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Literally profile image Milica Maksimovic
Milica Maksimovic for Literally

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Integrating Push Notifications in Android & iOS in 10 Minutes

#android #ios #mobile #flutter

Implementing push notifications on Android or iOS is rarely straightforward. On iOS, you’ve got APN certificates to generate and renew. On Android, you’re dealing with Firebase server keys. And then there’s the fun part figuring out why your notification never arrived, even though nothing looks obviously broken. These failures are often silent, and the logging you get isn’t always helpful.

Most apps rely on push notifications for engagement: reminders, updates, alerts. But the tooling around them? Honestly, it’s more complex than it needs to be. Between platform differences, cryptic error messages, and all the moving parts in the setup, it becomes a pretty heavy lift for mobile developers.

This is where Clix.so, a notification platform built for developers, plays the part. This platform reduces setup from hours to minutes and makes it easy to handle push notifications by showing clear logs.

What is Clix?

If you are a mobile app developer, you might have worked with Firebase Cloud Messaging or Apple’s APNs before. You’re dealing with device tokens, setting up certificates, configuring dashboards, and still sometimes wondering why your notification never arrived.

Clix is a tool that sits in between your app and those native services. It doesn’t replace them, Firebase and APNs still do the actual delivery, but it handles the messy parts for you. Think of it as a middle layer that abstracts away the setup and routine handling.

Clix diagram

So instead of writing code to manage tokens or manually testing push flows, you let Clix do it. You integrate it once, and then your app can send push notifications without all the usual boilerplate and troubleshooting.

Architecture Overview

Clix operates by integrating a lightweight SDK into your app, which takes care of automatically registering device tokens and sending them over to Clix servers. After that, you can easily send notifications through and check in the logs what happened to your push:

  • The Clix CLI
  • A REST API
  • A web dashboard

You just need to send it to a user_id, and Clix will manage the routing to the right device.

Why Clix (Instead of Firebase + APNs)?

Simple, Unified Setup

The process of implementing push notifications through native methods proves to be quite complicated. Android developers need to establish a Firebase project then obtain the google-services.json file before they update their Gradl files and implement notification handling and device token management code. The iOS setup process requires developers to establish their Apple Developer account and upload their APNs certificate or key and enable background modes and correctly implement the UNNotification framework.

The installation process requires only running clix install without any additional setup or complicated configuration.

Automatic Token Management

The standard process of using Firebase or APNs device tokens requires developers to write substantial boilerplat code which includes user permission requests, device registration, token update listening, and backend token synchronization. Clix removes the entire process from your workload.

Clix.setUserId("user_123") function enables Clix to manage all background operations automatically. The system eliminates your need to verify token storage status or detect missed updates.

Real-time Logs

When using Firebase or APNs to send push notifications it feels like you are sending a message into space because you cannot verify the delivery status of notifications to devices or user interaction with them or token expiration issues. Clix provides real-time notification delivery status reports which show whether messages reach devices and if users open them and what causes delivery failures.

Fast Delivery

You’ve probably noticed that push notifications can sometimes be delayed which is a real problem when you're sending things like OTPs, alerts, or any time-sensitive information. These aren’t messages users can wait around for.

Clix is built with low-latency delivery in mind, meaning messages are typically delivered in under five milliseconds. That’s fast fast enough that your notification feels immediate like 5 milliseconds. The best part? You don’t need to tune or optimize anything yourself. Clix handles the speed, so your message gets there when it matters.

Built for Developers

Clix is designed to fit naturally into your development workflow. With CLI-first approach, Android and iOS SDKs that weight lighter than a feather, and easy to use APIs, you can add push without getting much calluses into your hands. Doesn’t matter if you are releasing your first app or keeping a large codebase in order, Clix entitles you to go fast without loosing much control.

How to Integrate Clix

CLI Android Setup (Kotlin)

The Clix Android SDK supports installation via Gradle using both the Kotlin DSL and Groovy DSL. The minimum required API level for your Android app should be 26 (Android 8.0). So ensure you set the minSdkVersion to 26 or higher to successfully integrate and use the Clix SDK.

Step 1: Install

(a) Via Homebrew (Recommended)

brew tap clix-so/clix-cli && 
brew install clix-so/clix-cli/clix
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(b) Via Source

git clone https://github.com/clix-so/homebrew-clix-cli.git
cd homebrew-clix-cli
make install
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Manual setup

Before diving into the Clix implementation ensure your Firebase setup is complete, as the Clix SDK relies on it. Refer to Firebase docs or Clix’s Firebase guide for detailed steps.

1. Android Setup (Kotlin)

Note: To install the Clix Android SDK, you'll need to use Gradle with Kotlin DSL.

Manual Installation Guide

Your app needs to support Android 8.0 (API level 26) or above to use Clix

Step 1:

As discussed the ***Android SDK can be installed only via Gradle (Kotlin DSL).*

Add

**dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        google()
    }
}**
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to your project’s settings.gradle.kts

Step 2:

Add the below dependency to build.gradle(:app) file that lies in the root folder of the project.

