The Fundamentals of Mobile Push Notifications

The average person has nearly 19 apps installed on their phone at any given time. Nobody has the time to manually check these apps one by one.

Fortunately, mobile push notifications can quickly tell users which apps need their attention right now, making it easier to manage their digital lives in just a few taps.

As more people digitize their lives with smartphones, tablets, and other devices, mobile push notifications have become a cornerstone of modern communication. These small but powerful messages appear on users' devices, offering timely updates, personalized content, and engaging reminders that keep them connected with their favorite apps and brands.

As a developer or business, it’s crucial to understand how mobile push notifications work—and how you can leverage them to drive user engagement. In this guide, we’ll dive into the basics of push notifications, including what they are, how they work, and why they’re so beneficial. We’ll also look at mobile push notification best practices to help you get even more value out of this technology.

In this article:

• What Are Mobile Push Notifications?
• How Mobile Push Notifications Work
• Real-World Applications for Mobile Push Notifications
• 4 Benefits of Mobile Push Notifications
• Best Practices for Using Mobile Push Notifications
• Elevate User Engagement with Mobile Push Notifications
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Mobile Push Notifications?

Mobile push notifications are brief, attention-grabbing messages from an app sent directly to a user's mobile device. Unlike traditional SMS or email, these notifications pop up on the user's screen regardless of whether the app is open or running in the background. This unique capability allows businesses and app developers to reach users instantly with relevant information, updates, and prompts.

The downside is that you have to convince users to download the app in the first place. For iOS users, you may also need to persuade them to enable app notifications in their system settings. Still, plenty of users are happy to download apps from their favorite brands or those that enhance their lives in some way (organization, information, entertainment, etc.), so mobile push notifications are perfect for engaging with your audience.

However, not all push notifications are the same. There are several types of push notifications, each serving a different purpose, including:

1. Standard push notifications: These messages typically include text and sometimes a small icon or image. They deliver general updates, reminders, or alerts. For example, a news app might send a standard push notification to inform users of a breaking news story.
2. Rich push notifications: Rich push notifications go a step further by incorporating multimedia elements like images, videos, or audio. These enhanced notifications are more engaging and can provide a richer user experience, although they require a little more design and development work. A retail app might use rich push notifications to showcase a new product with an image and a short video clip.
3. Interactive push notifications: Interactive push notifications allow users to act immediately without opening the app. These notifications include buttons or other interactive elements that enable users to respond directly from the notification itself. Examples include a messaging app that allows users to directly reply to messages from the notification or a calendar app that lets users accept or decline event invitations with a single tap.

Mobile push notifications are a win-win. They keep users informed about the latest app updates while giving businesses the benefit of increased engagement.

How Mobile Push Notifications Work

Sending and receiving mobile push notifications can get a bit technical. However, as long as you have a solid development team in your corner, you’ll send optimized notifications that turn more heads. Most mobile push notifications follow this three-step process.

1. Set up Server-Side Components

On the server side, the process begins with an application server that manages the sending of push notifications. This server is responsible for:

• Generating and sending notifications: The server creates the notification content and sends it to the appropriate push notification service (PNS) based on the user's device platform (iOS, Android, etc.).
• Authentication: This ensures that only authenticated and authorized applications can send notifications.
• Handling user preferences: This step manages user settings and preferences regarding notifications, such as opting in or out and frequency of notifications.

2. Manage the Client Side

Once you have the foundation for push notifications on your side, you’ll need to set up client-facing components. On the client side, you’ll need to manage user registration.

When a user installs an app and agrees to receive notifications, the app registers with the respective push notification service. This registration involves obtaining a unique device token.

Next, the mobile device uses this token to receive notifications from the PNS. The app on the device then processes and displays the notification to the user.

3. Create the Delivery Mechanism

Finally, you need to set up a push notification service (PNS). iOS devices use Apple Push Notification service (APNs), which ensure secure and efficient delivery of messages from the server to the user’s devices. Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is used for Android devices and is generally more flexible than APNs.

