You do not need Firebase to send push notifications. Firebase Cloud Messaging is one way to do it, but it is a lot of setup. The shortest path is a single HTTP request to a personal URL:
curl "https://hooknotifier.com/{IDENTIFIER}/{KEY}?object=Hello&body=No%20Firebase%20needed"
That sends a real native notification to your phone. No project, no tokens, no backend.
What Firebase actually asks of you
The reason "add push notifications" feels heavy is that the standard answer is Firebase, and Firebase asks you to:
- Create and configure a Firebase project.
- Register and store device tokens, and keep them in sync as they rotate.
- Run a backend to hold the tokens and send the messages.
- Build an app to receive them.
That is a real project on its own, just to ping a phone when something happens.
The shortcut
Hook.Notifier already is the backend, the app, and the inbox. You get a personal URL and you call it. All the token juggling and infrastructure is on our side.
import requests
requests.post("https://hooknotifier.com/{IDENTIFIER}/{KEY}", json={
"object": "New order",
"body": "You just made a sale",
})
Same idea in any language: make an HTTP request, get a notification.
And you skip more than the plumbing. Features you would have to build on top of Firebase come with the URL: priorities, quiet hours, scheduled sends, markdown bodies, action buttons, and updating a sent notification in place by its id. All free.
When you still want Firebase
If you are shipping your own branded app with fully custom push, Firebase or APNs is the right tool and worth the work. But if you just want to be notified when something happens, in your app, your script, or your webhook, you do not need any of it.
Get your URL
Your Hook.Notifier URL is https://hooknotifier.com/{IDENTIFIER}/{KEY}. Create a free account to get yours and send your first notification.
Try it
Compose a notification below and send it to yourself to see it land, with no Firebase in sight.