5 errors in the implementation of push notifications for mobile applications

Original author: Alita Joyce (Nielsen Norman Group)
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The main idea: before asking the user to enable push notifications, tell him about their benefits and content. Do not send too many notifications at once and make it easy to turn them off.


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With proper execution, push notifications for mobile devices can provide the user with useful information and encourage further interaction with the application. But a poor implementation of notifications can push away and even force to remove the application.

In 2016, according to a study by Telefonica Research in Spain, mobile phone users received an average of 56 notifications per day . Today, this number is likely to increase. Therefore, their development should be approached with great attention, otherwise such a stream of notifications can undoubtedly harm the user experience.

Notifications are usually not related in any way to the user's actions in the application, nevertheless they provide some (presumably) information that is significant to the user. There are 2 main types of notifications: requiring action and passive. The former, as the name implies, suggest that the user performs a certain response action in accordance with the information received. The latter simply inform the user. Most application notifications are passive.

Have you ever read a letter as soon as you received it? This behavior is logical when the message is urgent and important. If this is not the case, you will feel annoyed that you lost the time to read it immediately and were distracted from your affairs. Likewise, push notifications can annoy us. They are in almost all types of user interfaces. For example, in Windows 10 they are usually displayed as a window that pops up briefly above the taskbar, or as an icon in the notification area. Notifications in voice interfaces can be especially annoying if the system suddenly starts talking at the most inopportune moments. In this article, we will focus on notifications for mobile devices. They are potentially the most useful (if used correctly), since users rarely part with their gadgets, and thus

Let's discuss 5 errors in the implementation of push notifications that developers often make:

  1. They ask permission to enable notifications when you first start the application.
  2. They don’t explain what the notifications will be about.
  3. Send a lot of notifications in a row.
  4. Impose irrelevant content on the user.
  5. Make it difficult to turn off notifications.

Mistake # 1: ask for permission to enable notifications when you first launch the application


Users who have just downloaded your application may not immediately understand if it will be useful to them. At this stage, you have not yet won their trust, but already want to bombard them with notifications ... And what will the user get from this?

Developers make this mistake so often that users stop reading even the text of the message. According to our research, their first reaction is to click "I do not allow". Everything will be different if you are guided by the principle of reciprocity and first give users time to get acquainted with the application , evaluate its benefits and ask later to turn on notifications.

NOT

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FreePrints, a photo printing application, meets new users with a simple splash screen that leads to the Get Started page. Before the user has time to read the text on this screen, it is interrupted by a request for permission to notify. At the same time, FreePrints does not say what these notifications are and why they will be interesting.

YES The

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Conquest mobile game allows users to spend some time in the app before asking to turn on notifications. Players perform a variety of tasks to improve their performance and increase the level. Only after the first player level increase does the application send a request for permission to notify.


Mistake number 2: do not explain what notifications are about


Consider typical messages on iOS devices: "Such a company would like to send you notifications." This wording focuses on what the company wants, rather than what the user will receive from it. If we are talking about social or news applications, the user can understand for himself what information he will see in the notifications. On the other hand, it’s much harder to guess what the notifications from the entertainment or trading application will be about. Detailed information about the nature of your notifications will help the user to decide whether they will be useful, thereby increasing his trust in you, because you honestly tell what notifications you want to send, and do not impose them by deception.

Tell people what your notifications are about to increase the likelihood of approval of such a request.

NOT

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The Tasty app, containing recipes and cooking videos, does not explain what kind of information is contained in its notifications. Users are perplexed about what Tasty is going to tell them, and whether it will be interesting.

YES The

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appendix of the augmented reality Night Sky planetarium tells about what its notifications are about (the state of the starry sky, the schedule of motion of celestial bodies, etc.). By providing this information before asking users to enable notifications, the app allows them to make an informed decision.


Mistake # 3: send a lot of notifications in a row


Have you ever been aggressively ringed at the door? The same effect is given by notifications, which in batches come to mobile devices. Too many notifications in a short period of time can infuriate the user, which will cause him to disable them or, worse, delete your application. Not to mention the fact that repeated notifications give the impression that the developer is either unprofessional or desperately trying to attract attention. Both that and another equally strongly alienate the user from your application.

