Sending Notifications via the Expo Push API
POST a notification payload to the Expo Push API from your server or a curl command, target a specific device token, and verify delivery in the Expo dashboard.
Sending Notifications via the Expo Push API is a free React Native Academy lesson on CoddyKit — lesson 2 of 4. You can read the complete lesson below for free — then practise it hands-on in the browser with a built-in code editor and a 24/7 AI tutor. It is part of the React Native Academy learning path, one of 4 lessons in the course, and your progress syncs across the web and the CoddyKit app.
The Expo Push Notification Service
The Expo Push Notification Service (EPNS) is a relay that sits between your server and the platform-specific push gateways (Apple APNs and Google FCM). Instead of integrating with two separate services, you send one HTTP request to Expo's API and it handles the platform differences for you.
EPNS is free for apps using Expo's managed workflow and handles certificate management, token routing, batching, and error reporting. For production apps with high volume you can switch to direct APNs/FCM integration, but EPNS is an excellent starting point for most apps.
The Expo Push API Endpoint
Send a POST request to https://exp.host/--/api/v2/push/send with a JSON body containing one or more notification messages. Each message targets a specific Expo push token and includes the notification content.
The API accepts up to 100 messages per request for efficient batching. Always send from your server, never from the client — the client doesn't know other users' tokens and sending from the client exposes your server logic.
// From your backend server (Node.js example):
const response = await fetch('https://exp.host/--/api/v2/push/send', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Accept': 'application/json',
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
},
body: JSON.stringify({
to: 'ExponentPushToken[AbCdEfGhIjKl...]',
title: 'New message',
body: 'Alice sent you a message!',
}),
});
const result = await response.json();
console.log(result);Notification Message Fields
The notification message object supports several fields:
- to (required) — the Expo push token or array of tokens
- title — the bold notification title
- body — the notification message text
- data — a JSON object with custom payload for the app to read when tapped
- sound —
'default'to play the device sound - badge — integer to set the iOS app icon badge count
- channelId — Android notification channel ID
const message = {
to: 'ExponentPushToken[AbCdEfGhIjKl...]',
sound: 'default',
title: 'Order Shipped',
body: 'Your order #1234 is on its way!',
badge: 1,
channelId: 'orders',
data: {
type: 'order_update',
orderId: '1234',
screen: 'OrderDetail',
},
};Sending to Multiple Devices
To send the same notification to multiple devices (e.g., a broadcast or a notification to all of a user's devices), pass an array of tokens to the to field. Each token will receive the notification.
For large audiences, chunk your token list into batches of 100 and send a separate API request per batch. The Expo Push API enforces rate limits and batch size limits, so batching is required for scale.
// Send to multiple devices:
const messages = tokens.map((token) => ({
to: token,
title: 'New feature available!',
body: 'Check out what we built for you.',
data: { screen: 'WhatsNew' },
}));
// Chunk into batches of 100:
const chunks = [];
for (let i = 0; i < messages.length; i += 100) {
chunks.push(messages.slice(i, i + 100));
}
for (const chunk of chunks) {
await fetch('https://exp.host/--/api/v2/push/send', {
method: 'POST',
body: JSON.stringify(chunk),
});
}Using the Expo Server SDK
Instead of making raw HTTP requests, use the official expo-server-sdk npm package in your Node.js backend. It provides chunking, error handling, and receipt checking out of the box. Install it with npm install expo-server-sdk.
The SDK's sendPushNotificationsAsync method handles batching automatically and returns ticket objects you can use to check delivery receipts later. It also validates tokens before sending to avoid wasting API calls on malformed tokens.
// Backend (Node.js):
const { Expo } = require('expo-server-sdk');
const expo = new Expo();
const messages = tokens
.filter(token => Expo.isExpoPushToken(token))
.map(token => ({
to: token,
title: 'Hello!',
body: 'This is a push notification',
data: { type: 'greeting' },
}));
const chunks = expo.chunkPushNotifications(messages);
const tickets = [];
for (const chunk of chunks) {
const ticketChunk = await expo.sendPushNotificationsAsync(chunk);
tickets.push(...ticketChunk);
}Push Receipts: Confirming Delivery
Sending to the Expo API gives you tickets immediately — they confirm the message was accepted, not that it was delivered. A few minutes later, check receipts to verify actual delivery to APNs/FCM. Use the ticket IDs from the send step to fetch receipts from https://exp.host/--/api/v2/push/getReceipts.
Receipts with status 'error' and code DeviceNotRegistered mean the token is no longer valid — remove it from your database to keep your token list clean and avoid wasting API calls.
// After sending, check receipts (wait ~5 minutes):
const receiptIds = tickets
.filter(t => t.status === 'ok')
.map(t => t.id);
const receiptChunks = expo.chunkPushNotificationReceiptIds(receiptIds);
for (const chunk of receiptChunks) {
const receipts = await expo.getPushNotificationReceiptsAsync(chunk);
for (const [id, receipt] of Object.entries(receipts)) {
if (receipt.status === 'error') {
if (receipt.details.error === 'DeviceNotRegistered') {
await removeTokenFromDB(id); // clean up
}
}
}
}Testing Push Notifications
Expo provides a push notification testing tool at https://expo.dev/notifications. Enter your Expo push token and send test notifications directly from the dashboard — no server code required. This is invaluable for testing notification appearance and delivery on a real device.
You can also use a curl command from the terminal to send test notifications. This is faster during development and lets you test arbitrary payloads and data objects without writing server code first.
