Does the APNS device token ever change, once created?

user_103264 0
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Once created does the push notification device token ever change?

Example when the app is updated? or in any other case it can change??

apple-push-notifications objective-c
13 Answers

YES, device tokens can change.

Anytime your app receives a token, it should store it. Then, whenever a new token is received (which will happen, eventually), compare the new token to the stored token and, if they are different:

  1. Update the device's local storage, (including possibly to nil)
  2. Update anything on the device which uses the token to be aware of the new token
  3. Update any APIs which are aware of this token to the new token.

As a practical matter, the last step is the most likely to be non-trivial. For example, if you have a service which is sending weather alerts to a device token based on what zip code that device has subscribed to, then you need to pass the old_token and the new_token to said service so it can update delivery.

Ergo, generally speaking 100% of APIs accepting a "device token" must also have some kind of UPDATE facility for that token. To not build for this is to build for mis-delivered and non-delivered notifications.

user_7986450

I think it is worth mentioning as nobody did it that the token changes after you have called unregisterForRemoteNotifications. When you call registerForRemoteNotifications next time the token is different. I failed to find any confirmation of this in the Apple docs but I witnessed such a behavior myself. Please keep this in mind

user_9941070
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