Payload for the Watch App Notification

Question

When creating a new Apple Watch App in Xcode, the following APNS payload example is created:

{
    "aps": {
        "alert": {
            "body": "Test message",
            "title": "Optional title"
        },
        "category": "myCategory"
    },

    "WatchKit Simulator Actions": [
        {
            "title": "First Button",
            "identifier": "firstButtonAction"
        }
    ],

    "customKey": "Use this file to define a testing payload for your notifications. The aps dictionary specifies the category, alert text and title. The WatchKit Simulator Actions array can provide info for one or more action buttons in addition to the standard Dismiss button. Any other top level keys are custom payload. If you have multiple such JSON files in your project, you'll be able to select them when choosing to debug the notification interface of your Watch App." }

I am confused by the use of body and title within the alert dictionary. The following payload is ordinarily used in iOS apps:

{
    "aps": {
        "alert": "Test message",
        "title": "Opt title",
        "category": "default"
    },
    "WatchKit Simulator Actions": [
        {
            "title": "First Button",
            "identifier": "firstButtonAction"
        }
    ],

    "customKey": "Use this file to define a testing payload for your notifications. The aps dictionary specifies the category, alert text and title. The WatchKit Simulator Actions array can provide info for one or more action buttons in addition to the standard Dismiss button. Any other top level keys are custom payload. If you have multiple such JSON files in your project, you'll be able to select them when choosing to debug the notification interface of your Watch App."
}

Which is the correct way? Although a default payload file is created in this way, the Apple documentation provides a screenshot using the latter variant.

Answer 1

In the Local and Remote Notification Programming Guide(Table 3-1), the value type of alert key can be string or dictionary, as Dhawal said, both formats are correct.

If alert is dictionary, it can contain title, body, title-loc-key etc(Table 3-2). What's the purpose of title key? This key was added in iOS 8.2 which contain WatchKit, and WatchKit has a Short-Look Notification interface, there is no enough space for full notification, so Apple Watch use title to describe the purpose of the notification and display in Short-Look Notification.

_{(source: edgekey.net)}

In this picture, "Gray's Birthday" is the title in alert. Because you can't see Short-Look Notification in simulator, you should test result of title key in REAL Apple Watch.