Notifications scheduled and fired by the device, not by a backend. Use cases: daily reminders, follow-up prompts after onboarding, post-purchase nudges, inactivity reminders.
For server-sent notifications (FCM / APNs), see ../ionic-shared/references/push-notifications.md. The two plugins are independent and can be used together.
When to consult
- Setup, permissions, scheduling: setup-and-scheduling.md
- Patterns (recurring, channels, action handling): patterns.md
Hard rules
- ✅ Request permission when the user opts in to a feature that uses notifications, not on app launch.
- ✅ Always set a unique numeric
idper notification — sameidoverwrites the previous one. - ✅ On Android 13+ the OS auto-prompts for
POST_NOTIFICATIONSthe first time you schedule. - ❌ Don't schedule more than ~64 simultaneous notifications on iOS — the OS silently drops the rest.
- ❌ Don't rely on local notifications for time-critical delivery — they can be delayed by the OS for power management. Push is for "this must arrive."
Library
npm install @capacitor/local-notifications
npx cap sync