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Give Firebase your Apple push key (APNs key)

For firebase_messaging

Firebase sends push messages to iPhones through the Apple Push Notification service (APNs). For that it needs a key from your Apple Developer account. Without the key the app still gets its address for push messages, but Firebase cannot send anything to it.

You need a paid Apple Developer account and access to your Firebase project. You make the key once for your team, and it works for all of its apps.

tip

The screenshots use example values: the Team ID SAYMYFRAME, the Key ID SMFAPNSKEY, the bundle id com.example.my-app and the Firebase project my-app-12345. You will see your own. The orange frames mark what to click, in the order of their numbers.

1. Find your Team ID. Open your Apple Developer account and scroll to Membership details. Copy the Team ID: ten letters and digits.

Membership details of an Apple Developer account, with the Team ID SAYMYFRAME framed

2. Create the key. In the account, under Certificates, IDs & Profiles, click Keys (1).

Program resources of the account, with Keys under Certificates, IDs and Profiles marked 1

Click the + next to the title (2).

The Keys page, with the plus button next to the title marked 2

Give the key a name (1), such as My App APNs, and check Apple Push Notifications service (APNs) (2). Then click Configure (3) in the same row.

Register a New Key, with the name My App APNs marked 1, the checked APNs service marked 2 and its Configure button marked 3

Set Environment to Sandbox & Production (1) and Key Restriction to Team Scoped (All Topics) (2), then click Save (3). One key then serves debug builds and App Store builds alike. Apple does not let you change these two settings later.

Configure Key, with the environment Sandbox and Production marked 1, the restriction Team Scoped marked 2 and Save marked 3

Click Continue, then Register.

3. Download the key. On the page of the key, click Download (1). You get a file named AuthKey_<Key ID>.p8. Copy the Key ID (2) from the same page.

View Key Details, with the Download button marked 1 and the Key ID SMFAPNSKEY marked 2
warning

Apple lets you download the file only once. Keep it in a password manager. The file is a secret: never put it into the app or its repository. If you lose it, revoke the key and create a new one.

4. Open Cloud Messaging in Firebase. In the Firebase console, open your project. In the menu on the left, point at Settings (1) and click General (2). On the page Project settings, open the tab Cloud Messaging.

The menu of the Firebase console, with Settings and its item General marked 1 and 2

Scroll to Apple app configuration and select your iOS app on the left. Under APNs Authentication Key, click Upload (1) in the row No development APNs auth key.

Apple app configuration, with the app my_app and the Upload button of the development key marked 1

5. Upload the key. Click Browse (1) and choose the .p8 file, or drag the file onto the dashed area. Enter the Key ID (2) and your Team ID (3), and click Upload (4).

The dialog Upload development APNs auth key, with Browse, the Key ID SMFAPNSKEY, the Team ID SAYMYFRAME and Upload marked 1 to 4

Do the same in the row No production APNs auth key, with the same file and the same ids.

Check. Both rows now show the key with its Key ID and Team ID.

The APNs Authentication Key table, with the development and the production key of the Key ID SMFAPNSKEY

To see that it works, run the app on an iPhone, copy the address that it prints in debug mode, and send it a test message from Messaging in the Firebase console. A test message tells how.

The key reaches only the apps of its team. So the iOS app also needs an App ID of the same team with Push Notifications, which signing the app in Xcode gives it; see the step about the App ID.