Mozilla works on 'cross-platform' push notifications

Push notification, the technology that allows iOS and Android mobile devices to get updates from websites even if the user is not on the site, may be coming to desktop computers soon, if a project by Mozilla pushes through.

 

Mozilla developer Jeff Balogh said they are working on an application programming interface (API) that will push content to the user.

 

"iOS and Android devices already support their own push notification services, but we want to make notifications available to the whole web. We’re making prototypes and designing the API right now and want to share our progress," he said in a blog post.

 

Under the setup, the website gets a URL where it can send notifications to the user. The URL points to the Notification Service.

 

When the site has an update, it sends a notification to the Notification Service, which delivers the message to Firefox on the desktop, on Android, on Boot to Gecko, or on iOS through Firefox Home.

 

"We’ll find the right place to deliver the message," he said.

 

But he also pointed out a website that wishes to send push notifications must ask the user for permission.

 

If the user grants permission, the browser will talk to the Notification Service and get a new URL that links the site to the user.

 

Every site/user pair gets a unique URL, he said.

 

"Once the notification is in the system, we’ll deliver it to the recipient on all the devices they have Firefox installed, but we’ll try not to show duplicate notifications on different devices," he said. — TJD, GMA News