How Apple and Google are transforming push notifications into AI-mediated intermediaries

Summary

This article examines how Apple and Google have transformed push notifications from a simple transport layer into an active intermediary system, similar to what has happened with email. The author argues that these two companies now control the only two significant pipes for push notifications, and over the past five years, on-device AI models have been inserted between message delivery and the user's lock screen. These models parse, rank, summarize, and increasingly respond to notifications on behalf of recipients, fundamentally changing the relationship between brands/apps and their users.