Notifications for Chat Activity

If there's chat activity when the user is not viewing the chat session, you can present that information to them using the iOS notification system.

The legacy chat product is scheduled for retirement on February 14, 2026, and is in maintenance mode until then. During this phase, you can continue to use chat, but we no longer recommend that you implement new chat channels. To avoid service interruptions to your customers, migrate to Messaging for In-App and Web before that date. Messaging offers many of the chat features that you love plus asynchronous conversations that can be picked back up at any time. Learn about chat retirement in Help.

Important

Notifications can be sent to the user when the user isn't viewing the chat session. A notification can appear when the app is in the background, or when the app is in the foreground but the chat session is minimized. The following activities can cause notifications:

Agent has connected
Agent sent a message
Agent requested a file transfer
Agent canceled a file transfer
Agent ended a session
Session will timeout soon

To ensure that the app can send these notifications while in the background, chat must be configured to allow background execution (allowBackgroundExecution) and to allow for background notifications (allowBackgroundNotifications). Both these settings are turned on by default. See Configure a Chat Session for details.

Import the UserNotifications framework in your AppDelegate class.
In Swift:
1import UserNotifications
In Objective-C:
1@import UserNotifications;

In Swift:

1// Get the notification center object
2let center = UNUserNotificationCenter.current()
3
4// Register a delegate (see next step for delegate implementation)
5center.delegate = self
6
7// Request authorization
8center.requestAuthorization(options: [.alert,.sound],
9                            completionHandler: { granted, error in
10  // Enable or disable features based on authorization
11})
12
13// Create general category
14let generalCategory = UNNotificationCategory(identifier: "General", actions: [],
15intentIdentifiers: [], options: .customDismissAction)
16let categorySet: Set<UNNotificationCategory> = [generalCategory]
17
18// Set category
19center.setNotificationCategories(categorySet)

In Objective-C:

1// Get the notification center object
2UNUserNotificationCenter* center = [UNUserNotificationCenter currentNotificationCenter];
3
4// Register a delegate (see next step for delegate implementation)
5[center setDelegate:self];
6
7// Request authorization
8[center requestAuthorizationWithOptions:(UNAuthorizationOptionAlert + UNAuthorizationOptionSound)
9        completionHandler:^(BOOL granted, NSError * _Nullable error) {
10  // Enable or disable features based on authorization
11}];
12
13// Create general category
14UNNotificationCategory* generalCategory = 
15  [UNNotificationCategory
16    categoryWithIdentifier:@"GENERAL"
17                   actions:@[]
18         intentIdentifiers:@[]
19                   options:UNNotificationCategoryOptionCustomDismissAction];
20    
21// Set category
22[center setNotificationCategories:[NSSet setWithObjects:generalCategory, nil]];

Implement UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate. Handle the didReceiveNotificationResponse and willPresentNotification methods.

iOS calls the didReceiveNotificationResponse method when your app is in the background. In this method, you can tell your app to enter the foreground and for chat to maximize. To perform this behavior, use the handle(notification:) method on the SCSChatInterface object, which is accessible from the chatUI property of the ServiceCloud shared instance.

iOS calls the willPresentNotification method when your app is in the foreground. To determine whether to display the notification, use the shouldDisplayNotificationInForeground method (accessible from the chatUI property of the ServiceCloud shared instance). If the Chat UI is already showing the relevant information related to this event, the method returns false.

In Swift:

1/** 
2 This delegate method is executed when the application launches as a result
3 of the user interacting with a notification when it is in the background.
4 The result of passing the notification to Chat is that we will
5 maximize if the notification was scheduled as a result of a chat event.
6*/
7func userNotificationCenter(_ center: UNUserNotificationCenter, 
8                            didReceive response: UNNotificationResponse, 
9                            withCompletionHandler completionHandler: 
10                            @escaping () -> Void) {
11  
12  let chat = ServiceCloud.shared().chatUI!
13  chat.handle(response.notification)
14}
15
16/** 
17 This delegate method is executed when a notification is received while
18 the app is in the foreground. Check with Chat to see whether it's
19 appropriate to display the notification (or if the notification
20 relates to information already being shown to the user).
21*/
22func userNotificationCenter(_ center: UNUserNotificationCenter, 
23                            willPresent notification: UNNotification, 
24                            withCompletionHandler completionHandler: 
25                            @escaping (UNNotificationPresentationOptions) -> Void) {
26  
27  let chat = ServiceCloud.shared().chatUI!
28
29  // Show we display this notification?
30  if (chat.shouldDisplayNotificationInForeground()) {
31
32    // Display notification as an alert
33    completionHandler(.alert)
34  }
35}

In Objective-C:

1/** 
2 This delegate method is executed when the application launches as a result
3 of the user interacting with a notification when it is in the background.
4 The result of passing the notification to Chat is that we will
5 maximize if the notification was scheduled as a result of a chat event.
6*/
7- (void)userNotificationCenter:(UNUserNotificationCenter *)center
8didReceiveNotificationResponse:(UNNotificationResponse *)response
9         withCompletionHandler:(void(^)(void))completionHandler {
10
11  SCSChatInterface *chat = [SCServiceCloud sharedInstance].chatUI;
12  [chat handleNotification:response.notification];
13}
14
15/** 
16 This delegate method is executed when a notification is received while
17 the app is in the foreground. Check with Chat to see whether it's
18 appropriate to display the notification (or if the notification
19 relates to information already being shown to the user).
20*/
21- (void)userNotificationCenter:(UNUserNotificationCenter *)center
22       willPresentNotification:(UNNotification *)notification
23         withCompletionHandler:
24           (void (^)(UNNotificationPresentationOptions options))completionHandler {
25
26  SCSChatInterface *chat = [SCServiceCloud sharedInstance].chatUI;
27
28  // Show we display this notification?
29  if ([chat shouldDisplayNotificationInForeground]) {
30
31    // Display notification as an alert
32    completionHandler(UNNotificationPresentationOptionAlert);
33  }
34}

Embedded Service Chat SDK for iOS Developer Guide

Notifications for Chat Activity