Even with the app, you're still relying on APNS and GCM for push notifications, so it's not really getting "proprietary infrastructure you have no control over"

Even with the app, you're still relying on APNS and GCM for push notifications, so it's not really getting "proprietary infrastructure you have no control over" out of the critical path. Granted, Apple and Google push services rarely go down, but it's still funneling public safety alerts through a non-government entity, and last I checked (years and years ago) there were no metrics or insights into deliverability, retries, opens/clicks/views, etc, plus those services do have rate limits too. The push api is a thing now, and it can send notifications to clients even when the site is not open[1]. Imo they'd be better off bringing the mobile site back and wiring up a service worker and the push api. All open standards and nobody between them and you :) 1. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Push_API https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Push_API