UnifiedPush
Hacker ApprovedPush notification protocol in Privacy & security
Open source Android push-notification system not tied to one provider; people recommend it for battery savings and fewer background permissions, though it needs a server to forward notifications.
Open source Android push-notification system not tied to one provider; people recommend it for battery savings and fewer background permissions, though it needs a server to forward notifications.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Saves battery via shared connection
“It's a massive saver on battery life but it does require that you have a server set up to forward notifications to your unifiedpush distributor.”
Comment from 29 Nov 2025 in “Molly: An Improved Signal App” “UnifiedPush / ntfy is FLOSS, and allows for a single background connection for multiple apps / notification channels.”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “European Commission Trials Matrix to Replace Teams” “On Android you can use UnifiedPush so just one app gets background permissions and it wakes everything else up.”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Writing a blatant Telegram clone using Qt, QML and Rust. And C++” Works in Molly Signal fork
“Fully open source apps can use UnifiedPush as the Molly fork of Signal does instead of their own push connection.”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?” “you need the Molly fork of Signal with a UnifiedPush provider”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?” “Unified Push, which works flawlessly on Molly”
Comment from 31 Oct 2026 in “Molly (Signal fork) has not been updated since 3 months and is vulnerable” Open source, not tied to provider
“UnifiedPush / ntfy is FLOSS, and allows for a single background connection for multiple apps / notification channels.”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “European Commission Trials Matrix to Replace Teams” “UnifiedPush is an open source solution for push notifications that isn't tied to a particular service provider.”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?” Works alongside Firebase messaging
“Please consider supporting https://unifiedpush.org/ in addition to/instead of FCM.”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Molly: An Improved Signal App” “supporting UnifiedPush in addition to Firebase Cloud Messaging”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard” “Both FCM and UnifiedPush do work reliably.”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Battery use worse than OS
“So of you sync between Signal on Win desktop and Android device, your battery drain faster.”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Molly: An Improved Signal App” “can't match the battery efficiency or sleep-wake capabilities of those built into the OS”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Ntfy – open-source Push to Mobile”
What people said
19 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Signal themselves could host a UnifiedPush server.”
“Unified Push, which works flawlessly on Molly”
“Fully open source apps can use UnifiedPush as the Molly fork of Signal does instead of their own push connection.”
“you need the Molly fork of Signal with a UnifiedPush provider”
“Both FCM and UnifiedPush do work reliably.”
“UnifiedPush is an open source solution for push notifications that isn't tied to a particular service provider.”
“supporting UnifiedPush in addition to Firebase Cloud Messaging”
“can't match the battery efficiency or sleep-wake capabilities of those built into the OS”
“UnifiedPush, F-Droid, a GMaps webview”
“Unified Push combined with a degoogled ROM works great to have convenience and security.”
“Self-hosting UnifiedPush / ntfy drops FCM / Google Play Services as a requirement”
“This implements a push service (caveat: Android only) that is less restrictive than what google provides”
“UnifiedPush / ntfy is FLOSS, and allows for a single background connection for multiple apps / notification channels.”
“On Android you can use UnifiedPush so just one app gets background permissions and it wakes everything else up.”
“fixes this for a number of apps. Self-hostable.”
“It's a massive saver on battery life but it does require that you have a server set up to forward notifications to your unifiedpush distributor.”
“Please consider supporting https://unifiedpush.org/ in addition to/instead of FCM.”
“So of you sync between Signal on Win desktop and Android device, your battery drain faster.”
“it's just yet another thing for me to install and maintain”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.