transactional push notification api

A transactional push notification API is an API used to send event-triggered, non-promotional messages to users, usually tied to an action they performed or a system event.

What it’s for

Examples:

• Order confirmation
• Password reset
• Payment received
• Shipping update
• Security alert
• Account login verification

Typical features

A transactional push notification API usually supports:

• Send notification
  • To one user, many users, or a device token
• Templates
  • Predefined messages with variables like {name}, {order_id}
• Targeting
  • By user ID, device token, segment, or topic
• Delivery options
  • Priority, TTL, retry, scheduling
• Tracking
  • Sent, delivered, opened, failed
• Auth
  • API key, OAuth, JWT, or signed requests

Example request

POST /v1/notifications
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "user_id": "12345",
  "type": "transactional",
  "title": "Payment received",
  "body": "We received your payment of $49.99.",
  "data": {
    "order_id": "ORD-1001"
  }
}

Example response

{
  "id": "notif_abc123",
  "status": "queued"
}

Common providers

If you mean a ready-made service, common push notification APIs include:

• Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)
• Apple Push Notification service (APNs)
• OneSignal
• Amazon SNS
• Pusher Beams
• Airship
• Braze

If you’re building one

A transactional push API backend usually includes:

• Event ingestion
• User/device registry
• Template rendering
• Notification queue
• Provider adapters (FCM/APNs)
• Delivery logs and analytics

If you want, I can also provide:

1. a REST API design
2. a database schema
3. a Node.js / Python implementation
4. a comparison of transactional push providers