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Push notifications reach people who installed your app or allowed notifications on your website. Brudcast sends them through Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), using a Firebase project that you own, so they arrive from your app exactly as if your own servers had sent them. Your app has to use the Firebase SDK already. Firebase Cloud Messaging is the only provider Brudcast connects to. There’s no direct connection to Apple Push Notification service and none to a web push service, so an iOS app or a website is reachable only when it goes through Firebase. Android, iOS and web apps registered in your Firebase project are all reachable that way. See Which devices Firebase reaches. Push has no sender identity and no review. Brudcast checks your key with Firebase instead. A key that Firebase accepts proves you control the project, the same way a verified domain does for email.

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Setup path

Before you start

Push is its own product, and an email plan doesn’t include it. Choose a push plan in Billing & Plans. See Plans and subscriptions. You also need a Firebase project that contains your app, and permission to create service accounts for it.

Set up your identity

Push has no sender identity. Instead you connect your Firebase project as an app, using a service account key. See Connect Firebase.

Verify or get approved

Nobody reviews a push app. Brudcast validates the key with Firebase, which takes a few seconds, and the app becomes Active or Credential invalid. See App statuses.

Check before you send

Register the device tokens your app collects, from your backend, then send a test notification to one device. See Register device tokens and Send a test first.

Go live

Send your first push notification from a campaign.

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How push differs from email and SMS

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How the pieces fit together

Each app in Brudcast is one Firebase project. Devices register against an app, and campaigns send through every active app unless you pick some.

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App statuses

When Firebase rejects the key during a campaign, Brudcast stops sending through that app straight away rather than failing every device one by one. You get a notification in the dashboard and an email.

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The Push page

Go to Channels > Push. It has two tabs:
  • Setup: the checklist for this channel (“Connect your app for push”, then “Get your app’s credential validated”), and your plan’s notification allowance.
  • Apps: every Firebase app you’ve connected, with its project ID, platforms, status and number of active devices.
The counters at the top show how many apps are Active, Pending Validation and Credential Invalid.

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What it costs

Push is billed like email, not like SMS. Your push plan includes a number of notifications each billing period (the free plan includes 10,000), and the Plan allowance panel on the Setup tab shows how much you’ve used. Beyond the allowance, each notification costs 1 credit from your wallet. Push isn’t wallet gated, so a campaign that crosses the allowance partway through finishes instead of stopping. Plans also cap how many subscribers you can have: contacts with at least one active device. See The subscribers quota and Plans and subscriptions.

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Accepted, not delivered

Firebase confirms that it accepted a notification. It doesn’t confirm that the notification reached the device, because push has no delivery receipt. Campaign results and reports therefore label push Accepted where email says Delivered. Read accepted as “handed to Firebase”, not as “seen”. Tokens that Firebase rejects as no longer valid count as bounces, and Brudcast expires those devices so later campaigns skip them. Push doesn’t report opens or clicks.

Connect Firebase

Create a service account key and add your first app.

Register device tokens

Store each device’s token on its contact.

Send your first push

Test on one device, then send a campaign.

Push troubleshooting

Every push symptom and its fix, at the end of Send your first push.