Are all push notifications really read? Are they better than in-app notifications? Our experience shows that in-app notifications are better than their reputation says and are more successful in the long term than the push alternative.

Today, the focus is on the direct comparison of in-app and push notifications. If you ask organizers, most of them prefer push notifications for their event apps. However, this desire springs from false or outdated assumptions. We will subsequently clear up and show you what the various types of messages technically mean, what advantages and disadvantages arise for the organizers and participants, and what we think about it.

Push Notifications

When organizers hear the terms “send notifications” and “event apps” together, most instinctively assume push notifications. It’s the classic form of notifications, as we all know from our installed apps. In simple terms, the app can send a signal to the smartphone. Depending on the settings of the smartphone, it rings, vibrates or activates a notification on the display. The app itself does not have to be opened by the user before. This message type is thus able to trigger an activity for the user without having to be active in advance.

In-App Notifications

Unlike push notifications, in-app notifications cannot actively “address” the smartphone, but are only active in the app itself. So if the organizer sends an in-app notification, then the user’s device will not respond to it automatically, so it neither rings nor vibrates, nor shows a notification on the home screen. Here, the initial activity must come from the user. Only when he opens the app in question the message will be displayed.

What do Organizers Think?

Organizers actually always want push notifications for their apps. This has two main reasons. First, they are simply accustomed to seeing messages directly on their smartphone from apps installed from the app store. The second reason is the fear that their visitors do not receive the messages that they sent. Organizers of course only send relevant messages to their guests, who absolutely must read them. The push notification ensures that guests receive this message without opening the app. Many organizers believe that their push notifications are more likely to be read than in-app notifications.

Both of these arguments are outdated and can also be solved with in-app notifications, but more on that in the section “Our point of view”.

What do Participants Think?

For participants, the prevailing opinion is not as clear as with the organizers. Although a relevant mass can handle push notifications very well, the vast majority reject them, at least as far as event apps are concerned. Many people find the constant vibration of their smartphones at events very annoying and simply turn off the push function of the app. Although there is no valid data, if you look around a bit, it quickly becomes clear that most people switch off the push function after at least three useless messages. In contrast to the organizer, the participants’ fear of missing notifications at events is rather low. There are certainly apps where push notifications are very useful, but for the most part, it gets annoying over time. This is also shown by the trend to generally disable the push function on the smartphone.

Push Notifications vs. In-App Notifications

With both push and in-app notifications, it’s about providing your visitors with the latest news. Only the way to the destination is different. Here the pros and cons are summarized:

Benefits of Push
User receives a notification without being active.

Disadvantages of Push
User is interrupted during his activity -> unwanted messages or inappropriate situations lead to rejection and negative emotions.

Benefits of In-App
Users can independently determine when they want to deal with the event and relevant information and then they receive the notifications.

Disadvantages of In-App
Users must become active to receive notifications.

Our Point of View

At LineUpr we currently rely exclusively on in-app notifications. The reasons are both technical in nature and because of our vision. After more than 2 years of experience and more than 700 accompanied events, however, our opinion has changed a bit.

Vision

We admit it. That LineUpr apps do not allow push notification is originally due to the fact that it was not technically possible at that time (more about that). However, having attended more events week after week and immersing ourselves deeply in the industry, this original limitation has become more and more our vision. At the heart of LineUpr should always be a simple, intuitive product that meets the needs of the organizers, but primarily focuses on the participant. Many of them are annoyed by the many unnecessary push messages from the event apps. Organizers tend to spread every little change as widely as possible. The guests tend to care less about this and feel increasingly bothered by the masses of notifications.

An event app should never interrupt or destroy the real programme flow. It should support the participants, always provide them with the latest information and strengthen the positive feeling at the event. This is much better guaranteed with in-app notifications than with push notifications.

Technical limitation

All event apps from LineUpr are web apps. When we launched LineUpr, it was not technically possible to send push messages using a web app. Meanwhile, the Web technology has evolved and it is possible, but unfortunately so far only for Android systems. Apple or iOS does not yet allow this feature for web apps. Until both major operating systems allow push notifications, we cannot release this feature yet because users find it difficult to communicate when the feature works for one but not for another.

Our opinion

Our opinion already came out in the section “Vision”. We clearly prefer in-app notifications, but we will not refuse push notifications. As soon as Apple allows this function, we will implement it. Our goal, however, is to convince every organizer of the in-app variation. Everyone can certainly understand how annoying it is when you’re in a stimulating conversation and this is interrupted because your smartphone rings, only to tell you that the buffet has just opened. However, if the user actively opens the app, he is ready for event information. As an organizer, you want to communicate with your guests exactly in this state, because they not only see and read the message here but also really take it in and do not mentally push it away. Our event data clearly shows that the in-app notifications are on average the third most open pages. And that is all the more remarkable since the first active action clearly has to come from the user. Here his attention is therefore significantly greater than with push interruptions at approximately the same reader rate.

Summary

Organizers always talk about push messages when communicating with an event app. The in-app version is seen as rather critical because they are afraid that their messages will not be read. Event participants see exactly the opposite and could very well do without the constant vibration of their smartphones. We understand why organizers always call for push notifications but at the same time, we can prove with data that in-app notifications are significantly better than their reputation says. They are very well received and are read by the participants, so you do not have to worry about information being lost. Push notifications, on the other hand, often hit the participants in awkward moments and they tend to click the notification away. So although they have seen it, they have not really recorded it.

