sit above it.

For most projects we integrate directly with APNs and FCM to avoid adding a third-party dependency. Where existing infrastructure uses Azure Notification Hubs or a service like OneSignal, we work with what is already in place. We'll give you an honest recommendation in the architecture phase.

Push notifications are most useful when the user is not in the app. When a user is active, a push notification is disruptive and often redundant. We build a coordination layer: the backend (or HubSpot workflow) checks the user's current state before deciding whether to send a push notification or route to an in-app message instead.

This coordination is part of the broader notification design, and it connects to our HubSpot mobile integration work where HubSpot-triggered messages need to reach the user through the right channel at the right moment.