Once again, iPhone developers have been let down as Apple neglects to make good on yet another promise to its development community. This time however, the missed deadline is with regards to the promised push notification system – perhaps the most highly anticipated improvement that developers and users alike have been waiting for. In case you haven’t been paying attention, Apple does not allow apps to run background processes on the iPhone. Apps like IM, Facebook, Last.fm and Pandora are fun and all, but their usefulness almost disappears when you consider they can’t be minimized to the background. In other words, users can’t leave IM running to await new messages or listen to Last.fm in the background while they browse the web. Yes, ridiculous. While the push notification system Apple promised back in June isn’t the answer to all of the issues brought about by lack of background processes, it will alleviate some issues by providing a mechanism to alert users when remote content has changed. Fast forward to just over a week ago, we broke the news that Apple had made version 2.2 beta 1 of the iPhone OS available to developers and the timing was perfect. End of September… Here come push notifications just as SVP of iPhone software Scott Forstal promised! Yeah, not so much. We’re now three days deep into October with a week-old beta OS in the hands of developers and there’s still no sign of notifications. Oh well, maybe IM will be usable some time next month.
Self-imposed Apple deadline for iPhone notifications comes and goes
Updated Dec 19th, 2018 6:05PM EST
If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.
Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.
His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.
