How Web Push Notifications Work Internally: Implementing with React + Golang

Short summary

Web push notifications route messages through browser-specific push services (Firebase for Chrome, Mozilla Push for Firefox) rather than direct backend-to-browser connections. The tutorial walks through implementing a complete system: React frontend handles subscription via Service Workers and VAPID public keys; Golang backend encrypts payloads, signs requests with VAPID private keys, and communicates with push services. Production systems require handling multiple subscriptions per user, subscription expiration, retry queues with exponential backoff, and message queueing for horizontal scaling.

• •Push notifications use intermediary browser-specific services, not direct backend communication
• •Frontend subscribes with Service Workers; backend encrypts and signs with VAPID authentication
• •Production requires multiple subscriptions per user, retries, and queue-based scaling

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