Canvas Teacher App Push Notifications

[rseilham]

Hi Everyone! Hope your year is off an amazing start. 

I wanted to bring attention to information that was discussed in another post related to Canvas Teacher app push notifications. I'm curious what everyone thinks about this and if there are any suggestions. 

From  @peytoncraighill ‌ (The Mobile PM): 

For anyone interested in push notifications in teacher app, we're adding support for the following types, which can be set from your notification settings in Canvas web:

• Announcement Created By You (announcements created by you and replies to announcements created you've created)
• All Submissions (assignment submission/resubmission)
• Late Grading (late assignment submission)
• Submission Comments (student-posted submission comments)
• Added To Conversation (you are added to a conversation)
• Conversation Message (new conversation message)
• Discussion (new discussion topic in your course)
• Discussion post (new discussion post in a topic you're subscribed to)

We're in the process of working on deep linking now so that you can tap the notification to land where you'd expect (e.g., receive late assignment submission notification -> tap notification to open that submission in SpeedGrader)

That's all for now.

Mobile On,

Ryan

[shelly_miller]

Hi, how do you turn on push notifications for the Teacher App?  I have my notifications set on the Web interface for notify me right away with the ✅ but I don’t get any notices on the app only via email. Thanks Shelly

[rseilham]

Hi  @shelly_miller ‌, 

Currently push notifications aren't supported in the Canvas Teacher app. This post is discussing the future addition of this feature to the app. The only notifications right now, at least on iOS, are when audio/video uploads fail. You will then get a "local" notifications, but generally Canvas notifications aren't available, just yet...

[KristinL]

Canvas Teacher Release Notes (iOS 1.4)‌ has good news!

The Teacher app supports push notifications on iOS devices. Tapping a push notification will open the app and display the page that relates to the notification. Push notifications can only be managed from the browser version of Canvas.

[rseilham]

Another nugget of information. You can't adjust the notifications for the Teacher app unless you have already enabled them in the Canvas Student app. I know this is confusing, but enabling notifications in the Canvas Student app creates a "For all Devices" notification section on the web. Currently this isn't the same for the Canvas Teacher app. So, if you want to adjust your specific notifications through the Canvas Teacher app, download the student app, enable notifications through the Canvas Student app (then turn them off), and you'll get the "For all Devices" column on the web. Confused yet? (: 

READ THE UPDATE BELOW

[narmstrong]

I don't think this is the case anymore FYI. As far as I can tell, the Teacher App will also create the "For all Devices" column in notification preferences. If you are still seeing something different, please let me know. Thanks.

[rseilham]

Hi  @narmstrong ‌, 

I'm not sure this has been fixed, unless I'm missing something. Below is a user that has only logged in through the web and teacher app. Notifications are on at the device level, but as you can see I don't have the For All Devices column. 

In the student app, you can turn on notifications inside the app which will create that column. I don't see that option in the Teacher app. If I'm missing something, please let me know. Thanks. 

[narmstrong]

Interesting. I guess it could depend on when the user last first launched the Teacher App and enabled push notifications. Do you know when that would have been? Within the last few months? One thing to try:

1. Force quit the Teacher App
2. From the Settings app > Notifications > Teacher > Toggle off 'Allow Notifications'
3. Relaunch the Teacher App
4. Back in Settings, toggle 'Allow Notifications' back on
5. Open Teacher App again
6. See if the column gets created on web

I think we need to fix this either way. Notifications being enabled for any of the apps should always create a column on web. The outcome of the above steps will help determine the issue and influence how we go about fixing it.

[rseilham]

Hi  @narmstrong ‌, 

It's probably been a while since I changed the notification preferences for the app, if ever. The app has been launched plenty of times in the last few months on my phone. 

As for you suggestion, it worked! I now see the column on the web. Like you said, it seems like this isn't solid yet, and might need some tweaking, but at least we know the fix. Thanks! 

[narmstrong]

Awesome. Thanks for verifying that for me.