The Optimization That Was Too Good: Why Our Push Notifications Only Worked When You Weren't Looking

This is a submission for DEV's Summer Bug Smash: Smash Stories powered by Sentry.

When I was building the push notification system for ShelfTalk — a real-time social app that won the GitHub Finish Up A Thon Challenge on DEV — I wanted to be considerate of my users. There's nothing more annoying than actively chatting in a web app and having your desktop ping you with a notification for the exact message you're currently reading.

JaniDhruv

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ShelfTalk