Install push notifications in Flutter apps in 4 steps.

Setting up push notifications for your Flutter app is easy. Push notifications are the ideal solution to re-engage users and bring them back to your app.

Estimated setup time: 15 minutes.

Prerequisites

You'll need:

• For Android:
  • A device or emulator with Google Play services installed and up-to-date.
  • A Firebase account.
  • Android Studio.
• For iOS:
  • XCode
  • An iOS device such as an iPhone or an iPad
  • An iOS Push Certificate (here's a how to obtain it)

If you haven't already, sign up for a free account on wonderpush.com.

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Upgrading from our SDK version 1.x?

Follow this guide to update your integration.

Create your project

Click on New Project:

Choose a name for your project and select Android and iOS as platforms then click Create:

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Already have a project?

Just add the Android or iOS platforms to any existing project by going to Settings, selecting the first tab named after your project and clicking Edit. You'll be presented a form that lets you add a platform.

Prepare your flutter project

Create your Flutter application if you haven't already, see the Flutter guide and setup it by following given instructions.

Open pubspec.yaml and add the following two dependencies:

dependencies:
  wonderpush_flutter: ^2.0.0
  wonderpush_fcm_flutter: ^1.0.1

Also make sure to remove the firebase_messaging dependency if you have it.

Open a Terminal window in your flutter project directory and type:

flutter pub get

Let's edit lib/main.dart to trigger a push notification prompt. You'll probably want to move this somewhere more appropriate later.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
// Add this line to import WonderPush at the top of the file
import 'package:wonderpush_flutter/wonderpush_flutter.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(MyApp());
  // Add this line to trigger a push notifications prompt on iOS and subscribe users on Android.
  WonderPush.subscribeToNotifications();
}

Setting up iOS

Step 1. Upload your push certificate

Get your push certificate handy. If you don't have one, here's how to obtain it.

Head to the Apple developer website, go to Accounts, then Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles and click the plus button to add a new certificate. Choose the type Apple Push Notification service SSL (Sandbox & Production):

Then select your app ID (be sure not to select the app ID for the notification service extension):

Follow the rest of the wizard to download your certificate, and open it so it shows in Keychain Access.

We now have to properly export it along its private key before uploading them in the WonderPush dashboard.

1. Launch Keychain Access on the Mac where you created the certificate request.
2. In the Category section, select My Certificates.
3. Find the newly created certificate and expand its content by clicking on the triangle icon.
   You’ll see both a certificate and a private key.

4. Select both the certificate and the key, and choose File > Export Items.
5. From the File Format pop-up menu, ensure P12 is selected.
6. Enter a filename in the Save As field, then click Save.
   The certificate and key are saved to the location you specified as a .p12 file.

Go to Settings / Platforms, click the iOS application section title and fill in:

• your push certificate by clicking the Browse button,
• the push certificate password if appropriate.

Step 2. Prepare your Xcode project for push notifications

In your flutter project directory, open the file ios/Runner.xcworkspace with Xcode.

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Be sure to open ios/Runner.xcworkspace, not ios/Runner.xcodeproj

Make sure your deployment target is greater than or equal to iOS 9:

Add the following capabilities:

1. Background Modes
2. Push Notifications

Make sure the Remote notifications background mode is checked and ensure the Push notification capability is present:

Go to the Settings page of your WonderPush dashboard and take note of your client ID and client secret:

Open your AppDelegate and update it to look like the following, adapting YOUR_CLIENT_ID and YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET with the values that can be found on the Settings page of your WonderPush Dashboard:

import UIKit
import Flutter

// Add this line
import WonderPush

@UIApplicationMain
@objc class AppDelegate: FlutterAppDelegate {
    override func application(
        _ application: UIApplication,
        didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?
    ) -> Bool {
        if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
            UNUserNotificationCenter.current().delegate = self as UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate
        }
        
        GeneratedPluginRegistrant.register(with: self)
        
        // Add the following 5 lines
        WonderPush.setClientId("YOUR_CLIENT_ID", secret: "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET")
        WonderPush.setupDelegate(for: application)
        if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
            WonderPush.setupDelegateForUserNotificationCenter()
        }
        
        return super.application(application, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: launchOptions)
    }
}

// Add this line:
#import <WonderPush/WonderPush.h>
  
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
    // ...
    [GeneratedPluginRegistrant registerWith: self];

    // Add the following 5 lines
    [WonderPush setClientId:@"YOUR_CLIENT_ID" secret:@"YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"];
    [WonderPush setupDelegateForApplication:application];
    if (@available(iOS 10.0, *)) {
        [WonderPush setupDelegateForUserNotificationCenter];
    }
    return [super application:application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];
}

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If at that stage your project doesn't compile, everything is normal: we'll run pod install later in this guide and that should fix it.

