3. Send your first notification
Register your phone, send a test, then publish a post and watch it arrive.
About 5 minutes, and this is the fun one.
Turn on Dev mode first. With it on, nothing you send can reach real users — only devices you have flagged as development devices. Leave it on until you are done experimenting.
Turn on Dev mode
MrDemonWolf → Push Settings → Dev mode, tick it, save.
Register your phone
Open the MrDemonWolf app on your phone and make sure notifications are allowed. The app registers itself with your site the moment you enable them.
Now go to MrDemonWolf → Devices in wp-admin.
You should see: one device listed, with its platform and model.
Nothing listed? The app has not reached your site. Check that the app is pointing at the right site address, and that notification permission was actually granted rather than dismissed.
Flag it as a dev device
In the device's row, turn on the Dev toggle. With Dev mode on, this is now the only device that will receive anything.
Send a test
Go to MrDemonWolf → Send. Fill in a title and a body — anything at all. Leave the target as All devices (Dev mode narrows it to your phone anyway).
Click Send Now.
You should see: the notification arrive on your phone within a few seconds.
Now try it with an image
Back on the Send screen, put an image URL in the Image URL field, or click Choose Image and pick something from your media library. Send again.
You should see: the notification arrive with the picture attached.
Nothing appeared on iPhone but the text came through? That is expected unless your app build includes a Notification Service Extension. Apple requires one before an image can be attached to a push. Android shows it with no app changes at all.
Make it automatic
MrDemonWolf → Push Settings, turn on Auto-notify on publish and Use featured image, then save.
Now publish a post with a featured image. The notification goes out by itself, with the featured image attached.
Every post also gets a MrDemonWolf box in the editor sidebar, where you can change the wording just for that post, or stop it notifying at all.
Turn Dev mode off when you are ready
Once you are happy, go back to Push Settings and untick Dev mode. Real devices start receiving from the next send onward.
Why the image sometimes does not appear
The image is downloaded by the phone itself, so it has to be reachable from anywhere:
- It must be HTTPS. Plain
http://is refused by iOS and the plugin rejects it before sending. - It must be on a public address. A staging site behind a login,
localhost, or a.localaddress cannot be reached from a phone on mobile data. - Keep it under about 1 MB. iOS allows up to 10 MB, but Android quietly drops large images.
The plugin checks the first two before sending, so an unusable URL is refused rather than producing a notification with a silently missing picture.
Let Claude help you test notifications
Copy the prompt, paste it into Claude, and follow along.
See the prompt
I'm testing push notifications from a WordPress plugin called "MrDemonWolf" to my phone. I am not a developer — please guide me one step at a time and wait for me to confirm each one. Please walk me through: 1. Turning on "Dev mode" at MrDemonWolf > Push Settings, so my test sends cannot reach real users 2. Registering my phone by opening my app and allowing notifications, then confirming it appears under MrDemonWolf > Devices 3. Flagging that device as a "Dev" device 4. Sending a test from MrDemonWolf > Send with just a title and body 5. Sending a second test with an image URL to check rich notifications 6. Turning on "Auto-notify on publish" and "Use featured image" in Push Settings 7. Publishing a post with a featured image to confirm it fires automatically 8. Turning Dev mode back off when I'm done Things to help me troubleshoot: - If no device appears, the app may be pointing at the wrong site, or notification permission was dismissed rather than granted - If the image doesn't show on iPhone, that's expected unless the app has a Notification Service Extension — Android works without one - Image URLs must be HTTPS and publicly reachable; the plugin rejects http:// and private hosts Start by asking what I currently see under MrDemonWolf > Devices.
Next: test the contact form →