# Test push from terminal:
curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-X POST 'https://exp.host/--/api/v2/push/send' \
-d '{
"to": "ExponentPushToken[YOUR_TOKEN_HERE]",
"title": "Test Notification",
"body": "Hello from curl!",
"data": { "test": true }
}'
# Or use Expo dashboard:
# https://expo.dev/notificationsScheduling Notifications from the App
Beyond push notifications from a server, you can schedule local notifications from the app itself — they work offline and don't require a server. Use Notifications.scheduleNotificationAsync with a trigger that defines when the notification fires.
Common trigger types: seconds — fire after a delay; date — fire at a specific time; weekly — fire on a specific weekday and time. Local notifications are perfect for reminders, alarms, and scheduled check-ins.
// Schedule a local notification 10 seconds from now:
await Notifications.scheduleNotificationAsync({
content: {
title: 'Reminder',
body: 'Time to review your daily goals!',
data: { screen: 'Goals' },
},
trigger: {
seconds: 10, // fires after 10 seconds
},
});
// Schedule for a specific date:
await Notifications.scheduleNotificationAsync({
content: { title: 'Meeting in 5 minutes', body: 'Team standup' },
trigger: new Date(Date.now() + 5 * 60 * 1000),
});Notification Priority and Delivery
Notification priority affects how aggressively the OS delivers a notification. High priority notifications wake up the device screen immediately (used for urgent alerts like messages). Normal priority are batched and delivered when convenient (used for promotional content).
In the Expo Push API, set priority: 'high' for time-sensitive notifications. Be conservative — sending too many high-priority notifications trains users to ignore them, and Apple may deprioritize your app's notifications if abused.
// High priority (message, call, alert):
{
to: token,
title: 'Incoming call',
body: 'Bob is calling you',
priority: 'high',
channelId: 'calls',
data: { screen: 'IncomingCall', callId: 'abc' },
}
// Normal priority (digest, update):
{
to: token,
title: 'Weekly summary ready',
body: 'See how you did this week!',
priority: 'normal',
channelId: 'digest',
}Handling Notification Tap on App Launch
When a user taps a notification and the app is completely closed, the app launches. To navigate to the correct screen based on the notification, read the last notification response on launch using Notifications.getLastNotificationResponseAsync().
Read this early in your app's boot sequence (in App.js or your root navigator) and navigate when the response contains a data.screen payload. This bridges push notifications with deep navigation into your app.
useEffect(() => {
Notifications.getLastNotificationResponseAsync().then((response) => {
if (response) {
const { screen, id } = response.notification.request.content.data;
if (screen && navigationRef.isReady()) {
navigationRef.navigate(screen, { id });
}
}
});
}, []);Canceling and Managing Scheduled Notifications
Cancel a specific scheduled notification with Notifications.cancelScheduledNotificationAsync(identifier), where the identifier is the string returned from scheduleNotificationAsync. Cancel all scheduled notifications with Notifications.cancelAllScheduledNotificationsAsync().
Store notification identifiers in AsyncStorage if you need to cancel them after an app restart — for example, canceling a reminder when the user marks a task as complete.
// Schedule and save identifier:
const id = await Notifications.scheduleNotificationAsync({
content: { title: 'Take your medicine' },
trigger: { hour: 9, minute: 0, repeats: true },
});
await AsyncStorage.setItem('medicineReminderNotifId', id);
// Later, cancel it:
const notifId = await AsyncStorage.getItem('medicineReminderNotifId');
if (notifId) {
await Notifications.cancelScheduledNotificationAsync(notifId);
await AsyncStorage.removeItem('medicineReminderNotifId');
}Quick Check
Test your understanding of React Native Mobile Development concepts from this lesson.
Lesson Recap
In this lesson you learned: the Expo Push API accepts POST requests to exp.host with token, title, body, and data fields to send notifications via APNs/FCM, push receipts confirm actual delivery and DeviceNotRegistered errors signal tokens to delete, and local notifications can be scheduled from the app itself using Notifications.scheduleNotificationAsync with time-based triggers. Next up we handle foreground and background notification events inside the app.
Frequently asked questions
Is the “Sending Notifications via the Expo Push API” lesson free?
Yes — the full text of “Sending Notifications via the Expo Push API” is free to read here on the web, and the React Native Academy course includes 4 lessons in total. To practise it interactively (a built-in code editor and a 24/7 AI tutor) and unlock the rest of the React Native Academy course, upgrade to CoddyKit PRO.
What will I learn in “Sending Notifications via the Expo Push API”?
POST a notification payload to the Expo Push API from your server or a curl command, target a specific device token, and verify delivery in the Expo dashboard. You practise React Native Academy with hands-on code you run directly in the browser, and a 24/7 AI tutor answers your questions as you work through the lesson.
Do I need any experience to start React Native Academy?
No prior experience is required. React Native Academy on CoddyKit is structured for beginners through advanced learners; this is — lesson 2 of 4, so you can start here or from the beginning and move at your own pace.
How long does the “Sending Notifications via the Expo Push API” lesson take?
Most CoddyKit lessons take about 5–10 minutes. Each one is bite-sized and interactive, so you make steady progress and pick up exactly where you left off across the web and the app.
Can I write and run code in this React Native Academy lesson?
Yes. Every React Native Academy lesson includes a built-in code editor, so you write and run real code right in your browser and get instant AI feedback — no local setup required.
All lessons in this course
- Requesting Permission and Getting a Push Token
- Sending Notifications via the Expo Push API
- Handling Foreground and Background Notifications
- Notification Channels and Rich Content