Stay up to date – right on your home screen. With push notifications from our web app, you'll never miss important news, tips, or updates again. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to easily activate them on your iPhone or iPad.
How to enable push notifications for our web app on iPhone and iPad
Starting with iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4, Apple finally allows push notifications for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). This means you can be notified directly on your iPhone or iPad about new articles and breaking news – without needing an app from the App Store!
Since Apple requires manual activation for this, this guide will show you how to activate push notifications for our web app.
Requirements: iPhone or iPad with iOS 16.4 or iPadOS 16.4 or later.
Step 1: Add our web app to your home screen
- Open Safari on your iPhone or iPad.
- Visit our website: https://www.apfelpatient.de // https://www.apfelpatient.de/en
Good to know: Our articles and push notifications are available in German and English. The language is automatically adjusted based on your device settings – if your iPhone or iPad is set to German, you'll receive notifications in German, regardless of which link you use here. So you can use either version without hesitation.
- Tap the share icon (square with an arrow pointing upwards).
- Select "Go to Home Screen".
- Give the app a name (e.g., "Apfelpatient") and tap "Add".
- Our web app now appears on your home screen like a normal app. It takes up minimal storage space – essentially, it works like a bookmark with app functionality.
Step 2: Enable push notifications
After you add the app:
- Open the web app directly from the home screen (not via Safari!).
- The first time you start the app, a message will appear: "Do you want to allow notifications?" → Tap "Allow".
Important: The web app must always be opened via the icon on the home screen for push notifications to work. If the page is accessed directly in Safari, push notifications will not be available.
If you missed the message:
- Go to iOS settings → Notifications.
- Search for our web app and enable "Allow notifications".
Congratulations! You will now receive an immediate notification as soon as a new article is published.
Privacy Notice
We use the OneSignal service to deliver push notifications. No names, email addresses, or other directly identifying data are collected. OneSignal only processes an anonymous device identifier to deliver the notifications. You can find more information in our privacy policy.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
No, on iPhone and iPad only Safari supports push notifications for PWAs.
– Make sure the web app was launched from the home screen – not via Safari.
– Check in iOS settings → Notifications to see if push permission is enabled.
– Open the app occasionally so that iOS doesn't disable notifications.
– Check that your device has at least iOS 16.4 or iPadOS 16.4 installed.
Yes! Simply go to iOS settings → Notifications and deactivate them there.
You will be notified as soon as a new article is published on Apfelpatient.
This guide refers to iPhone and iPad. Web push notifications generally also work on Mac (via Safari) and Android (via Chrome) – however, setup is simpler there and doesn't require adding them to the home screen.
No. Push notifications are very small and have no noticeable impact on battery or data usage.
No. If the app icon is removed from the home screen, push notification permissions are also lost. In this case, the setup process must be repeated from step 1.
Currently, notifications are sent for every new article. A topic-based selection is not currently available.
This depends on the individual focus settings. Under iOS settings → Focus, you can specify which apps are allowed to send notifications in the respective focus mode.
The web app will only appear there after it has been opened at least once via the home screen icon. If it still doesn't appear, remove the icon from the home screen and repeat the setup process from step 1.
Yes! Provided the Apple Watch is paired with the iPhone and notifications are forwarded, the push notifications will also appear directly on the wrist.