Ask for User Permission to Receive UILocalNotifications in iOS 8

Question

I have set up local notifications in the App Delegate Using this:

- (void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application
{
    UILocalNotification *notification = [[UILocalNotification alloc]init];
    [notification setAlertBody:@"Watch the Latest Episode of CCA-TV"];
    [notification setFireDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:5]];
    [notification setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone]];
    [application setScheduledLocalNotifications:[NSArray arrayWithObject:notification]];
}

When I run the app and then quit it I receive an error saying:

2014-06-07 11:14:16.663 CCA-TV[735:149070] Attempting to schedule a local notification {fire date = Saturday, June 7, 2014 at 11:14:21 Pacific Daylight Time, time zone = America/Los_Angeles (PDT) offset -25200 (Daylight), repeat interval = 0, repeat count = UILocalNotificationInfiniteRepeatCount, next fire date = Saturday, June 7, 2014 at 11:14:21 Pacific Daylight Time, user info = (null)} with an alert but haven't received permission from the user to display alerts

How can I get the necessary permission to display the alerts?

Answer 1

Since iOS 8 you need to ask user's permission to show notifications from your app, this applies for both remote/push and local notifications. In Swift you can do it like this,

Update for Swift 2.0

func application(application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: NSDictionary?) -> Bool {
    // Override point for customization after application launch.
    if(UIApplication.instancesRespondToSelector(Selector("registerUserNotificationSettings:")))
    {
        let notificationCategory:UIMutableUserNotificationCategory = UIMutableUserNotificationCategory()
        notificationCategory.identifier = "INVITE_CATEGORY"
        notificationCategory.setActions([replyAction], forContext: UIUserNotificationActionContext.Default)

        //registerting for the notification.
        application.registerUserNotificationSettings(UIUserNotificationSettings(forTypes:[.Sound, .Alert, .Badge], categories: nil))
    }
    else
    {
       //do iOS 7 stuff, which is pretty much nothing for local notifications.
    }
    return true
}

Swift 3.2

if(UIApplication.instancesRespond(to: #selector(UIApplication.registerUserNotificationSettings(_:)))){
     let notificationCategory:UIMutableUserNotificationCategory = UIMutableUserNotificationCategory()
     notificationCategory.identifier = "INVITE_CATEGORY"
     notificationCategory.setActions([replyAction], forContext: UIUserNotificationActionContext.Default)

     //registerting for the notification.
        application.registerUserNotificationSettings(UIUserNotificationSettings(types:[.sound, .alert, .badge], categories: nil))
}
else{
        //do iOS 7 stuff, which is pretty much nothing for local notifications.
    }

Objective C syntax is also very similar.

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    if ([UIApplication instancesRespondToSelector:@selector(registerUserNotificationSettings:)]){
        [application registerUserNotificationSettings:[UIUserNotificationSettings settingsForTypes:UIUserNotificationTypeAlert|UIUserNotificationTypeBadge|UIUserNotificationTypeSound categories:nil]];
    }
    // Override point for customization after application launch.
    return YES;
}

To check for currently registered notification types you can use UIApplication class's method,

- (UIUserNotificationSettings *)currentUserNotificationSettings

So if the user has said no to your app then this function should return a setting without any types in it.

I have written a tutorial about this, you could see it here.