At this stage, decide whether you want to create real-time or scheduled messages. Real-time messages are great for alerting users about time-sensitive information, like breaking news or limited-time sales.

Scheduled notifications go out at a particular time, allowing businesses to target users based on optimal engagement times or to send reminders about upcoming events.

Real-World Applications for Mobile Push Notifications

Mobile push notifications are just about everywhere. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a single industry that hasn’t benefited from this technology. Check out these everyday use cases for mobile push notifications and how they save time for both customers and businesses.

eCommerce and Retail

• Promotional alerts: eCommerce platforms use push notifications to tell users about sales, discounts, and special offers. These notifications can drive immediate purchases by creating a sense of urgency.
• Cart abandonment reminders: Retail apps send push notifications to remind users about abandoned shopping carts, encouraging them to complete their purchases.
• Order updates: Notifications keep customers informed about the status of their orders, including shipping and delivery updates.

Entertainment

• Breaking news alerts: News apps send push notifications to update users on breaking news and important events.
• Content recommendations: Streaming services use push notifications to recommend new content based on the user’s viewing history.
• Event reminders: Notifications remind users about upcoming events, live streams, or new episodes of their favorite shows.

Wellness

• Appointment reminders: Healthcare apps use push notifications to remind patients of upcoming appointments, which reduces no-shows.
• Medication reminders: Notifications help users adhere to their medication schedules.
• Fitness goals and progress: Fitness apps send motivational messages, workout reminders, and progress updates to keep users on track with their fitness goals.

Hospitality

• Booking confirmations: Travel apps send push notifications to confirm bookings for flights, hotels, and rental cars.
• Travel updates: Notifications provide real-time updates on flight delays, gate changes, and other travel-related information.
• Location-based recommendations: Hospitality apps use geolocation to send personalized recommendations for restaurants, attractions, and activities based on the user’s location.

4 Benefits of Mobile Push Notifications

Mobile push notifications are used in just about every industry, and for good reason: they work! Businesses have already invested time in creating a mobile app, and setting up push notifications helps them squeeze even more out of their investment. Businesses that set up mobile push notifications enjoy these major benefits.

1. Increased Engagement

Without notifications, users are unlikely to remember to check your app. Sending timely, relevant messages draws users back to your app, encouraging them to interact with your content and take action.

2. User Retention

Customer retention is crucial for the long-term success of any business, and push notifications play a significant role in keeping customers coming back for more. However, users will uninstall apps that don’t deliver value.

By maintaining regular contact with users, businesses can build stronger relationships and enhance loyalty. Use notifications to re-engage inactive users with personalized messages, offers, or updates to entice them back to the app.

3. Personalization

Mobile push notifications provide a different platform for personalized interactions. Mobile push notifications are a must if you’re looking for more ways to tailor your messaging based on user preferences.

Create targeted campaigns based on user segments and use dynamic content to deliver personalized messages, product recommendations, or content suggestions based on a user’s interests.

4. Improved App Usage—and Revenue

Push notifications can significantly boost app usage and drive revenue growth. You’ll encourage more frequent app usage and increase conversions by delivering value-driven messages.

Best Practices for Using Mobile Push Notifications

Setting up mobile push notifications is a great first step to boosting engagement, but notifications alone won’t move the needle for your business. Follow these best practices to get more leverage out of your mobile push notifications.

1. Use a Real-Time Messaging Inbox Solution Like MagicBell

You’re free to develop mobile push notifications from scratch, but that can take ages. Whether you’re in a hurry or lacking internal development resources, you can seriously speed up mobile notification implementation with MagicBell.

Focus on core functionalities and streamline notification management—MagicBell has segmentation, scheduling, analytics, and more covered for you. Our real-time notification inbox syncs messages across devices, ensuring users receive timely and relevant notifications no matter where they are. The platform supports multi-channel notifications, including email, Slack, APNs, and FCM, making it a versatile solution for any app.