Step 3. Create the notification service extension

In Xcode, select File / New / Target..., and choose Notification Service Extension:

Enter WonderPushNotificationServiceExtension as the name for your new target:

When Xcode prompts you to activate the new scheme, answer Cancel to keep Xcode building and debugging your app instead of the extension:

If you activate by mistake, switch back to your app's scheme from the dropdown menu located next to the play button.

Set the Deployment Target of your Notification Service Extension to 10.0:

Make sure to use Automatic Signing for the extension target:

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If you're getting the following error, make sure to set up Automatic Signing for the extension:

Provisioning profile "XXX" has app ID "YYY", which does not match the bundle ID "YYY.WonderPushNotificationServiceExtension".

Finally, set Enable bitcode to NO in the extension target's build settings:

Open NotificationService.swift or (NotificationService.h and NotificationService.m for Objective-C) and replace their entire contents with:

import WonderPushExtension

class NotificationService: WPNotificationServiceExtension {

    override class func clientId() -> String {
        return "YOUR_CLIENT_ID"
    }

    override class func clientSecret() -> String {
        return "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"
    }

}

#import <WonderPushExtension/WonderPushExtension.h>

@interface NotificationService : WPNotificationServiceExtension

@end

#import "NotificationService.h"

@implementation NotificationService

+ (NSString *)clientId {
    return @"YOUR_CLIENT_ID";
}

+ (NSString *)clientSecret {
    return @"YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET";
}

@end

Adapt YOUR_CLIENT_ID and YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET with the values you've noted above, the same you just gave to your AppDelegate.

Step 4. Setup CocoaPods

Open ios/Podfile and add the following at the bottom:

target 'WonderPushNotificationServiceExtension' do
  platform :ios, '10.0'
  use_frameworks!
  # Pods for WonderPushNotificationServiceExtension
  pod 'WonderPushExtension', '~> 4.0'
end

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Please close Xcode before proceeding

Open a Terminal window in your flutter project directory and type:

cd ios
pod install

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Congratulations!

Your iOS setup should now be complete. Deploy your app on a real device (simulator can't receive push notifications), subscribe and get your first push!

Wait a couple of minutes and receive the default welcome notification:

Setting up Android

Step 1. Fill your Firebase credentials in the dashboard

1. Locate your Server key and Sender ID as explained in the Firebase / Locating your Sender ID and Server key article.

2. Go to your WonderPush dashboard, in the Settings page, select the Platforms tab and click on Android application.

3. Paste the Server key.
4. Click Save.

Step 2. Configure SDK

• Take note of your Client ID and Client Secret from the Platforms tab of the Settings page:

Open the Android Studio and configure the WonderPush Android SDK from your android/app/build.gradle file:

android {
  defaultConfig {
    // Make sure minSdkVersion is 21 or higher
    minSdkVersion 21

    // Note that it's important to keep the double quotes as part of the third argument
    // as this represents a string in Java code
    buildConfigField 'String', 'WONDERPUSH_CLIENT_ID', '"YOUR_CLIENT_ID"'
    buildConfigField 'String', 'WONDERPUSH_CLIENT_SECRET', '"YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"'
    buildConfigField 'String', 'WONDERPUSH_SENDER_ID', '"YOUR_SENDER_ID"'
  }
}

Replace YOUR_CLIENT_ID and YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET with the appropriate values you find in the Settings page.
Replace YOUR_SENDER_ID with the Firebase Sender ID from step 1.

Click Sync now in the banner that showed up in your editor, or click the Sync project with Gradle files button in the toolbar.
Then build your project.

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Congratulations, you're done!

Run your app using Android studio and get your first push.

Wait a couple of minutes and receive the default welcome notification: