Course Notifications via Web Push API

[alexanderl19]

The Push API allows "native" notifications to be sent via a service worker. Essentially this allows us to send notifications though the AA website, rather than SMS or a native app.

Pros:

• Sidesteps the cost and privacy concerns of SMS
• Avoids emails (less "realtime")
• Could encourage PWA installs on iOS

Cons:

• Limited support on iOS (must install as PWA / add to home screen)

  • Add web push to Home Screen web apps in iOS 16.4 or later and Webpages in Safari 16 for macOS 13 or later. ¹

• Users may not be as familiar with Web Push notifs

While these drawbacks are signifiant, I think this is still the most viable option and worth prioritizing. The alternatives I can think of are email, SMS, a native app, or via an existing messaging platform. Jumping to the native app option, we currently aren't able to publish apps to the Apple App store. The most compelling alternative may be using an existing messaging app, such as Discord, but that would require us to both depend on an external service and require the user to use it. That being said, it may be worth developing with this is mind.

Blocking:

• Is AA PWA ready?
• Does the API currently support this functionality?

cc: @EricPedley @ecxyzzy