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I'm working on an iOS application, and want to achieve behavior like push notifications using firebase real time DB.

In case my app is listening to some firebase node and i'll send local push notification to the user in case that node is updated.

The issue is, if the app is not running i.e. user has killed it, will my app continue listening to that particular node? I guess, in Android we've support like this, as explained in this link (Link).

Can we achieve the same behavior in iOS. If no, what can be the alternative?

Thanks

Update:

1- There's nothing like triggering push notifications locally in iOS app. I wanted to achieve remote notification's behavior and that can't be done.

2- As far as listening to some event is concerned, it can't be done when app is not in foreground or background.

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Fayza Nawaz
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2 Answers2

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You can’t do anything if an iOS app is killed/not present in memory.

However, you can do some tasks if app is in background, and is present in memory. You can use background fetch request in this case.

In Android, there are Services which run even when the app is killed. But on iOS, there is no such thing like this.

You can add Firebase observers in your root view controller, and implement background fetch request to continue observing data when app is in background.

Aneeq Anwar
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When you app is killed, the listeners are disconnected.

The typical way to send messages to your app in this state is by using a push notification, which in Firebase maps to Firebase Cloud Messaging.

This is why you'll often see the Firebase Database and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) used hand-in-hand: the database is used for messaging while the user has the app open, and FCM is used to send messages when the app is not active.

Frank van Puffelen
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