Lead Alerts on a Rep's Phone With No App: How Web Push Works on iPhone and Android

Can a website send an alert to a phone?

Yes, through the Push API. MDN says a web application can receive messages pushed from a server "whether or not the web app is in the foreground, or even currently loaded." To do that it needs an active service worker, which wakes up to handle the incoming message, and the person must have opted in. MDN lists the feature as Baseline, available across browsers since March 2023. So the rep does not need a native app, only a browser that supports it and a yes on the permission prompt.

What does an iPhone need?

More than an Android phone does. Apple's WebKit post of 16 February 2023 says web push arrived with iOS and iPadOS 16.4, that only a web app added to the Home Screen can ask for permission, and that the request must follow a direct user action such as tapping a button. After that, iOS shows its own prompt, and the person can change the setting later in Notifications Settings. Alerts appear on the Lock Screen and in Notification Center, and Focus modes decide when they come through.

On Android, installing is optional for receiving the alert but nice for opening it fast. The install event MDN calls beforeinstallprompt is not Baseline, and MDN says an in-page install button "should be hidden by default, because not all browsers will support installation." MAJ Leads follows that: it shows its own Install button only when the browser offers the prompt, and walks an iPhone user through Share, then Add to Home Screen. It treats the in-app browsers of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Line as places where a rep cannot install or receive alerts, and tells them to open the link in their normal browser. That is our rule of thumb from building the screen, not something the sources above state.

What does the alert contain?

• For one lead: the cadence engine's title, such as the try number and the lead's first name, and a body that usually carries what the customer asked.
• For several leads landing together for the same rep: one combined "N new leads" alert with up to two first names, instead of a burst of separate ones. It never shows what the customer asked, a phone number, an email or a last name.
• For a rep on a shared desk: initials in the title and the source only in the body, so a customer glancing at a shared screen does not see who enquired or what they wrote.
• A tap that opens the task in MAJ Leads.

On a desktop the Call button cannot dial. So pressing it sends the same rep a push on their own phone, "Tap to call" with the first name, in English, Arabic, Urdu or Hindi depending on the rep's language, and the tap opens the lead on the phone. It goes only to the person who pressed the button.

What if the rep has no working phone set up?

Then the alert falls back to email. A new-lead alert for a person with no live phone is emailed to that person with the lead's name and a link, once per lead per person, and with initials on a shared desk. It is not sent for test or hand-typed leads, to paused or suspended workspaces, to a removed member, or to a rep who already received the alert on WhatsApp. Alerts follow the company's working hours: the follow-up task, and so its push, is queued only inside the lead's hours.

How fast does it go out?

A sender job runs every minute, and it is also started within a few seconds of an alert being queued, after a short pause so that leads arriving together are sent as one. We give no end-to-end time because we have not measured one on real phones. For why the first minutes matter, see what the research says and which numbers are misquoted.

What can stop an alert reaching a phone?

• Notifications were refused or later switched off for the web app in the phone's settings. On iPhone that is in Notifications Settings.
• A Focus mode or Do Not Disturb is holding notifications back.
• The site was never added to the Home Screen on an iPhone, so permission could not be asked.
• The person opened the link inside another app's browser and never installed it.
• The phone has no iOS or iPadOS 16.4 or later.

The first thing to check on a quiet phone is the permission, not the system. Ask each rep to send themselves a test, and write down which phones are set up. After a call, the result can go straight to the tool you already use; keeping your CRM shows how.

Where does this leave your team?

Your team installs nothing from an app store. Each rep opens the link once, allows notifications and, on an iPhone, adds it to the Home Screen. The related guides on time to first attempt and what happens when a lead is not touched cover the minutes after the alert. See how it works and pricing.