From 30-Second Polling to Real Push Notifications

Short summary

The article describes replacing inefficient 30-second HTTP polling with native push notifications in a React Native app (Expo). Instead of using Expo Push Service, the team built direct integration with Apple APNs and Google FCM to maintain full platform-specific payload control and eliminate third-party dependencies. This eliminated 2,880 daily HTTP requests per user and reduced notification latency from 30+ seconds to near-instantaneous delivery.

• •Replaced inefficient 30-second polling with event-driven native push notifications via direct APNs/FCM integration
• •Reduced from 2,880 daily HTTP requests per user to near-instant delivery while maintaining platform-specific payload tuning
• •Implemented OAuth2/JWT authentication (RS256 for Firebase, ES256 for Apple), HTTP/2 support, and complex token lifecycle management

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