**dependencies {
    implementation("so.clix:clix-android-sdk:1.0.0")
}**
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Step 3:

And lastly, we need to add the following plugin to the build.gradle file which also lies in the root folder of the project.

**plugins {
    id("com.google.gms.google-services") version "4.4.2"
}**
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Woah, our manual installation is finally done.

Step 3: Initialize Clix in MainActivity.kt

class DemoApplication : Application() {

    companion object {
        lateinit var userPreferences: UserPreferences
            private set
    }

    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()

        // Initialize UserPreferences
        userPreferences = UserPreferences(this)

        Clix.initialize(
            this,
            ClixConfig(
                projectId = "YOUR_PROJECT_ID",
                apiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY",
                logLevel = ClixLogLevel.DEBUG
            )
        )

        // Load stored user ID and set it if available
        val storedUserId = userPreferences.getUserId()
        if (!storedUserId.isNullOrBlank()) {
            CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.IO).launch {
                Clix.setUserId(storedUserId)
            }
        }
    }
}
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Step 4: Send Notification

You can test sending the notification in the Clix console.

Your Android device will receive the Notification instantly, and in the mean time we confirm the delivery of our push via logs.

2. iOS Setup (Swift)

Make sure you're using Xcode 16.2 or newer when integrating Clix on iOS and You’ll need either CocoaPods or Swift Package Manager to install the Clix iOS SDK.

The easiest and recommended way to set up Clix on iOS is by using the Clix CLI tool. It handles all the heavy lifting for you by adding the configuration files you need, connecting everything up, and grabbing all the right keys automatically.

Step 1: Install Clix CLI

brew tap clix-so/clix-cli &&
brew install clix-so/clix-cli/clix
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Step 2: Run Installation

**clix install**
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After running this command, Clix takes care of everything for you! It automatically:

  • sets up all the push capabilities in Xcode
  • configures background modes
  • handles all the notification permission prompt code and
  • takes care of SDK linking

Doctor Command

Consider the doctor command to be the personal doctor for your project. Similar to how a medical professional examines you to identify health problems, Clix's doctor command looks over your project setup and development environment to identify any difficulties. After taking the x-ray of your SDK integration, configuration files, and code, it provides you with a diagnostic result. It will let you know if you’re facing issues such as a missing dependency, improper configuration, or an unfinished installation; it will also take you to the issue that needs to be fixed.

**clix doctor**
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Clix vs Firebase/APNs

** Feature** Clix Firebase + APNs
Setup CLI Command Manual, multi-step
Token Management Automatic Manual
Real-time Logs Yes No
Delivery Latency ~5ms Varies (100ms - 5s)
User Targeting userId-based token-based
Debugging Easy Difficult
iOS Config Complexity Auto-handled Manual (capabilities, certs)
Developer Experience High Medium
Integration time 10 minutes >1h

Advanced Use Cases

Targeting

Forget complex token logic! With Clix, just use user IDs to segment your audience and send those personalized notifications that actually feel personal.

Transactional Messaging

Once Clix is talking to your backend, you can fire off those crucial updates your users actually want. These could be an order confirmation, a shipment update, or a payment status message.

Scheduled Push

Currently, you'll need to set up scheduling through the CLI/API, but the Clix team is working on adding more flexibility to scheduling options - perfect for those “Hey, don't forget about your appointment tomorrow” reminders.

Deep Links

Same like in Firebase, you can pack data payloads into your Clix pushes so users land exactly where they need to be when they tap a notification.

Troubleshooting Tips

Nothing showing up?

  • Check if you actually accepted those permission prompts (we've all dismissed them by accident).

Sent a push but you didn’t trigger a notification

  • Head over to the Clix dashboard and check those logs - you might have invalid tokens or permission issues hiding there.

iOS being stubborn about background notifications?

  • Make sure you've got Background Modes > Remote Notifications turned on.
  • And remember, push notifications won't work in simulators - you'll need a real device (learned this one the hard way).

You Made It To The End! 🎉

Whew! If this guide saved you from the nightmare of push notification setup hell:

  • Take Clix for a spin on your next project at clix.so
  • Share this with that developer friend who's still pulling their hair out with Firebase config files

Here's to less debugging and more shipping! Happy coding!

Top comments (2)

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srbhr profile image
𝚂𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚋𝚑 𝚁𝚊𝚒 •

Does this only work on MacOS?

brew tap clix-so/clix-cli &&
brew install clix-so/clix-cli/clix
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Or the cli is available via npm/yarn/etc.?

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m_maksimovic_ profile image
Milica Maksimovic Literally •

brew works on Linux as well!

This is an SDK, it's not just a package :)

Another option is to do:

git clone https://github.com/clix-so/homebrew-clix-cli.git
cd clix-cli
make install
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