> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.daftplug.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Sending a push notification

> Compose and send from the overview page, and diagnose delivery problems.

Sending happens on **Progressify > Overview**, below the subscriber list. Configuration of who can subscribe and what fires automatically lives on the [push notifications settings tab](/progressify/settings/push-notifications).

## The subscriber list

Every subscription appears here with the country, operating system, browser, and date it was created. You can remove individual subscribers, which deletes the subscription rather than merely hiding it.

The list is the fastest sanity check before a send. If it is empty, nothing you send will go anywhere, and the cause is almost always that no subscription control is enabled or that the site is not on HTTPS.

## Composing

Select **Send Push Notification** to open the compose form.

<ParamField path="Notification Title" type="string" required>
  Keep it under about 50 characters. Android and desktop both truncate longer titles, and the truncation lands mid-word.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="Notification Message" type="string" required>
  The body. Assume 120 characters are visible before it collapses.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="Notification Image" type="attachment">
  A large image shown when the notification is expanded. Supported on Android and desktop Chrome; iOS and most other platforms ignore it.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="Notification URL" type="url">
  Where the notification opens when selected. Send people to the specific page you are writing about, not the homepage.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="Action Buttons" type="repeater">
  Pro. Up to two buttons, each with its own text and URL. Use them for genuinely distinct choices, such as "View order" and "Track shipping".
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="Vibration" type="toggle">
  Vibrates the device on arrival.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="Persistent" type="toggle">
  Keeps the notification on screen until the visitor acts on it, rather than letting it auto-dismiss. Reserve this for messages that genuinely need a response. Applied to routine updates it reads as spam.
</ParamField>

The **Preview** panel shows the notification as it will appear. Check it before sending, because there is no recall.

## Sending

<Warning>
  A notification goes to every subscriber and cannot be undone or edited after sending. There is no segmentation and no test-send, so send to yourself first by subscribing on your own device and checking a real delivery before you write to the whole list.
</Warning>

Delivery is chunked according to the **Batch Size** setting. When the send completes, Progressify reports how many messages succeeded and how many failed.

## Why sends fail

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The request times out on a large list">
    PHP is hitting its execution limit. Lower **Batch Size** on the [push notifications tab](/progressify/settings/push-notifications#server-configuration) to 250 or 500 and try again.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Memory exhausted">
    Same cause, same fix. Batch size exists precisely to keep the peak memory of a send bounded.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A TLS or certificate error">
    Your server cannot verify the push service's certificate. Progressify verifies against the CA bundle WordPress ships. Ask your host to update the system certificate store rather than disabling verification through [`progressify_webpush_client_options`](/progressify/reference/hooks#progressify_webpush_client_options).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Some subscribers always fail">
    Subscriptions expire when a browser is uninstalled, when site data is cleared, or when the browser rotates the endpoint. Failed endpoints are expected on any list of age, and a steady small failure count is normal.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Nothing arrives on iOS">
    iOS only delivers Web Push to sites the visitor has added to the home screen, and only on iOS 16.4 or later. An iPhone user browsing in Safari cannot subscribe.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Writing notifications people keep

A push notification is the most interruptive channel you have. The unsubscribe cost of getting it wrong is permanent, because a visitor who blocks notifications cannot be asked again.

* Send when something happened, not on a schedule.
* Say the specific thing in the title. "Your order shipped" beats "Update from our store".
* Set a [time to live](/progressify/settings/push-notifications#server-configuration) that matches how long the message stays true.
* Link to the page the message is about.
* Let [automations](/progressify/settings/push-notifications#automated-notifications) carry the routine traffic, and keep manual sends for things that genuinely warrant one.