Can you send push notifications when app stores are closed?

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The festive period is the busiest sales time of the year, both for existing users and for those new users opening their present to find a very generous gift.

If you’re a developer, then iTunes Connect is closed meaning you can’t make changes to your app during this period between the 21st and 27th December.

So, can you still send push notifications?

In short, yes, although we wouldn’t recommend doing it on Christmas Day. No one wants to receive marketing messages at that point. Better to wait until the following day or two when the turkey has settled.

As push notifications are managed outside of the App Store and iTunes Connect you’re not limited in terms of sending them, so the same applies at other holiday periods when the App Store is locked down to developers.

And if you’re a user, and want to manage your push notifications, then you should read our piece on how to stop unwanted push notifications.

Users opt-in and can just as easily opt-out of push notifications, so please use them responsibly and make sure they are of value to users.

And most importantly don’t forget the App Store guideline that you are not to include advertising or price promotions or you risk your app getting removed from the store. Now that is one thing you do not want happening at the busiest sales time of the year.