notification api for app alerts

If you’re building a notification API for app alerts, here’s a solid starting point.

Core idea

A notification API should let your app:

• create alerts
• deliver them to users/devices
• track status like sent/read/delivered
• support channels like in-app, email, push, SMS
• filter and retrieve notifications for a user

---

Common endpoints

1. Create a notification

POST /notifications

Request

{
  "user_id": "123",
  "title": "New message",
  "body": "You received a new message from Alex",
  "type": "message",
  "channel": ["in_app", "push"],
  "priority": "normal",
  "metadata": {
    "conversation_id": "789"
  }
}

Response

{
  "id": "notif_001",
  "status": "queued",
  "created_at": "2026-10-14T10:00:00Z"
}

---

2. Get notifications for a user

GET /users/{user_id}/notifications

Query params

• read=true|false
• type=message
• limit=20
• cursor=...

Response

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "notif_001",
      "title": "New message",
      "body": "You received a new message from Alex",
      "read": false,
      "created_at": "2026-10-14T10:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "next_cursor": "abc123"
}

---

3. Mark as read

PATCH /notifications/{id}

Request

{
  "read": true
}

---

4. Mark all as read

POST /users/{user_id}/notifications/read-all

---

5. Register device for push notifications

POST /devices

Request

{
  "user_id": "123",
  "platform": "ios",
  "push_token": "abcdefg12345"
}

---

6. Send test notification

POST /notifications/test

Useful for debugging push/email delivery.

---

Suggested notification model

{
  "id": "notif_001",
  "user_id": "123",
  "title": "New message",
  "body": "You received a new message from Alex",
  "type": "message",
  "channels": ["in_app", "push"],
  "status": "delivered",
  "read": false,
  "priority": "normal",
  "metadata": {},
  "created_at": "2026-10-14T10:00:00Z",
  "delivered_at": "2026-10-14T10:00:03Z",
  "read_at": null
}

---

Best practices

• Use pagination for notification lists
• Support idempotency keys to avoid duplicate alerts
• Store delivery status per channel
• Add rate limiting
• Use webhooks or queues for async delivery
• Allow user preferences:
  • mute
  • quiet hours
  • channel selection

---

Recommended features

• in-app notifications
• push notifications
• email notifications
• SMS for critical alerts
• broadcast notifications to many users
• scheduled notifications
• topic-based subscriptions

---

Example REST design

POST   /notifications
GET    /notifications/{id}
GET    /users/{user_id}/notifications
PATCH  /notifications/{id}
POST   /notifications/{id}/deliver
POST   /devices
DELETE /devices/{device_id}

---

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a full OpenAPI spec,
2. a Node.js/Express implementation, or
3. a database schema for this notification system.