Apple Push Notification Service Server Certificate Update

If you publish apps on the App Store, you might have received a somewhat cryptic and concerning email titled "Apple Push Notification Service Server Certificate Update", telling you you need to update your application's Trust Store by January 20th, and linking to an even more cryptic technical 3rd party web page. If you're stumped, hopefully I can help demystify it!

What does it mean?

• Apple are changing the certificates of their servers that send Push Notifications.
• Other servers that ask them to send push notifications will need to know about the new certificates to continue working.
• You DON'T need to issue an app update. All required changes are on the server / back end.

Who needs to take action?

• Many app publishers won't need to do anything. You only need to do something if you have your own backend server that is responsible for triggering notifications.

Who DOESN'T need to take action

• If you use a third party, such as Firebase or One Signal to send notifications, you don't need to worry, they'll handle the update at their end.
• If your app doesn't use push notifications, you're not affected.
• Push notifications on Android aren't affected.

If you're not sure, ask your techies.