---
title: "Foreground Notifications"
slug: "mapp-engage-ios-sdk-foreground-notifications"
description: "Show Mapp Engage push notifications in the foreground of your iOS app via showNotificationsOnForeground or your own willPresent. Forward taps to the SDK."
status: "update"
updated: 2026-11-02T16:17:31Z
published: 2026-11-02T16:17:31Z
canonical: "docs.mapp.com/mapp-engage-ios-sdk-foreground-notifications"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mapp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Foreground Notifications

## Overview

Foreground notifications in iOS allow apps to display notifications while they are active. These notifications ensure that important updates are delivered without moving the app to the background.

---

## Use Case

1. **Purpose**:
  - Display real-time updates, alerts, or actions while the app is being used.
  - Provide a seamless and engaging user experience with in-app notifications.
2. **Benefits**:
  - Ensure visibility of important updates during app usage.
  - Allow users to respond to notifications without switching context.

---

## Implementation Details

How you control foreground notifications depends on who owns the delegate of `UNUserNotificationCenter`: the SDK or your app.

### SDK Owns the Delegate

With the [Basic Automated Setup](/v1/docs/mapp-engage-ios-sdk-basic-automated-setup), the SDK is the delegate and decides whether a notification is shown in the foreground. Control this with the `showNotificationsOnForeground` property. Its default value is `false`, so notifications are not shown while the app is in the foreground.

**Swift**

```swift
Appoxee.shared()?.showNotificationsOnForeground = true
```

**Objective-C**

```objectivec
[Appoxee shared].showNotificationsOnForeground = YES;
```

### App Owns the Delegate

If your app sets itself as the delegate, it takes over `userNotificationCenter(_:willPresent:withCompletionHandler:)` and must return the presentation options itself. The SDK has no method to forward `willPresent` to. In this case, setting `showNotificationsOnForeground` alone has no effect.

The following example reads `showNotificationsOnForeground`, so you can still control foreground display through this property. When the flag is `false`, the example returns an empty options set so the notification is delivered silently and your app handles the payload directly.

**Swift**

```swift
func userNotificationCenter(_ center: UNUserNotificationCenter,
                            willPresent notification: UNNotification,
                            withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationPresentationOptions) -> Void) {
    if Appoxee.shared()?.showNotificationsOnForeground ?? false {
        if #available(iOS 14.0, *) {
            completionHandler([.banner, .list, .sound, .badge])
        } else {
            completionHandler([.alert, .sound, .badge])
        }
    } else {
        completionHandler([])
    }
}
```

**Objective-C**

```objectivec
- (void)userNotificationCenter:(UNUserNotificationCenter *)center
       willPresentNotification:(UNNotification *)notification
         withCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UNNotificationPresentationOptions options))completionHandler {

    if ([[Appoxee shared] showNotificationsOnForeground]) {
        if (@available(iOS 14.0, *)) {
            completionHandler(UNNotificationPresentationOptionBanner | UNNotificationPresentationOptionList | UNNotificationPresentationOptionSound | UNNotificationPresentationOptionBadge);
        } else {
            completionHandler(UNNotificationPresentationOptionAlert | UNNotificationPresentationOptionSound | UNNotificationPresentationOptionBadge);
        }
    } else {
        completionHandler(UNNotificationPresentationOptionNone);
    }
}
```

> [!WARNING]
> Warning
> 
> `.alert` (Swift) and `UNNotificationPresentationOptionAlert` (Objective-C) are deprecated since iOS 14; use `.list` and `.banner` for iOS 14+ targets. The `#available` / `@available` branch keeps the example compatible with the SDK's iOS 12 minimum deployment target.

This method only controls how a notification is shown in the foreground. When the user taps the notification, iOS calls `userNotificationCenter(_:didReceive:withCompletionHandler:)` instead. Your app must forward this call to the SDK, otherwise landing pages, deep links and click tracking do not work. For code examples, see Forward Notification Taps in [Manual Integration in Swift](/v1/docs/mapp-engage-ios-sdk-manual-integration-swift#forward-notification-taps) or [Manual Integration in Objective-C](/v1/docs/mapp-engage-ios-sdk-manual-integration-objc#forward-notification-taps). With the [Basic Automated Setup](/v1/docs/mapp-engage-ios-sdk-basic-automated-setup#acting-as-the-unusernotificationcenter-delegate), this applies only if your app sets itself as the delegate.

> [!NOTE]
> Note
> 
> - Foreground notifications require explicit handling; otherwise, they won't appear by default in iOS.
> - Ensure notifications respect user preferences, such as disabling sounds or alerts when requested.
> - Test notification behavior in different app states (foreground, background, and terminated).