Push notifications not triggering on mobile apps when tasks assigned

Our field service technicians are missing task assignments because push notifications aren’t triggering on the ServiceNow mobile app. The technicians have the app installed on both iOS and Android devices, but when workflows assign them tasks, they don’t receive any notifications.

I’ve verified the push notification config in the mobile app settings:


Push Notifications: Enabled
Task Assignment Alerts: On
Workflow Updates: On

The notifications work fine through email and SMS, just not on mobile. When I manually test the push notification from the admin panel, it works and devices receive the test message. But workflow event triggers aren’t sending anything. This is causing missed tasks and delayed service calls. Has anyone debugged push notification issues with workflow-triggered events?

Another possibility - check your Mobile App Configuration settings for notification batching. Sometimes push notifications get batched and delayed if there’s a configuration setting that groups notifications to reduce API calls. This could explain why test notifications work immediately but workflow notifications don’t appear to send.

This sounds like your workflow isn’t properly configured to trigger mobile push notifications. Check your workflow activities - you need a specific ‘Send Push Notification’ activity, not just a regular notification activity. Regular notifications only send email/SMS by default. The workflow event triggers need to explicitly target the mobile notification channel.

First thing to check - are device permissions properly configured? Even if the app shows notifications as enabled, the OS-level permissions might be blocking workflow-triggered notifications. Have your technicians go to iOS Settings > ServiceNow > Notifications and verify all notification types are allowed, including alerts, badges, and sounds.

Your issue is a classic misconfiguration of the notification chain between workflows and mobile push services. Let me address all three components systematically:

Push Notification Configuration: The mobile app settings you checked are client-side preferences, but the server-side configuration is what actually controls push delivery. Navigate to Mobile > Mobile Application Configuration and verify:

  1. Push notification service is enabled and properly connected
  2. APNs certificate (iOS) and FCM server key (Android) are valid and not expired
  3. Test the connection using the ‘Test Push Notification’ button for both platforms

Then check System Properties > com.snc.notify.push:


glide.push.notification.enabled = true
glide.push.notification.batch_size = 100
glide.push.notification.batch_delay = 0  // Set to 0 for immediate delivery

If batch_delay is set to anything higher than 0, workflow notifications will be queued and delayed, which explains why they appear not to trigger.

Workflow Event Triggers: Your workflows need explicit push notification activities. Standard notification activities don’t automatically include push. Here’s how to fix it:

  1. Open your task assignment workflow in Flow Designer
  2. Find the notification activity (likely ‘Send Email’ or ‘Create Notification’)
  3. Replace it with ‘Send Push Notification’ activity or add it in parallel
  4. Configure the activity:
// Pseudocode - Push notification activity config:
1. Target: Assigned user's device tokens
2. Title: 'New Task Assigned: ' + task.number
3. Body: task.short_description
4. Action: Open task detail screen
5. Priority: High (ensures immediate delivery)

Alternatively, modify your existing notification record to enable push:

  • Navigate to System Notifications > Notifications
  • Find ‘Task Assigned’ notification
  • Check ‘Send push notification’ checkbox
  • Add condition: ‘User has mobile app installed’ (use field u_mobile_device_registered)

Device Permissions and Registration: Even though test notifications work, workflow-triggered notifications might fail if device tokens aren’t properly registered for workflow events. Run this diagnostic script:

var user = gs.getUserID(); // Technician's sys_id
var devices = new GlideRecord('cmn_notif_device');
devices.addQuery('user', user);
devices.addQuery('active', true);
devices.query();

while (devices.next()) {
  gs.info('Device: ' + devices.type + ', Token: ' + devices.device_id);
  gs.info('Subscribed events: ' + devices.subscribed_events);
}

If ‘subscribed_events’ doesn’t include ‘task.assigned’ or ‘workflow.updated’, the devices aren’t registered for those event types. To fix this:

  1. Create a Mobile Push Subscription record for each technician
  2. Navigate to Mobile > Push Subscriptions > New
  3. Set User, Event Type (task.assigned), and ensure Active = true
  4. Repeat for workflow.updated event type

Root Cause Summary: Based on your symptoms (test works, workflow doesn’t), the issue is that your notification records lack the push notification flag, or your workflow is using generic notification activities that don’t target mobile devices. The fact that email/SMS work confirms the workflow triggers correctly - it’s just not routing to the push notification service.

Implement all three fixes above, then test by assigning a task to a technician through the workflow. Monitor System Logs > Push Notifications for any errors during delivery. If you still see failures, check the APNs/FCM connection logs for authentication issues - expired certificates are a common culprit that affects workflow notifications but not admin test notifications.

Also verify that your notification records have the ‘Send push notification’ checkbox enabled. Go to System Notifications > Notifications and find your task assignment notification. There should be a checkbox for push notifications that’s separate from email and SMS. If that’s not checked, workflow events won’t trigger mobile pushes even if everything else is configured correctly.

I had three technicians check their device permissions - all confirmed that notifications are fully enabled at the OS level. The test notifications from admin panel work fine, so device permissions seem okay. The issue is specifically with workflow event triggers not reaching the push notification service.