Notificator Has Been Accepted by WordPress.org

Update, 12 August 2026: The iOS app is now publicly available. Read the App Store launch announcement or download Notificator.

We are delighted to share that Notificator – Alerts & Notifications has been accepted into the WordPress.org plugin directory.

The listing is not public just yet. We are finalising a few of its visual assets and presentation details, and expect the plugin to become available through WordPress.org in the upcoming days.

Once published, people will be able to find and install Notificator directly from the WordPress dashboard. The project remains free and open source, with dashboard alerts available without an account, mobile push and optional account email alerts, and MQTT delivery for connected setups.

What the review helped us improve

The most important point is that the review team did not identify functional defects, security vulnerabilities, or code changes required for approval. The plugin was already in good technical shape when it was submitted.

The requested adjustments focused on directory policy and presentation. We adopted a more distinctive plugin name and slug, clarified the external services and licensing information, and changed how the sample integration plugin is provided. These changes made the release package clearer and better suited to the WordPress.org directory without altering its core features.

We also used the review period to make a few proactive improvements of our own, including additional hardening around how values are read from event objects. Those were part of our continuing development work rather than fixes for problems found by the review team.

We also continued improving the everyday experience. Event discovery now refreshes the interface as soon as a scan finishes, recognises newly activated plugins, and makes it clearer when another scan may be useful.

The iOS app has passed Apple review

The Notificator mobile app has also been approved by Apple following App Store review. This is a separate milestone from the WordPress.org acceptance and brings the iOS app one important step closer to its public release.

The app is not publicly available on the App Store just yet. We are completing the final release preparation before making the approved version available, so there is no public App Store download link to share at this stage. We will add the official listing across the website and documentation as soon as the release is live.

Apple’s review also helped us confirm an important part of the first-run experience: choosing not to allow push notifications no longer interrupts setup. People can still use their account, email alerts, connected devices, and the rest of the app, then enable mobile push later from their device settings if they want it.

A growing family of devices

While the plugin review was underway, the physical side of Notificator also took a substantial step forward.

Notificator Base remains the compact, build-it-yourself reference device powered by an ESP32-C3, OLED display, and capacitive control. Base 1.2.2 adds regular presence heartbeats and a retained MQTT Last Will, allowing an unexpected power or network loss to be reflected as an offline device much sooner.

It is now joined by Notificator Touch, our new preview firmware for the Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch LCD 3.49. The larger colour touchscreen provides a more complete interface with alert history, device information, settings, clock and weather views, brightness and volume controls, and on-device Wi-Fi setup. Touch 0.9.3 brings the same improved presence handling and now responds to the app’s mark-all-read action.

Both models connect to the same Notificator platform while retaining controls appropriate for their hardware.

Easier installation and updates

The browser-based firmware installer now offers Base 1.2.2 and Touch 0.9.3. It lets people choose compatible hardware, flash the correct complete image from a supported desktop browser, and continue with clear setup instructions after installation.

The mobile app and API have also been updated for model-aware device settings, firmware releases, and live presence. This means each device can receive the right controls, minimum-version requirements, and OTA package without treating every piece of hardware as if it were the original Base model. The app refreshes retained device state while it is in use, and valid telemetry now updates the saved online or offline status rather than leaving it stuck at an old value.

For people deciding how to begin, the new Get a device guide explains three routes: use commercially available supported hardware, follow a future community batch, or build a Notificator Base from parts. The website now includes polished Notificator Touch interface renders alongside clearly attributed hardware references.

Documentation for the complete journey

The documentation now includes a dedicated Notificator Touch setup guide, updated Base instructions, multi-model firmware guidance, HiveMQ troubleshooting, and clearer explanations of the controls available from the mobile app. It also explains that optional email alerts are enabled as an account preference in the app and work independently from mobile push permissions and MQTT.

The public project changelog provides the detailed release history across the WordPress plugin, app, API, firmware, website, and documentation. This Journal post is the shorter version: the project has become easier to install, easier to understand, and ready to support more than one kind of device.

What happens next

Our immediate priorities are to finish the WordPress.org listing assets, make the accepted plugin available through the directory, and complete the final release preparation for the Apple-approved iOS app.

Alongside that release, we will keep testing Notificator Touch, refining its interface, and improving the shared journey from a WordPress event to a dashboard alert, phone notification, or physical device.

These approvals are important milestones, but they are not the finish line. They give Notificator a public home inside the WordPress ecosystem and bring the mobile app closer to its public iOS release, creating a stronger foundation for everything we want to build next.