Push Notifications That Don't Suck

In the age where apps in every category battle it out against each other for conversion rates and session times, push notifications have become the de-facto way to generate repeat visits and therefore hitting those all-important KPIs. The end result? Billions of people annoyed by irrelevant notifications which are generally ignored. I believe we can do better.

This talk covers tips and tricks for better user targeting, showing relevant content, as well as styling them using the latest and greatest of Oreo’s APIs and best practices.

Transcript

1. PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
 THAT DON’T SUCK Zan Markan @zmarkan
 Developer Evangelist, Pusher
2. @zmarkan Realtime communication and collaboration APIs for your apps SDKs for web, mobile, and backend pusher.com
 @pusher
3. @zmarkan
4. @zmarkan LET’S FACE IT
 MOST NOTIFICATIONS ARE ANNOYING @zmarkan
5. @zmarkan GAMES AND THEIR F*%&$ CHESTS @zmarkan
6. @zmarkan ❤ @zmarkan
7. @zmarkan @zmarkan
8. @zmarkan THIS IS NOT A RANT
9. @zmarkan NOTIFICATIONS
 VS 
 PUSH
 NOTIFICATIONS
10. @zmarkan WTF ARE (PUSH) NOTIFICATIONS? Notifications are the things you display Pushes start from the server Pushes can be silent
11. @zmarkan NOT-PUSH EXAMPLES Media playback controls ⏯ Long-running processes
12. @zmarkan DISPLAYED VS HIDDEN PUSHES Telegram DNS address shebang in ) New content available to pre-load
13. @zmarkan NOTIFICATIONS 2018
14. GCM, FCM, APNS, OH MY! Push notifications are supported everywhere Beloved by filthy marketing depts No. 1 way to communicate with closed apps
15. @zmarkan
16. INDUSTRIES Shopping Social Travel Games Messaging Tourism Delivery Ride sharing All of them!
17. @zmarkan PSYCHOLOGY OF INTERRUPTIONS
 NOTIFICATIONS
18. @zmarkan ADDICTION
19. @zmarkan DISTRACTIONS
20. @zmarkan RETENTION
21. @zmarkan
22. @zmarkan WHEN RECEIVING <= 10 PUSHES / WEEK… 80% DISABLE NOTIFICATIONS 60% CHURN ALTOGETHER
23. @zmarkan ENGAGEMENT
24. @zmarkan
25. @zmarkan USER DISABLED NOTIFICATIONS OR…
 HOW TO LOSE A CHANNEL
26. @zmarkan PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
 THAT 
 3ROCK
27. @zmarkan TAKING NOTIFICATIONS UP TO 11
28. @zmarkan SHOULD YOU 
 CREATE A NOTIFICATION?
29. @zmarkan SHOULD THIS BE AN EMAIL? ✉ …OR A CARD?
33. @zmarkan BE LIKE SLACK
34. @zmarkan PERSONALISATION IS
35. @zmarkan
36. @zmarkan USER PREFERENCES 
 > 
 PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ELSE
37. @zmarkan CONTEXT
 &
 RELEVANCE
38. @zmarkan @zmarkan
39. @zmarkan
40. @zmarkan STAYING RELEVANT Have I explicitly asked for it? Do I want/need it now? Can I get this in other ways?
41. @zmarkan
42. @zmarkan MAKE IT
 WORK
43. MAKING IT WORK Do deep linking right State management is hard Let’s not crash m’kay?
44. @zmarkan TEST

45. @zmarkan
46. @zmarkan TEST
 (BUT NOT IN $%£& PROD)
47. @zmarkan SEND FEWER
 BETTER
48. @zmarkan
49. @zmarkan APIS & GUIDELINES OVERVIEW
50. @zmarkan Notifications provide 
 short, timely, and relevant information about your app when it’s not in use. “ @zmarkan
51. STYLES Text Text + img Big Text Text + Big img Grouping < Custom layouts = Actions > Dots ⚪
52. @zmarkan NOTIFICATION LENGTH 37-ish chars max message length
53. @zmarkan
54. @zmarkan EXPAND NOTIFICATIONS Use sparingly to show more than short text allows (but still limited length) Messages, QR codes, Delivery instructions, …
55. @zmarkan CHANNELS Required in Oreo Users can fine-tune their preferences in Settings Important vs unimportant messages
56. @zmarkan
57. @zmarkan PRIORITY From “nice to know” to 
 “OMG WAKE ME UP NOW ” (You are not a special ❄ & users can disable everything)
58. @zmarkan LOCK SCREEN Privacy vs practicality What should be hidden? What should be visible at a glance?
59. @zmarkan
60. @zmarkan CUSTOM LAYOUTS Guardian Mobile Lab Elections & Sports coverage Live notifications
61. @zmarkan SUMMARY
62. @zmarkan SUMMARY Relevance and context are Use the sweet new APIs ❤ Know your users and their preferences Delight (or be deleted ☠)
63. @zmarkan Zan Markan
 Developer Evangelist @ Pusher zan@pusher.com / @zmarkan @pusher / www.pusher.com
64. @zmarkan REFS & READING 
 
 https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/notifiers/notifications.html https://material.io/guidelines/patterns/notifications.html http://andrewchen.co/user-retention-why-depending-on-notification-driven-retention-sucks/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/live-presidential-election-night-results-mobile http://www.futuretravelexperience.com/2014/04/easyjet-using-mobile-push-notifications-keep-passengers-informed/
 http://info.localytics.com/blog/2015-the-year-that-push-notifications-grew-up 
 https://support.urbanairship.com/hc/en-us/articles/213491643-What-are-the-Maximum-Characters-for-Push-Notifications-
 http://info.localytics.com/blog/push-notification-survey-2018