How to configure App Notification settings on iOS devices

Notifications are great for informing users with up-to-date content from their apps. The users can figure out if their apps are running in the background or are inactive. A notification may display messages, play sounds, or can add badges to the app icon.

Hexnode UEM makes it easier to manage notifications settings for each app on your iOS devices from a single console. The admins can control when and how individual apps receive notifications. Hexnode offers a bunch of settings that the admin can configure for app notifications on a supervised iOS device.

Configure iOS app notification settings via policy

To configure the app notification settings for iOS devices via policy,

1. Login to your Hexnode UEM portal.
2. Navigate to Policies > New Policy. Assign a suitable name and description (optional) for the policy. You can also choose to continue with an existing policy.
3. Go to iOS > App Management > App Notifications. Click Configure.
4. Click on +Add Notification Settings.
   

   Available Configurations

   Settings	Description
   Select Application	Choose the application whose notification is to be configured.
   Enable Notification	Check this option to enable the application to send notifications to the devices.

   The below configurations are available only if Enable Notification is checked:

   Settings	Description
   Show in Notification center	Check this option to allow the app to show notifications in the Notification Center.
   Show Notification in Lock screen	Enable this option to allow the app to display notifications on the lock screen.
   Show preview (iOS 14.0+)	Choose when to display notification previews on the device. The available options are “Always”, “When unlocked”, and “Never”. Always(Default): Always shows notification preview. When unlocked: Display notification previews only when the device is in an unlocked state. Never: Notification previews are never displayed.
   Alert Type	Choose how to display notifications when the devices are unlocked. The available options are “None”, “Banner” (default), or “Modal Alert”. None – Shows no notifications. Banner – Displays a temporary notification at the top of the screen while the device is in use and then disappears. Modal Alert – Displays a persistent notification at the top of the screen and users must manually dismiss it before continuing to use the device.
   Badges Enabled	Check this option to add a badge to the app icon. The badge indicates the number of unread notifications or messages.
   Sounds Enabled	Check this option to play sounds for the app’s notifications.
   Show notifications in CarPlay (iOS 12+)	CarPlay is an interface to connect iOS devices to the car’s infotainment display. It allows you to make calls, send/receive messages, and so on. Check this option to allow app notifications to be shown on the CarPlay display.
   Notification Grouping Preferences (iOS 12+)	Choose the type of notification grouping to be enabled for this app. The available options are Automatic (default), Group by app, and Off. Automatic: Select this option to show notifications from the app in groups based on app alerts. Group by app: Select this option to group all notifications from the app into single expandable alerts. Off: Select this option to disable group notifications. The notifications will show in the order they’re received.
   Critical Alerts (iOS 12+)	Check this option to allow the app notifications to be displayed even though ‘Do not disturb’ and ‘ringer’ settings are enabled on the device.

Associate policy with devices/groups

If the policy has not been saved,

1. Navigate to Policy Targets > Devices > +Add Devices.
2. Choose the target devices and click OK. Click Save.
3. You can also associate the policy with Device Groups, Users, User Groups, or Domains from the left pane of the Policy Targets tab.

If the policy has been saved,

1. Go to the Policies tab and choose the desired policy.
2. Click on Manage drop-down and select Associate Targets.
3. Choose the target entities and click Associate.

Once the policies have been applied, the Apple device will show notifications for the selected app based on the configurations applied.

What happens at the device end?

The notification settings for the configured apps will be saved on the device once the policy is associated. The notification settings for system apps and unmanaged apps can be found at Settings > Notifications. Managed apps on supervised devices will not be listed here.