6 Types of Mobile Push Notifications Users Actually Want to Receive

With the number of smartphones in circulation now, it is a surprise that people still meet each other face to face! It can be called the age of addiction to technology or, to put a positive spin on it, it can be the age of digital advancement. The sheer barrage of mobile applications that are available in every mobile app store proves that there is no function or task left that cannot be performed using our smartphones.

Now these tasks are of different types and they have varied levels of importance or priority for different users. Therefore, who is to decide which app is more important to which user? And, what should an app do with this information?

This is where push notifications come into play. An app itself can gauge the usage trends of a particular app user and record the data. This can later be used to send the user relevant push notifications. Now, there are alerts that a user would want, and some others that a user wouldn’t.

Here are 6 types of push notifications that majority of the users want to receive:

1. Highly personalized notifications:

A user would not like to receive unnecessary notifications that do not pertain to them unless and until it is a situation of impending doom that needs to be notified about.

It is widely known that each person has a distinct set of likes and dislikes and there is a less than a slight chance of another person having the exact same set of preferences.

This is where the concept of user data plays a role and the extraction of insights from this data is key. The app must learn about the user, their habits, what apps they like and which ones they visit frequently and other such information. Using this information, an app can ping the user using notifications tailor-made to their liking.

For example, if a particular user visits the news app often, then app can learn about what kind of news appeals to the user and send them notifications about it.

If the notification is supposed to be a reminder to the user about a certain activity, then the app should ensure that the user is actually interested in this particular activity, such as, renewing a subscription or playing a certain daily quiz.

2. Notifications that show time-sensitive information:

These type of notifications are capable of being of use to existing users of an app. The information that is contained in the notification is time-sensitive, which means that it is a reminder of some action that needs to be performed by the user within a stipulated time to avoid suffering any losses. Therefore, from the viewpoint of the app, it is extremely important that the information is relevant and significant to the user.

For example, if a person is driving on a certain street, it is a good practice to notify him/her of any road blockages or adverse street conditions coming up in the vicinity. This is time-sensitive because after the user has crossed that area, this information will be of no relevance to him/her.

A nagging question of concern is that what sort of data is sufficiently imperative to impart to our clients by means of push warnings.

3. Notifications of praise for an achievement:

It is common ground to like praises and feel good when someone pays a compliment. Users will feel the same way even if the praise is from their smartphone. When a user completes a series of tasks or accomplishes something by reaching a certain level, it is a good practice for the app to notify them of their progress by congratulating them for a job well done.

These practices will come in handy if the app wants to be retained by the user. The user will not only retain the app, they will also visit it more often and continue to fulfil any tasks that the app further poses. These notifications must be pleasant to read and must have a positive vibe to them. They must be formal or informal based on the nature of the application.

4. Reminder notifications:

Most users are not averse to reminder notifications. The remainder should be about something they are interested in or about something they were expecting a reminder for. The app can gauge this using their data and user input and keeping track if there is any activity that the user needs to fulfil in a specific number of hours.

This particular technology of push notifications of reminders is extremely useful for an app user as humans have memories that can fail them from time to time.

5. Smart sales notifications:

There has been an ecommerce boom ever since its inception and the majority of the users rely on the mobile app instead of the websites. When users make a purchase using an ecommerce application, they supply a bit of their data to the app such as their payment trends, purchase history etc.

This data is then used by the application to learn about the user and their preferences. Thus, the app is then equipped to notify the user of any upcoming discount offers, promotions or products which suit their liking. Each notification is customized to the tastes of the user it is sent to.

There are a number of events that trigger a user to take the plunge and make a purchase. These events include various cause and effect cases. For example, if a user is searching for flights from one location to another, then the app can notify the user about availability of hotels at discount prices at the destination.

6. Permission to send notifications:

It is always in good practice to seek permission from a user to send them something first. This will avoid any ambiguity and the notification will only be sent if the user wishes it and does not consider it to be clutter.

When a user is browsing within a certain application, a pop-up dialogue box asks them, “Would you like to receive notifications from this application in the future?”. This is a notification asking them if they would like to receive further notifications.

The above practice also gives a sense of freedom and flexibility to the user that shows them that the app will not disturb them with anything irrelevant and without their consent. There is a chance that the user may agree and this is an opportunity for the app to send them reasonable and relevant notifications based on their browse history.

Another extremely helpful feature would be to give user the control of how often an app can send them any notification. The user can set a particular frequency and thus will never be taken off guard.