No sound for PWA / web app notifications in iOS 16.4

Question

After updating to iOS 16.4 and adding one of my web apps to the home screen and turning on notifications, the web app does appear in the Settings>Notifications, but unlike most apps, there is no option for "Sound", and while notifications do arrive, they are always silent.

Does anyone know of a way to make the sound option to appear, or to have web app notifications in iOS arrive with the usual notification sound?

I have tried deleting and re-adding the web app as well as restarting the device, hoping for the sound options to appear, but it did not. I have also attempted to search for other users with the same problem, but haven't found any that are relevant to the current issue following the release of iOS 16.4 (which is, as I understand it, supposed to fully support web push notifications).

Traynor

Have you also seen problems with push notifications not being displayed if the web app is fully closed? I'm only seeing the notifications if the app is running or in the background. – Mortgage

16.4.1 the issue is still here, very disappointing that there are no sounds nor vibrations – Udale

Try disabling Notification Summary – Acupuncture

@ArefRiant Notification Summary is off on my device. – Traynor

@Philip, Could someone share the logic to show the notification in ios after adding pwa app to the home screen? I am unable to see notifications even when the app is running. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! – Ravin

I have this same issue, does anyone else know? I am also not receiving them while not on the app – Cabinetwork

Answer 1

Unfortunately, the state of web push support in iOS currently seems to be incomplete (June 2023). Caniuse (better now?) reveals the main issue for your use case:

iOS notifications are delivered silently, meaning no sound, vibration, haptics or screen wake.

While nothing indicates this when you read the support announcement by Webkit, Apple does seem to have limited the use case for their initial support of Web Push on iOS, and this means that e.g. alerting may not be fully supported yet.

Journalist