Marking Delivered From Push Notification

Guide to marking messages as delivered using push notification payload with Notification Service Extension.

Quick Reference for AI Agents & Developers

• Requires: UNNotificationServiceExtension target in your app
• Purpose: Mark messages delivered even when app is in background/terminated
• Implementation: Call CometChat.markAsDelivered() in notification extension
• Parse payload: Extract message ID, sender ID, receiver type from notification
• Related: Delivery & Read Receipts · Push Notifications

Implementing the capability to mark a message as “delivered” through a push notification payload can prove to be a pivotal feature. This functionality serves as an accurate representation, confirming to the sender that their message has indeed reached its intended recipient, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.

Setting up Mark as delivered from push notification in iOS requires to have Notification extension to your app project. So let’s begin with adding a Notification extension to your app project.

If you already have a Notification extension on your project then you can skip the first part of creating a new extension and use the one you have.

Setting up Notification extension

1. Navigate to your project’s target section and click on the plus iOS

2. Then Scroll down, select Notification Service Extension and click on the next.

3. Give it a name and click finish

• Your notification service extension is ready now, you can see that in the target list. Now we will create app group for the extension. This app group will be needed to share user default between the main application and notification service extension.

4. Click on the notification service extension name on the target list, then select Signing & Capabilities, then click on “+ Capability” from the top. Make sure All is selected besides it.

5. Then search for App Group and click on it. You can see a section of the app group section must have been added on the ‘Signing & Capabilities’.

6. Select any of the suggested app group ID or you can add your own ID by clicking on the plus icon. Till this step app group is added on the notification extension target and app group is selected.

7. Now we will add the Capability of App Group on the main app’s target as well. Just repeat the same steps that you have done on the notification extension(from step 4). You have to select your main app from the target list, then as we did for the notification extension switch to ‘Signing & Capabilities’, then click on “+ Capability” from the top and select App Group.
8. Then select the same group ID that you have selected on the notification extension target’s app group. If it is not there in the suggested IDs, then add it by clicking on the plus icon.

Make sure the app ID is exactly the same on both the notification extension target and the main app target.

9. Lastly, add CometChatSDK in your notification extension target in the pod file.

Swift

# Uncomment the next line to define a global platform for your project
# platform :ios, '12.0'

target 'CometChatSwift' do

  pod 'CometChatSDK', '4.1.0'
  pod 'CometChatCallsSDK', '4.2.2'

end

# add your notification extension name here
target 'NotificationExtension' do

  pod 'CometChatSDK', '4.0.67'

end

All the setup is done, let’s see some code now.

Code for Mark as read

1. Firstly navigate to the cometchat initialization code on you project and add the group ID that you have selected on app groups on the AppSettingsBuilder.

Swift

let appSettings = AppSettings.AppSettingsBuilder()
                .subscribePresenceForAllUsers()
                .setRegion(region: Constants.region)
                .setExtensionGroupID(id: "group.com.comechatcalls.appgroup") //add you app group ID here
                .build()

Sample Payload - AppSettings with Extension Group ID

Configuration Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
subscribePresenceForAllUsers()	Method	Subscribe to presence updates for all users
setRegion(region:)	String	CometChat region. Example: "us"
setExtensionGroupID(id:)	String	App Group ID shared between main app and extension. Example: "group.com.yourapp.appgroup"

Important Notes:

Note	Description
App Group ID	Must match exactly in both main app and notification extension
Capability	App Groups capability must be enabled in both targets
Shared data	Allows SDK to share user session between app and extension

2. Now navigate to your notification extension named group that is been created And open its swift file.
3. Then import CometChatSDK on that file and call these 2 functions on the didReceive(_ request: , withContentHandler: ) function.

