Push Notifications

Send push notifications to your users' devices, triggered from your backend. This guide covers creating notification templates and sending notifications via the API.

How It Works

1. You create notification templates inside a release — these define the structure of your notifications
2. Your backend calls the NativeSuite API to send a notification, passing the template ID and variable values
3. NativeSuite delivers the notification to the user's device

Creating Notification Templates

Notification templates belong to a release. To create one:

1. Navigate to your app → Releases → select a release
2. Go to the Notifications section
3. Click Create Notification Template

Template Structure

Each template has:

• Title pattern — The notification title, with optional
• Body pattern — The notification body, with optional

Using Variables

Variables use double-brace syntax. When you send a notification, you provide the values:

Template:

Title: Order #{{order_id}} shipped
Body: {{item_count}} items on the way to {{city}}, {{country}}

API call with values:

{
  "templateSlug": "order-shipped",
  "variables": {
    "order_id": "4821",
    "item_count": "3",
    "city": "Berlin",
    "country": "Germany"
  },
  "targetUsers": ["550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"]
}

Result on the user's device:

Order #4821 shipped
3 items on the way to Berlin, Germany

Sending Notifications via API

To send a notification from your backend, make a POST request to the NativeSuite API:

curl -X POST https://api.staging.nativesuite.io/api/apps/{appId}/notifications/send \
  -H "X-NativeSuite-Key: {your-app-secret}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "templateSlug": "order-shipped",
    "variables": {
      "order_id": "4821",
      "item_count": "3",
      "city": "Berlin",
      "country": "Germany"
    },
    "targetUsers": ["550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"]
  }'

See the Send Notification API reference for the full specification.

Authentication

Requests to the NativeSuite API are authenticated using your app's App Secret via the X-NativeSuite-Key header. Find this in the dashboard under your app's Settings → Credentials.

Notification Lifecycle

Each notification goes through these states:

1. Pending — Received by NativeSuite, queued for delivery
2. Sent — Delivered to the user's device
3. Failed — Delivery failed (e.g., invalid device token, user unsubscribed)

Per-Release Templates

Notification templates are scoped to a release. This means:

• Draft release — You can create and edit templates freely
• Live release — Templates are locked; create a new release to change them
• Different releases can have different templates

This gives you version control over your notification structure.

Best Practices

• Be concise — Notifications are cut off after ~100 characters on most devices
• Front-load important info — Put the key detail in the title, context in the body
• Don't over-notify — Respect your users' attention. Send notifications for events they care about
• Use variables wisely — Dynamic content makes notifications personal and actionable
• Test with real devices — Notification rendering varies by OS, device, and user settings