Feedback

What is your opinion on push notifications vs. in-app notifications? Do you also switch off your push notifications? Do you still have questions which we could not answer? We look forward to your answers.

The post Push Notifications or In-App Notifications – With Which one can You Reach Your Guests More Successfully first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

In this tutorial, we deal in detail with the post-feature. We will show you how to create posts and for what cases you should use them. In the second part, we will show you, how to create and edit categories globally in the app.

As always, you will find the examples presented in our demo app.

What is a Post-Message and How Can I Use Them

With posts, you can inform your participants about program highlights, spontaneous changes or simply the start or end of the event. You can also use it to present your sponsors. More to this here. EventMB has some more cool suggestions to use posts for you.

This feature allows you to communicate directly with your guests. You create the posts in your CMS and with one click you send them to the app users.

Most event app vendors rely only on push notifications. We use in-app notifications instead. There are a lot of reasons why we prefer the in-app option but due to time limitations at this point only a short explanation. Most participants are quickly annoyed by push messages, which is why they tend to switch off this function. At the same time, a notification always interrupts the user’s behavior because we instinctively look at our smartphone when it makes a noise. Often the message is simply swiped away and forgotten.

In-app messages, on the other hand, address the user in the status when he or she wants to get information about the event (this is why he or she opens the app). This increases the attention span and the probability that the user opens and reads the message.

Create Your First Post Message

First, log into your account and access the dashboard of your event. Now navigate to the menu item “Posts” (1) and initiate the creation with a click on “+ Add Post” (2).

Now you should see the creation screen. To set up a new post, enter the “Title” (3) and the „Text“ (4). After that, you can already save and publish the post with “Create” (5).

For the text creation we offer a simple text editor with which you can create bullet points, lists and links as well as write bold and italic.

Besides, you can add more information (6) such as contact data and links to social networking profiles and websites. You can also link directly to a subpage of the app, e.g. a program item or present one of your sponsors, but more to this later.

To integrate such information, you must first select whether you want to add a link, an email address or a phone number and then click on “+ Add Entry”. Then quickly enter the data and you are done. Please note that a link must be complete, starting with http:// The same care applies to telephone numbers with the prefix. You can also specify in the “Description” field under which title the respective item is displayed.

Present Subpages and Profiles of the App via Post Messages

If your schedule changes spontaneously you have to inform your guests. The post feature is born for this situation. Send your guests a message and inform them of any adjustments. This message is even more successful if you connect it directly to the item so that the guests can see the new version in the schedule.

To do this, open the item in the “Schedule” menu. Now you are in the edit view. In the middle at the top you will find three symbols. Use the “Speech bubble” (7) and you will be directed to the creation view for a new post message.

The name of the program item is automatically used for the „Title“ (8). But of course, you can adjust it. The name of the link (9) can also be changed. In the text, for example, you can explain what has changed. Via the post, your users get directly to the adjusted program item.

This is what a post could look like:

You can use the same principle to present your speakers and sponsors or to point out a survey. The message will take your participants directly to where you want them to go.

How to Plan Posts

With LineUpr you can create post messages in advance and publish them with one click at the desired time.

Just create a message, but before clicking on “Create”, change the “Visibility” (10) to “Invisible”. Now the post is created and you can publish it at the appropriate time.

This feature is particularly useful for the mandatory welcome messages and references to program items and surveys, as these are known well in advance.

You should also consider using it when it comes to notifying your guests about certain items. When the attendees open the app and instantly get a bulk of messages, chances are that the content will be forgotten or not read at all. Therefore, our tip: prepare the post and send it shortly before the item actually takes place.

Create and Edit Categories Globally in the App

In many tutorials, we have already dealt with the use and creation of categories. You can use categories to distinguish between locations and sponsors or to classify program items and people at your event.

In all these tutorials we created the categories directly during the creation of program items, persons, etc., but how can I edit or globally create these categories afterward?

Categories are only valid for the menu items (Location, Lineup, Program,…) in which they are created and not for the whole app. Therefore, these categories can only be edited in these areas. The process is the same for all menu items.

We take the schedule as an example. To change or create a category, first, click on the menu item “Schedule” (11) and then in the middle at the top on “Categories” (12).

Here you can see all your categories created so far in a list. If you want to create a new category, click on “+ Add Category” (13). If you prefer to edit an existing category, click on the pencil symbol (14). If you want to delete a category, use the trash-bag-symbol (15).

No matter if you want to create a new category or edit an existing one, you always have the possibility to change the “Name” (16) and the assigned “Color” (17). Either use our color palette or an individual hex color code.

Learnings of the day

In this tutorial, we showed you how easy it is to create post messages for your event app. Use this feature to communicate spontaneous changes to your agenda or to increase the attention for your sponsors and speakers. Also, we took a look at creating, editing and deleting categories globally.

The next tutorial will take a look at how to create about pages and how to control the access and visibility of your app. More tutorials can be found on our blog.

What is your opinion about our post feature? Do you prefer push notifications? How do you judge that from the participant’s point of view? We are looking forward to your feedback.

“Message” Icon created by Lee Mette from “the Noun Project“.

The post LineUpr Tutorial – How to Create Post-Messages in Your App and Change or Delete Categories first appeared on LineUpr Blog.