Instead of attacking with a series of notifications, send them less and only about the most important.If you need to send more than 5 notifications at a time, combine them into one. Try to take quality, not quantity - and you will see how the loyalty of your users grows.

NO

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The Wunderlist Scheduler application sends notifications for each scheduled task. Reminders of this kind are useful until they become too many. For example, if you schedule several tasks for one day, notifications will begin to arrive one after another.

YES

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Instagram combines notifications if several users like your post. Thus, instead of sending 11 separate notifications, Instagram sends one, indicating the names of two users and the total number of others (ideally, these are the two most significant names for the user, and not just the last ones to like).

Note: iOS 12 solves the problem of too frequent notifications from one application, combining them into groups. But still, the user as a result will have to leaf through dozens of identical notifications, and in the best case this will tire him. Do not expect the operating system to efficiently optimize the frequency of notifications for you.

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iOS 12 groups messages from one application into one notification (left). By clicking on a group, all these messages are expanded (referencea).


Mistake number 4: impose irrelevant content on the user


Any notice is distracting. This is its meaning - it was created to distract the user's attention from everyday affairs and direct them to the received message. If the content of the message is not interesting to us, such distractions annoy. Some people do not tolerate unread incoming messages, others specifically clean the lock screen from all notifications. If you belong to the latter, then you will agree that deleting unnecessary messages is especially annoying.

To send the user notifications about all the little things happening in the application is a big mistake. You do not want them to roll their eyes every time a message from your application appears on the screen. And do not think that they can simply turn off all notifications in the settings. Better think through the content of your notifications., make them informative and entertaining.

NO

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The money transfer application Venmo sends notifications about any transaction (even one in which the user does not participate). The application has a news feed that shows who and when your friends are sending money. This is a little strange, but not very worrying when using the application. But notifications of such actions are completely inappropriate, because they do not concern the main user.

YES

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Reddit sends a notification when a popular post appears in the community you are subscribed to. This is interesting for users and encourages them to open the application and continue reading.

Ideally, applications should give users more freedom in setting both the frequency and content of notifications. For example, the ability to specify the maximum number of notifications that they would like to receive in a given period of time, or the ability to choose which types of notifications are important to them and which are not. The latter function can be implemented far from everywhere, but if in your application you can differentiate the importance of notifications, do it. Although studies show that most users do not bother with system settings, even if it would greatly facilitate their lives. Therefore, even if you provide your users with the ability to change notification settings in the application,


Mistake # 5: making it difficult to turn off notifications


There are many reasons why users might want to turn off notifications:

  • they receive too many notifications in general;
  • Your notifications have become less interesting and less important for them.
  • notifications distract from something important.

Whatever the reason for the disconnection, in no case do not try to hide this feature from the user. Such tricks undermine the credibility of the company and provide another reason to remove the application.

The procedure for disabling notifications should be simple and quick. Give the user the ability to manage notifications from the application so that he does not have to go into the phone settings. Put this function in the application settings, because it will look for it there.

NOT

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The Economic Times news app does not allow users to manage notifications within the app, despite some misleading language. There are two items in the hamburger menu where the user naturally expects to see notification settings: “Notification Center” (left) and “Settings” (right). But there is no way to change the notification settings in either section. As a result, the user is forced to go to the general notification settings on his phone.


YES

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The Elevate Mind Training App allows you to manage notifications right in the app. We can go to the settings page (on the left), select Push notifications and use the switches to configure settings for any type of notifications (on the right).


Conclusion


Notifications are distracting to users and can be annoying if they are inappropriate. Do not risk the loyalty of users. Give them time to familiarize themselves with the application and evaluate its benefits before asking to enable push notifications. Explain what notifications you intend to send them. Make sure that users can easily find notification settings within the application and disable them if desired. Avoid sending a series of messages at the same time and share only the information that interests your user.

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