Why are my web push notifications not being delivered, even though the API call seems successful?

If you are sending web push notifications via our API and receive a success code (like 200 OK), but the notifications are not being delivered and do not appear in your message statistics, the issue is likely with the push subscription process on your website.

A successful API call only confirms that our system has accepted your request to send a message. It does not guarantee that there are subscribed devices to deliver it to. If no users are subscribed to receive web pushes from your site, the notification will have no recipients.

How to Troubleshoot

1. Test Your Website's Subscription Process: Open your website in a new incognito or private browser window and try to subscribe to push notifications.

2. Check for the Native Browser Prompt: When you click your "Subscribe" or "Allow" button, the native browser permission prompt must appear, asking for permission to show notifications. This is a separate dialog that comes directly from the browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.).

3. Identify the Problem: If this native browser prompt does not appear after you interact with any custom prompts on your site, users cannot grant the necessary permission. This means they are not actually being subscribed, and no push token is generated for their device.

Solution

Review the push notification integration code and subscription logic on your website. Ensure that your implementation correctly triggers the native browser permission prompt after a user agrees to subscribe. Once users can successfully subscribe through the browser prompt, their devices will be registered to receive notifications, and your API-sent messages will be delivered as expected.