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The world of technology has gotten us closer and has shrunk the globe. The more technology progressed, more things were redefined to make comfort and convenience easily available at all times.
We are all surrounded by a world of applications that we are glued to. Most of these applications again concentrate on the comfort and convenience factor. Probably, one of the many reasons why they are so popular in the first place. Applications these days have changed the way people do almost everything. Be it the way they shop and purchase items or the fact of how to watch movies and now even read.
With millions of apps available, it becomes a challenge to be one that is the most preferred and often app developers think that the number of times their application is installed is the means of measuring its success. But, in truth, just like in the case of emails sent to subscribers world-wide, just mailing the numbers brings no result unless there is the final outcome of a person viewing an email and let’s say completing the purchase.
If statistics are to be believed, there are close to 6,140 applications that are released every day on the Google app store! If this number doesn’t amaze you, we wonder what really will? With so many options, another important criteria for measuring the success of an application comes with the fact of how many people will come back to your application each day dedicatedly even after having downloaded it initially? As an app developer if you are wondering just how to break the monotony and become an app that is preferred and used well, then let’s just say you need to try a little harder and put in that extra PUSH. And, this extra push can come in the form of push notifications.
The Pushy, but Productive Push Notifications
Do you remember those advertisements that intrigued you by releasing something new and exciting every week? Advertisements that constantly reminded you about a certain product or service? In the case of applications one of the role push notifications play is to keep reminding the user to be loyal to the app. With their being so many options when it comes to applications, apps need to become more than just an overnight wonder and this they can only do by ensuring that their users retain their information and keep coming back to them. They play the role of those teaser ads where you push someone till the time they actually buy your product.
To gauge a better understanding of the miracle that is push notification, let us first wrap our heads around understanding the different types of push notifications that exist.
Types of Push Notifications
The Meticulous Mechanical Push Notifications
You happen to ponder upon an E-shopping website and decide that you like something there and just happen to add that product into the virtual shopping cart. Now, for some reason you get busy and forget that you haven’t completed the purchase. This is when the role of Mechanical type push notification comes in. These kinds of notifications need the buyer/user to carry out an action or activity and then a message is sent in the form of a notification to alert the buyer “hey your purchase is incomplete”. With attention spans decreasing almost each day, a study has shown that a whopping 75% of the times most shopping carts are left abandoned on the E-retail sites.
Imagine that you are using Facebook and come across an event that you really want to be a part of. You click that you are interested in getting there and then you forget about it. Mechanical push notifications are internally linked to your calendar and the moment that event is round the corner you will be alerted. Mechanical push notifications are time based as well.
Every time you upload and do something on an application like Facebook or Instagram, it results in another action of people liking it. The moment someone likes your latest photo uploaded on Instagram you get another mechanical push notification triggered in response to the activity of liking being carried out. These are the ways in which a mechanical push notification works.
The Biased Behavioural Push Notifications
Imagine this event! As a user of several applications, you use the Google search engine to look for something. Post that you happen to visit Facebook and there again you are reminded about something linked to the very topic of your search on Google! As scary as this phenomenon may seem (where you feel someone is spying on your every search), there is a reason why this happens. This happens to be the work of the behavioural push notification that alerts you on things based on previous search history and things that you either liked, shared or bought.
If you have ever watched the movie “Home Alone” on Netflix or Amazon Prime, you will always get an alert when the next sequel “Home Alone 2” releases on either of these platforms. This sort of a notification that you get based on new releases and past activities is how the behavioural push notification works.
Suppose you happen to be a regular app user of “Nykaa” and purchase all your cosmetics from there. In such a case, whenever Nykaa has something new to offer it will send you a behavioural push notification that will alert you about their new arrivals.
The Chivalrous Cheer Up Notifications
Imagine that you are playing an app based game on your mobile. After a while, you leave it midway. A cheer up notification helps by sending an alert to the player. Something along the lines of “you won the last round, don’t stop now and go on to win an additional bonus”.
The moment watches got replaced by smart watches, the job of cheer up notifications became huge. Every time a smart watch user walks or runs, these cheer up notifications alert you about your success and congratulate you for completing a task or activity. This keeps a person motivated to do more and be inclined to receiving that next cheer up notification.
The Lively Location- based Notifications
This particular notification is the newest kid on the block to join the notification family. With Google maps always following you and acting like the mother who always keeps tabs on your location and roundabouts, these location based geo specific notifications alerts a user of the venues and spots closest to them. So, if I am at point X and am searching for Italian restaurants, I will be alerted with the option of the one which is closest to where I already am.
Another major role of location based notification comes when people use applications such as food delivery apps. Once you have placed an order you will be alerted of the delivery boys location and will know exactly when he will reach you with the food.
These are the basic categories that one finds when it comes to push notifications. As and when new applications are developed, we will see a time when there are more types of push notifications introduced to help make apps more efficient and long lasting.
