The major iOS 15 change that has managed to stay out of 'focus'

Fall 2021 is not far out anymore. While many marketers are still digesting the infamous ATT from iOS 4.5 and the discussion wave has gained momentum around email tracking for iOS 15 , there is one change that has managed to stay well under the radar, or out of focus. Focus mode.

Focus mode is not new. It's basically a 'Do Not Disturb' mode with a twist. Instead of a simple on/off switch, you can go to town to customise your focus modes to fit your your daily needs. And if you have different requirements for every weekday, Focus mode allows and encourages you to have a separate one each day. From a user's point of view, Apple has just made digital life a lot more bearable.

Now, let's switch sides. You are a marketer or even a developer who would like to engage with your app users. Once you had attained 'permission' to send that user push notifications, nothing stood in your way as push messages do not require an app to be open to be delivered. It just needs to be on the device. Here is where iOS 15 aims to make things, well, a little more complicated.

There is now an array of criteria that will determine when your push messages will be delivered.

Lets' go through these according to Apple's developer resource :

• Passive. Information people can view at their leisure, like a restaurant recommendation.
• Active?(the default). Information people might appreciate knowing about when it arrives, like a score update on their favorite sports team.
• Time Sensitive. Information that directly impacts the user and requires their immediate attention, like an account security issue or a package delivery.
• Critical. Urgent information about personal health and public safety that directly impacts the user and demands their immediate attention. Critical notifications are extremely rare and typically come from governmental and public agencies or healthcare apps. You must get an entitlement to use the Critical interruption level.

Realistically, notifications will venture between passive and time-sensitive. Even more realistically, notification will be either passive or active. Here we enter the next twist and turn - passive & active do not override scheduled delivery or break through focus. Huh? In other words, if a user decides to include your app/your apps notifications in the notification summary, it will be delivered only then.

9to5 Mac published a great article around the notification summary in iOS 15 here . In line with this, there is another choice a user needs to make; it will no longer be just yes/no but more likely if yes, then in summary or immediately, or no. The below illustrates what we are all used and an unconfirmed example of what could be.

As with everything related to new iOS roll-outs, they will only be confirmed once the general release takes place but current indications seem to throw some more complexity into the mobile engagement/CRM space.

At the heart of all this is the ability for companies and publisher to clearly illustrate a value exchange for data and consent. Even if you are unable to capture the the desired consent the first time around, the right data (like an email address) will allow you to have alternate touch points with users and customers. In turn, this will make it all the more important to have a coherent and seamless feel across properties that your audience can interact with.

Relevance has just become all the more important.