Inventive embodiments described herein relate to a universal approach for handling user interface notifications. A notification pipeline on a device acts as an intermediary between applications on the device and notification surfaces on the device. Notification surfaces register themselves with the notification pipeline to become active subscribers. Applications or other processes submit notifications complying with a same format, schema, structure, etc. to the notification pipeline. The notification pipeline broadcasts the notification to the subscribed notification surfaces, which in turn determine whether or how to handle and perhaps display the notification based on the content of the notification.