Mobile push notifications

Mobile push notifications are notifications sent by a mobile app and displayed over other content, on the lock screen or on top of other apps.

Users tend to see them as less sales-driven than email or SMS, which makes them a good fit for one-off promotional campaigns like sales or limited-time offers, as well as recurring reminders, e.g., about an expiring discount code.

In this article, you’ll learn how to set up and send a mobile push campaign: from the notification content, through audience selection, to the send schedule and metrics.

Requirements#

Before you start creating mobile push notifications:

• Integrate your app with ECDP. [article in progress]
• Create an audience segment of recipients who have consented to receive notifications from the app on their devices.

Push notifications on iOS and Android – differences

iOS and Android handle mobile push notifications slightly differently. The table below shows which elements you can edit on each platform.

Create mobile push notifications

In the side panel, go to Campaigns > Mobile push. Open the notification editor by clicking Create mobile push.

In the editor, you can create the following notification types for iOS and Android:

• Collapsed – a notification displayed on the lock screen, showing the app icon, title, a short text preview, and an image (optional).
• Expanded – a notification displayed on the lock screen with the full content and image (optional). It appears when the user taps the collapsed notification.
• Banner – appears over other content when the recipient is actively using their device. It has a condensed layout, like the collapsed notification.

Basic settings#

In this section, you’ll give the notification a name – this is how it will appear in your statistics – and select the app it will be sent from.

Content

The editor lets you create notifications for all mobile devices, including those running iOS, Android, and Harmony OS (Huawei). Use the preview to check how they look on the lock screen and as a banner over other content.

Personalize notifications

You can fully tailor mobile push content to each recipient using dynamic content. These are snippets of scripting language that get replaced with the actual content when the notification is sent.

Dynamic content is based on default and custom customer attributes. You can use it to, for example, include the recipient’s first name in the notification text.

Keep in mind that personalized content can vary in length. “Katherine” has 9 characters, while “Ian” has only 3. Factor this in when writing your notification, since content that exceeds the character limits will be visually truncated.

Character limits

The table below shows the recommended character count for each notification element. We’ve averaged these out so that content always displays well. The technical limits are the maximum.

For best readability, stick to the recommended values. That way, the text won’t be cut off.

Text may also be truncated due to:

• Display settings – users can increase or decrease the font size system-wide on their device.
• Device width – a notification may appear on a small phone or a wide tablet.
• Content type – emoji and wide characters like m or w take up more space than l or j. Long words may also wrap to the next line.

Image dimensions and format

To make sure images are displayed correctly in your notifications, follow these guidelines:

• Maximum size: 1 MB
• Supported formats: PNG, JPG, JPEG
• Recommended aspect ratio: 2:1, min. 512 x 256 px

Notifications also display your brand logo, which is pulled directly from the app. If the logo is not available, we’ll show a placeholder logo – you can see it in the notification preview.

Add links to the app

Tapping a notification will always take recipients to your app.

If you want recipients to land on a specific screen, enter the exact address in the Deep link field. You can use:

• HTTP and HTTPS links,
• custom URL schemes for your mobile app.

Examples:

• https://yourdomain.app/product
• http://yourdomain.app/page
• myapp://screen/home
• com.brand.app://action/open-cart

If you don’t add a link, recipients will be taken to the app’s home screen if it wasn’t running, or to the last visited screen if it was running in the background.

Reuse notification content

You can replace the current notification content with content from a previous notification – useful for speeding up campaign creation or reusing templates that have already worked:

1. In the Text section, click the Reuse icon.
2. Find the notification you want to use. Use the preview option to make sure you’re picking the right one.
3. Click Select.

Only the content of the Content tab will be replaced. Other settings, such as the name, recipients, and send schedule, will not be overwritten.

Recipients

At this stage, you decide which recipients will receive the notification and who to exclude from the delivery.

The Devices section shows the final number of unique recipients and the number of devices the notifications will be sent to.

The device count may be higher than the recipient count, because a single recipient can have multiple devices assigned, such as a phone and a tablet. Notification will be sent to each of them.

Create a consented customer segment

1. In the Send section, go to the Select segments field.
2. Select Create new.
3. Set the following condition: Consent > [consent name] > is granted.
4. Click Search for customers.
5. Save the segment.

The segment will appear in the Send to field.

Delivery#

You can send mobile push notifications immediately or on a schedule you define.

Notification lifespan (TTL)

This setting controls how long the push notification provider (Firebase Cloud Messaging) will try to deliver the notification if the recipient’s device is offline.

A short validity period works well for time-sensitive campaigns. If the user doesn’t receive the notification in time, there’s no point delivering it late.

A longer validity period is a better choice for content that stays relevant longer, such as promotions or reminders. This way, more users will eventually see the notification, even if they’re temporarily offline.

The maximum notification lifetime is 28 days.

Sending speed

Here you set the number of notifications sent per minute. This setting is designed to prevent your app from being overwhelmed by a sudden spike in traffic after a high-interest delivery, e.g., a Black Friday promotion or the launch of ticket sales for a highly anticipated event.

The default send speed is 400 notifications per minute. For a mid-sized online store, the optimal range is 3,000–5,000 notifications per minute.

Metrics and reports

You’ll find the metrics in the table under Campaigns > Mobile push:

• Sent – the number of notifications sent. This can be higher than the number of recipients, since a single recipient can have multiple devices.
• Viewed – the number of notifications displayed on recipients’ devices.
• Clicked – the number of taps on the notification that resulted in opening the app.
• Unsubscribed – the number of recipients who blocked notifications or uninstalled the app and did not receive the notification.

Events are tracked per device, not per customer. For details about the devices your customers use, go to Customers > Customer 360 profile > Mobile devices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the number of sent notifications higher than the number of recipients?

A single recipient can have multiple devices assigned, e.g., a phone and a tablet. The platform sends a notification to every device, which is why the sent count can exceed the recipient count. In the Recipients tab, you’ll find both values separately: the number of recipients and the number of devices.

What happens if a recipient has notifications turned off in their operating system?

The platform will send the notification, but the device’s operating system will block it, and the recipient won’t see it. Depending on when and how the system reports the failed delivery, this will appear in your metrics as an unsubscribe. You can’t control the recipient’s system settings, but you can encourage them to turn notifications on, e.g., through an in-app message.

Why didn’t the notification reach all recipients in the segment?

There are a few possible reasons: the device was offline for the entire duration of the notification’s validity period (TTL), the recipient uninstalled the app, or their consent was withdrawn after the segment was saved. You can always check the actual number of delivered notifications in the campaign metrics under the Sent column.