Guides

Notification Images Not Shown on Device

Common reasons why App Push Notification Images are not showing on the device(s)

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When sending notifications with images (large images and icons), each device that receives the push has about 30 seconds to download that image. If the device has unstable network connections or the server hosting the image cannot handle that bandwidth, the image will be dropped.

Below are common solutions to check if you do not see your notification images:

Image Size

Try decreasing the Image File size by lowering the quality and/or the image size to these recommended settings.

Image URL

Image URLs need a direct link to the image, no redirects are allowed. Re-directs and URLs without the proper HTTP or HTTPS protocol and image extension will not work.
In most cases, a direct link will have a file extension like .png or .jpg.

Example:

  • This will not work: https://pixabay.com/en/architecture-travel-sky-building-3095716/.
  • But if you right-click the image and open in a new tab, this will work: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/01/21/01/46/architecture-3095716_960_720.jpg

Image Host

The server hosting the image may have gone down or could not handle the number of downloads. Around 30 seconds is how long the device has to download all notification resources, including images. If it takes longer, it will not show on that device.

Try hosting the resource on a dedicated server or use the iZooto import option to have us host it for you.

Web Push Images

Only Chrome supports images in push notifications on Windows, Android, and macOS running BigSur.

Firefox, Safari and Edge do not support big images.

On mobile web push, when you get the notification in the Android device shade, you will need to slide down on the notification to see the image.

If your mobile browser app has many unread push notifications and/or many tabs open, this can cause notifications to not show.

iOS Push Images

Not seeing Rich Media on iOS notifications generally happens when the NotificationServiceExtension for your app is not set up. Please double-check the setup steps you used for the iOS Notification Service Extension that it was implemented correctly.

  1. Test another device, if the image shows, then the NotificationServiceExtension is set up correctly. Details on Debug the NotificationServiceExtension.

  2. Open your attachment URL in a web browser. Make sure it is a direct link to the image/video, it cannot be part of an HTML page. Also, redirects are not supported.

  3. If it takes more than 30 seconds to download the attachment, iOS will cancel the extension service and the notification will be displayed without media. Check to make sure the size of your attachment is appropriate. You can see the allowed values here.

  4. Make sure your URL is HTTPS. HTTP URLs won't work unless you set NSAppTransportSecurity to NSAllowsArbitraryLoads in your XCode .plist.

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About App Transport Security

Please do not leave NSAllowsArbitraryLoads enabled when releasing your app to the App Store, as this can create a security vulnerability in your app. For more information, please read Apple's Security Overview.

  1. There was a networking issue with the device or server where the media is hosted. Try hosting the image on iZooto or another hosting provider.

  2. Check your iZootoNotificationServiceExtension's Deployment Target, and set it to iOS 10.

  3. Ensure that the Deployment Target is set to the same iOS version for both the main project and the iZooto Notification Service Extension.

Android Push Images

When you get the notification in the Android device shade, you will need to slide down on the notification to see the image.

Updated about 2 years ago