Swift

override func didReceive(_ request: UNNotificationRequest, withContentHandler contentHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void) {
        self.contentHandler = contentHandler
        bestAttemptContent = (request.content.mutableCopy() as? UNMutableNotificationContent)        

        CometChat.setExtensionGroupID(id: "group.com.comechatcalls.appgroup") //add you group id
    
        if let bestAttemptContent = bestAttemptContent {
            
            CometChat.markAsDelivered(withNotificationPayload: bestAttemptContent.userInfo) //send the payload here
            
            contentHandler(bestAttemptContent)
        }
    }

Sample Payload - markAsDelivered from Push Notification

Method Signature:

Method	Parameter	Description
setExtensionGroupID(id:)	String	Set the App Group ID before marking delivered
markAsDelivered(withNotificationPayload:)	[AnyHashable: Any]	Push notification payload containing message data

Sample Push Notification Payload (userInfo):

Parameter	Type	Description
aps	Dictionary	Apple Push Notification Service data
aps.alert.title	String	Notification title. Example: "John Doe"
aps.alert.body	String	Notification body. Example: "Hello, how are you?"
aps.mutable-content	Int	Must be 1 for notification extension. Example: 1
message	Dictionary	CometChat message data
message.id	Int	Unique message identifier. Example: 1772174760
message.sender	String	Sender UID. Example: "cometchat-uid-2"
message.receiver	String	Receiver UID or GUID. Example: "cometchat-uid-1"
message.receiverType	String	Type of receiver. Example: "user" or "group"

Effect After Marking Delivered:

Effect	Description
Server update	Message marked as delivered on CometChat server
Delivery receipt	Sender receives delivery receipt (if listening)
Timestamp	Message deliveredAt timestamp updated
Background support	Works even when app is in background/terminated

Sample Payload - Push Notification for User Message

Complete userInfo Dictionary:

Parameter	Type	Description
aps.alert.title	String	Sender name. Example: "John Doe"
aps.alert.body	String	Message text. Example: "Hello, how are you?"
aps.mutable-content	Int	Enables modification. Example: 1
aps.sound	String	Notification sound. Example: "default"
message.id	Int	Message ID. Example: 12345
message.muid	String	Message unique ID. Example: "msg_abc123"
message.sender	String	Sender UID. Example: "john_doe"
message.receiver	String	Receiver UID. Example: "jane_smith"
message.receiverType	String	Receiver type. Example: "user"
message.type	String	Message type. Example: "text"
message.text	String	Message content. Example: "Hello, how are you?"
message.sentAt	Int	Unix timestamp. Example: 1699800000
message.conversationId	String	Conversation ID. Example: "john_doe_user_jane_smith"

Sample Payload - Push Notification for Group Message

Complete userInfo Dictionary:

Parameter	Type	Description
aps.alert.title	String	Group name. Example: "Team Chat"
aps.alert.body	String	Message with sender. Example: "John: Meeting at 3pm"
aps.mutable-content	Int	Enables modification. Example: 1
message.id	Int	Message ID. Example: 12346
message.sender	String	Sender UID. Example: "john_doe"
message.receiver	String	Group GUID. Example: "team_chat_guid"
message.receiverType	String	Receiver type. Example: "group"
message.type	String	Message type. Example: "text"
message.text	String	Message content. Example: "Meeting at 3pm"
message.sentAt	Int	Unix timestamp. Example: 1699800100

Sample Payload - When to Use markAsDelivered

Usage Scenarios:

Scenario	Use markAsDelivered?	Reason
App in foreground	No	SDK handles automatically via WebSocket
App in background	Yes	Via Notification Service Extension
App terminated	Yes	Via Notification Service Extension

Prerequisites:

Requirement	Description
Notification Extension	UNNotificationServiceExtension target added to project
App Groups	Capability enabled in both main app and extension
Same Group ID	Identical App Group ID in both targets
CometChatSDK	Added to extension target in Podfile

And we are finally done, run your notification extension by selecting the notification extension target from the run target on the top.

Run the main app target first and make sure you are receiving notifications there. And then run the notification extension target.