Push Notifications for Android & iOS Mobile Apps
Push notifications are a great engagement and retention tool
They provide a visual prompt to open your app
Keep push notifications short, with only the most important information
You can write, preview, send immediately, schedule, and segment, push notifications form the Uscreen admin marketing page.
To receive notifications, your end users enable notifications on their device.
To Send Notifications:
1: In the admin area, go to Marketing > Push Notifications > New Notification
2: Enter Title (65 characters including spaces, automatically uses bold print)
3: Enter Message (178 characters including spaces)
4. Optionally Link to Content, so to have the push notification automatically open a specific video, live event, or collection, community post, in your app. This is a deep link.
5. Optionally Send To a particular segment of your mobile users, such as active users, in trial users, Leads, and those on a particular plan.
6: Send Now or Schedule for a time in the future. You can schedule multiple push notifications at a time. Note: the scheduled time is based on you store timezone setting, not your local timezone.
Counts and Delivery Rates
When you create and send push notifications, you will see a count. this count is only an approximation of users that will receive push notifications. Remember, your users have the option to "allow" or "don't allow" push notifications from your app. This is a required iOS and Android system setting, and a user choice. iOS and Android do this intentionally to give users the option of controlling their attention and amount of received push notifications. Users who "don't allow" push notifications will not receive push notifications. For user privacy purposes, there is no way for your app, or Uscreen, to see this information, and reflect it in this count.
Furthermore, there is a second setting, in your mobile apps. Users may enable or disable notifications inside your app settings. Users who disable notifications in their Account > Notifications Settings will not receive notifications.
So all the above information helps explain the count is only an approximation, and that the number of users that receive your push notifications is likely less, based on system settings, and also user app settings.
But do not be discouraged! Similar to email campaigns, not everyone receives, or opens the message. But push notifications are still a powerful engagement and retention tool. Many users opt in to receive push notifications. Remember, they are paying to receive regularly scheduled and quality content! Push notifications are a great reminder of this value. Read more about push notification strategies on the Uscreen blog.
How to Test a Push Notification
Easily test push notifications to ensure they look and function as intended before sending them to a broader audience.
Steps to Test a Push Notification
To verify how your push notification will appear and behave, follow these steps:
Create a Private Test Bundle:
Navigate to Bundles in your Uscreen admin area.
Create a new bundle and name it something recognizable, like "Test Bundle."
Ensure this bundle is private so it won't be accessible to other users.
Assign the Test Bundle to Your Test Account:
Identify a test account you use on the mobile app (this should be an account signed in on your phone).
Assign the test bundle to this account by going to People, selecting the test account, and adding the bundle to their subscription.
Send a Push Notification to the Test Bundle:
Go to Marketing > Push Notifications in the admin area.
Create a new notification by entering the title, message, and optional link (if applicable).
In the "Send To" section, select your newly created "Test Bundle."
Click Send Now to immediately broadcast the notification to only your test account.
Check the Notification on Your Device:
Ensure your test account is logged into the app on your mobile device.
Confirm you’ve enabled push notifications on both the device and app settings (under Account > Notification Settings in the app).
Wait for the push notification to arrive and verify:
The text displays as intended.
Links or deep links open correctly (if included).
Push Notification Ideas
Need some push notification ideas? Remember that push notifications are a powerful audience engagement and retention tool.
Send a push when you have a cool new video
Send a push to remind users about an important live event
Share a particularly popular community post
Send a push to those in trial, encouraging them to subscribe!
Engage former users to sign up again, to view the latest exclusive content.
Encourage active monthly subscribers to change to annual plans to save.
Notification best practices
Creating Push Notifications:
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Not Receiving Notifications on your phone?
Check Notification Settings: >Device Settings >Notifications >App. If Off, Turn ON.
Do my apps have Push Notifications?
Check Status: >Uscreen Dashboard >People Tab >Push Notifications
If Apps are Published/Live: If not enabled, click Contact Us to request.
If Apps are in Development: You DO NOT need to request. It's automatically enabled for all apps during the development process.