Embodiments are directed to registering a device to receive notifications. In one scenario, a computer system receives a notification registration request from a computing device. The computer system generates a registration secret which includes identification information that uniquely identifies the computing device, and sends the generated registration secret including the information that uniquely identifies the computing device to a notification service. The computer system receives a hash value from the computing device, where the hash value is generated based on the identification information of the generated registration secret. The computer system computes another hash value based on the identification information of the received registration secret to determine whether the second hash value matches the first hash value, and upon determining that the second hash value matches the first hash value, the computer system registers the computing device to receive notifications from the notification service.