notifications

Push notifications are small messages that can reach audiences anywhere and anytime. While pop-ups appear only when audiences are on the site they belong to, push messages are independent of sites. They are associated with web browsers and apps.
Push technology, or server push, is a style of Internet-based communication where the request for a given transaction is initiated by the publisher or central server. It is contrasted with pull/get, where the request for the transmission of information is initiated by the receiver or client.
Push services are often based on information preferences expressed in advance. This is called a publish/subscribe model. A client "subscribes" to various information "channels" provided by a server; whenever new content is available on one of those channels, the server pushes that information out to the client.
Push is sometimes emulated with a polling technique, particularly under circumstances where a real push is not possible, such as sites with security policies that require rejection of incoming HTTP/S requests.

View More On Wikipedia.org