Push Notifications

The app uses TailSignal for push notification delivery via Expo's push notification service.

Registration Flow

1. App requests notification permissions from the OS
2. Expo generates a push token tied to the EAS project ID
3. Token and device info are sent to the TailSignal backend
4. TailSignal stores the registration for future notifications

Auto Re-registration

On every app launch, the notification hook:

1. Checks if the user has notifications enabled in settings
2. Gets the current Expo push token
3. Calls isDeviceRegistered(token) to verify registration status
4. If not registered (or registration expired), re-registers the device

This handles cases where the backend loses registrations or tokens change.

Device Registration

POST {TAILSIGNAL_API_URL}/register

{
  "expo_token": "ExponentPushToken[...]",
  "device_type": "ios",
  "device_model": "iPhone 15 Pro",
  "os_version": "18.0",
  "app_version": "1.0.0"
}

Registration Status Check

GET {TAILSIGNAL_API_URL}/register/status?expo_token=...

Returns { "registered": true, "active": true } if the device is actively registered.

Unregistration

DELETE {TAILSIGNAL_API_URL}/register?expo_token=...

Called when the user disables notifications in Settings.

Deep Linking on Tap

When a user taps a notification, the app navigates to the relevant screen:

• post_type: "post" → blog/{post_id}
• post_type: "project" → portfolio/{post_id}

TailSignal sends notification data with snake_case keys (e.g. post_id, post_type).

Rich Notifications (iOS)

iOS supports rich push notifications with images via a Notification Service Extension:

• Custom Expo config plugin: plugins/notification-service-extension.js
• Notifications with mutableContent: true can include an image attachment
• The service extension downloads and attaches the image before display

Android Notification Channel

Android requires a notification channel:

await Notifications.setNotificationChannelAsync('default', {
  name: 'Default',
  importance: Notifications.AndroidImportance.DEFAULT,
});

Settings Integration

Push notifications are gated by settings.notificationsEnabled:

• Toggle in Settings screen
• Enabling registers the device
• Disabling unregisters the device