Build a transactional push notifications system using only Firebase

Using Firebase tools, you can send individual push notifications without needing a dedicated server, or a third-party service.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

Two major reasons for sending display notifications are:

1. For marketing purposes - this is when you send a push notification to all users or a subset of users that have something in common. Usually, this is the way you notify users about upcoming promotions.
   Implementing this is pretty simple. Firebase already has great tutorials on how to set FCM up on Android, iOS, and Web. Quick tip: In the tutorials, they show you how to get the FCM token. If you plan on only sending push notifications for marketing purposes, you won’t need the token at all.
   After that, all you need to do is send messages from the Firebase Console, full tutorial here. You can also split notifications into different topics, so users can manage which types of notifications they want to receive from you. I won’t go into more detail here because the Firebase tutorials explain it really well.
2. For transactional purposes - this is when you send push notifications to specific users with information relevant only to them. Examples of transactional notifications: order confirmation, payment confirmation, level…