WWDC 2025 - Declarative Web Push

Declarative Web Push in Safari 18.5 marks a significant improvement for web-based applications, bringing web push notifications closer to the efficiency and reliability of native iOS developers. The original web push had limitations, including a JavaScript-heavy architecture, service worker dependency, performance overhead, code maintenance, and privacy concerns. Declarative Web Push addresses these issues by minimizing JavaScript, eliminating the service worker requirement, and automating notification display. This results in improved performance, reliability, and battery efficiency, as well as a better developer experience. The new implementation uses a standardized message format structure and provides a fallback mechanism for older browsers. Advanced features include mutable notifications and application badge support. Developers can migrate to Declarative Web Push by starting with the new format, adding service workers only when needed, and ensuring cross-browser support. Declarative Web Push is currently supported in Safari 18.5+, iOS 18.4+, and iPadOS 18.4+, with broader browser adoption expected in the future. This evolution brings web apps closer to native-level notification capabilities, encouraging broader usage and paving the way for further standards evolution and platform integration. Overall, Declarative Web Push represents a fundamental shift toward efficiency and simplicity in web notification systems.