iOS 16.4 Adds Safari Web Push Notifications & Third-Party Add To Home Screen

iOS 16.4 introduces a new feature that allows web push notifications with Focus and Badge support. This means you will be able to receive notifications from your favorite websites directly in Safari, without having to use a separate iOS app. By using web push notifications, you can stay informed and up-to-date with the latest news and updates from your favorite sites. With iOS 16.4, Apple is continuing to improve the user experience by making web browsing more streamlined with desktop app and convenient.

Additionally, iOS 16.4 adds support for the “Add To Home Screen” feature for 3rd-party browsers, which lets you quickly access websites from your Home Screen. These changes are designed to make it easier for users who prefer using an alternative browser instead of Safari.

Web Push Notifications

Apple is bringing a new feature to iOS that lets you receive web push notifications directly in Safari, without needing to use an iPhone app. This means you can stay up-to-date with your favorite websites without the extra hassle of downloading an iOS application from the App Store.

To use this feature, you will simply add a shortcut to your Home Screen from your favorite website. The shortcut icon will show you how many new notifications you have, just like a regular iOS app. When you tap on the Home Screen shortcut, you'll be redirected to view your notifications directly - not the webpage.

Focus mode will also support how your notifications are delivered and filtered on your device from these websites. For example, when your Sleep Focus is enabled, you will not be receiving any notifications from these websites. Once Sleep Focus is disabled the notifications from these websites will be delivered to you based on your preferences.

Home Screen web applications will also support badges for showing the number of new notifications from an added Home Screen web app (shortcut).

This new feature is expected to be especially useful for people who want to receive updates from their favourite websites but do not want to download an application. Plus, developers will be able to add support for web push notifications on their websites without requiring to develop their own iOS application. This is expected to be really useful for smaller, independent developers who do not have the resources to develop and maintain an application.

Add to Home Screen Support By Third-party Browser

Apple is adding support for a highly requested yet simple feature on iOS 16.4. This is no other than the option to add a shortcut of a website in the Home Screen directly through alternative browsers. This means that you will be able to add a shortcut of a website in your Home Screen through Google Chrome, Edge, DuckDuckGo or another web browser once developers enable this feature. Taping on the shortcut will open the website in the browser that was used to create the shortcut and not Safari.

With this update, iOS users can look forward to a more streamlined and user-friendly web browsing experience. Webkit.org provides an extensive overview of all these new features.

Check everything new related to iOS 16.4 here