2. Craft Effective Messages

The content of your push notifications has a significant impact on whether users decide to engage with them or not. Follow these tips to write better push notifications:

• Be concise: Write straightforward messages. Users should immediately understand why you’re sending the notification and what it’s about. Be sure to follow any character limits so the text displays properly.
• Create a sense of urgency: Use action-oriented language to encourage immediate responses. Phrases like "Limited Time Offer" or "Act Now" can drive quick user action.
• Always include a call to action (CTA): What do you want users to do? Guide them to the next step with a clear CTA, such as "Shop Now," "Read More," or "Reply."

3. Watch Your Timing and Frequency

The time you send notifications and how often you send them also have a big impact on engagement. After all, if you send messages at midnight while users are asleep, it’s unlikely they’ll engage with your app.

Send notifications when people are most likely to engage with them. The best sending time will vary based on user behavior, time zones, and the type of content. When in doubt, check your analytics to see when users are the most active.

It’s also important to avoid overwhelming users with too many notifications. That’s a recipe for unsubscribes and frustration, so balance is key. Analytics will help you find the sweet spot, but you may also need to segment your audience to tailor the frequency to user preferences.

4. Segment and Personalize

With segmentation, you divide your audience into different lists based on demographics, behavior, preferences, and other criteria. Writing separate messages for each segment takes a little more time, but you’ll be rewarded with higher engagement and conversion rates.

Once you create these segments, use customer data to personalize notification content. Address users by name and tailor messages to their interests and past interactions with your app.

5. Add Rich Media and Interactive Elements

The meat of your content matters, but it always helps to jazz things up with multimedia. The more eye-catching the mobile push notification, the more likely users are to interact with it!

Improve the visual appeal and interactivity of your push notifications with rich media, which gives users more context than plain text. Use images, videos, and GIFs to make your notifications more visually engaging. Include buttons and other interactive elements that allow users to take immediate action without opening the app.

Elevate User Engagement with Mobile Push Notifications

Mobile push notifications are one of the best ways to drive traffic and engagement for your mobile app. They require some technical expertise, but with the right tools in your corner, you’ll create an engagement powerhouse that supports long-term user retention and revenue

The best practices in this guide are a good start, but the most hands-off way to enjoy the benefits of mobile push notifications is to use MagicBell. Our real-time notification inbox seamlessly integrates with your app to offer multi-channel support, advanced segmentation, and powerful analytics.

Not to brag, but we make managing and optimizing your notifications easier than ever before. Create your free MagicBell account now to create engaging notifications that resonate with your users.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I measure the success of my push notification campaigns?

Measure the success of your push notification campaigns by tracking these key metrics:

• Open rate: The percentage of users who open your push notifications.
• Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of users who click on the notification's call-to-action.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of users who complete a desired action after clicking the notification.
• Retention rate: The percentage of users who remain engaged with your app over time.
• Churn rate: The percentage of users who disable notifications or uninstall the app after receiving notifications.

What are some common mistakes to avoid with push notifications?

These missteps could hurt the effectiveness of your push notifications:

• Sending too many notifications: Overloading users with frequent notifications leads to notification fatigue and opt-outs.
• Irrelevant content: Sending irrelevant notifications can cause users to ignore or disable notifications.
• Poor timing: Sending notifications at inconvenient times, such as late at night or during work hours, is disruptive and annoying.
• Lack of personalization: Generic notifications that don’t account for user preferences and behaviors are less engaging.

What are rich push notifications, and how can they improve user engagement?

Rich push notifications include multimedia elements like images, videos, GIFs, and audio, making them more engaging and visually appealing than standard text-based notifications. They improve user engagement by offering more context and making your notifications more compelling. Multimedia elements also catch the user’s eye and prompt interaction.