Authenticated push notifications without publishing the App to the Windows Phone Store

Question

We are currently developing a Windows Phone 8 application that won't be published to the Windows Phone Store but will be distributed through our Company Portal (Windows Intune Direct Management).

Our team would like to add Push Notifications using MPNS (Microsoft Push Notification Service) but we are aware that, without submitting the app to the Windows Phone Store, we would be forced to use unauthenticated push notifications that are throttled to something like 500 notifications\day per subscription.

We are evaluating to try a service like Azure Notification hub but It's hard to find some clear documentation about how to set up authenticated push notifications with Notification Hub and even more important, if Notification Hub has the same policy that force to submit the mobile application to the Store.

So, the questions are:

1. In order to use unthrottled authenticated push notifications, do you know if Notification Hub requires the app submission to the Windows Phone Store?
2. Do you know any other valid way to get no-quota push notifications?

Answer 1

Microsoft has finally updated its term of service enabling no-quota (unthrottled) notifications for company apps on Windows Phone.

1. Create a Windows Phone Store developer account if you do not have one. Even though you won’t be submitting apps to the store, you will need to use the Windows Phone Store to manage your certificate.

2. Prepare your push service to use the authenticated endpoint as documented here. Also, retrieve your certificate and set up its service as outlined here.

When you have completed the steps above, do not link it to any app.

Official link:
blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2013/12/10/enabling-no-quota-push-notifications-for-company-apps-on-windows-phone.aspx

Answer 2

I do not pretend to be completely correct, but this is what I can say after deep diving into Notification Hub stuff:

1. MPNS uses either http or https (for authenticated notifications) protocol to deliver data to its clients. Its internal structure can be roughly described as sending a specific xml (or json) to a previously set URI. It has no access to MS marketplace and cant do any app checks. So it seems you can push to any uri you want (I didn`t try that). Notification Hub is a WRAPPER over mpns, wns, apns, gcm, optimized for large arrays of notifications.
2. Notification Hub has the ability to set the mpns certificate inside the configuration tab, and I think that doesnt mean you`re forced to have an app in a public store with the same certificate.

Hope this helps, Best regards, Alex

Answer 3

I believe that Notifications Hub will use either unauthenticated push notifications (same restrictions apply) or require the certificate to use authenticated push notifications, which requires registration in the store.

I'm not aware of a way around this at the moment.

Answer 4

I found a page from MSDN

It looks like kinda out of date (Windows Phone Marketplace was the name in WP7 days).

But the 500 limitation isn't changed, and like Alex Yurov said, Azure Notification Hub is just wrapper over MNPS, so this should apply.

So basically your need to re to register a certificate. Your cloud service will use this certificate to talk to the MNPS/Notification Hub, then it's unthrottled.

Unauthenticated and Authenticated Mode

Push notifications can operate in unauthenticated or authenticated mode. In unauthenticated mode, the number and frequency of notifications allowed through the Microsoft Push Notification Service is throttled (unauthenticated push notifications are currently limited to 500 per day, per channel).

For push notifications in authenticated mode, developers first must register a certificate with the Push Notification Service through Windows Phone Marketplace. The certificate must be issued by a Microsoft-trusted root certificate authority. This certificate then is used to establish a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection between the web service and the Push Notification Service. Authenticated push notifications are not throttled.

UPDATE

This is the corresponding tutorial but NEW version. No-quota push notifications using a root Certificate Authority