Why Most Apps Get Notifications Wrong
The average smartphone user receives 46 push notifications per day and ignores 70% of them. Apps that send notifications for everything — including non-urgent, non-personalised, and poorly timed messages — see dramatic uninstall spikes. The apps with highest notification engagement share a common trait: they send fewer notifications, but each one is relevant, timely, and actionable.
Firebase Cloud Messaging Architecture
FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) is the standard for push notifications on Android and iOS. The flow: your backend sends a message to FCM with a device token and payload, FCM delivers it to the device OS, the OS displays the notification. For Flutter apps, the firebase_messaging package handles registration, token management, and foreground/background message handling.
Device Token Management
FCM tokens expire and rotate. A notification sent to an expired token silently fails. Proper token management: on app launch, request the current token and update it in your database if it has changed. Listen for the onTokenRefresh callback to update when the token rotates. Store tokens per user (a user may have multiple devices). Remove tokens that consistently return "not registered" errors from FCM — these are uninstalled apps.
Segmentation and Personalisation
Generic broadcast notifications ("Check out our new feature!") perform poorly. Behaviour-triggered notifications perform 10× better. Examples: "You left 2 items in your cart" (abandoned cart), "Your order was delivered — how was it?" (post-delivery rating request), "You haven't logged in for 7 days — here's what's new" (re-engagement). Implement user segments in your database (high-value, inactive, new) and trigger notifications based on events, not schedules. Contact hello@devxaitechnologies.com to architect notifications for your app.