# Using Amazon SNS for mobile push notifications
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 This section describes how to send mobile push notifications.

## Publishing to a topic
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You can also use Amazon SNS to send messages to mobile endpoints subscribed to a topic. The concept is the same as subscribing other endpoint types, such as Amazon SQS, HTTP/S, email, and SMS, to a topic, as described in [What is Amazon SNS?](welcome.md). The difference is that Amazon SNS communicates through notification services like Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). Through the notifications service, the subscribed mobile endpoints receive notifications sent to the topic. 

## Direct Amazon SNS mobile device messaging
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You can send Amazon SNS push notification messages directly to an endpoint which represents an application on a mobile device. 

**To send a direct message**

1. Sign in to the [Amazon SNS console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/sns/home).

1. On the navigation panel, choose **Push notifications**.

1. On the **Mobile push notifications** page, in the **Platform applications** section, choose the name of the application, for example ***MyApp***.

1. On the ***MyApp*** page, in the **Endpoints** section, choose an endpoint and then choose **Publish message**.

1. On the **Publish message to endpoint** page, enter the message that will appear in the application on the mobile device and then choose **Publish message**.

   Amazon SNS sends the notification message to the platform notification service which, in turn, sends the message to the application.