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Sparrow to charge for push notifications with yearly subscriptions

The last we heard, iOS email client Sparrow said push notifications were coming “with or without” Apple. Apple has decided not to extend the privilege of VOIP apps to Sparrow, which, due to latency issues, are allowed to keep an open network connection in the background for processes like notifications. The alternative forces non-VOIP, third-party apps—such as Sparrow– to send push notifications from its own servers. The company initially said it would not implement push notifications due to security and cost concerns, but confirmed in a blog post today, while announcing Sparrow v1.2, that it will soon offer push through a yearly subscription:

 

About Push

You were more than 16 000 helping us on our Apple quest to get the VoIP privilege.  We can’t thank you enough for your support. Unfortunately, Apple has confirmed that they are not willing to do any exception to the rule and that Sparrow will NOT be granted with the privilege.

This means we’ll have to do Push on our side and that it will be integrated as a yearly subscription into Sparrow’s future update.

Today’s update brings a number of notable features for the popular email app. Version 1.2 includes new message navigation with up-and-down swiping gestures, the ability to edit and create folders and labels, landscape composing mode, and a total of nine supported languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, and Chinese. Sparrow v1.2 is available on the App Store for $2.99.

Jailbroken iPhone users already have access to push functionality through a free Cydia utility called “Sparrow Push.”

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Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.