Messaging Overview

Types of Messages

With Localytics you can send four different kinds of messages:

• Push notifications
• In-app messages
• Inbox messages
• Geo-push notifications (we call this feature Places)

Push Notifications

Push notifications are sent outside of the app and delivered to the home screen. The end user must opt into receiving push notifications in order to view them. These can be customized with original copy and images (and gifs or videos in iOS), and usually, consist of about 140 characters. Push messages continue to display on the home screen until the end user interacts with the message or dismisses it.

In-App Messages

An in-app message is a full-page interstitial that can appear at any time within the app. In-app messages are not bound by the device’s messages systems, so they can be designed how you’d like. In-app messages appear only once and will disappear when dismissed.

Inbox Messages

Inbox messages are sent to a dedicated inbox within your app. Like in-app, inbox messages aren’t restricted to a certain design—so they can be built however you’d like. Inbox messages can be viewed more than once, in the dedicated inbox of your app.

Geo-Push Notifications

Geo-push notifications (known as Places in Localytics) are notifications that are triggered when an end user enters or leaves a geofence. The end user will need to opt into locations services to see these messages. Like push notifications, geo-push messages are restricted to the design of the device.

Sending a Message from Localytics

From within your Localytics dashboard, select Messaging from under the Marketing header to navigate to Messaging. If you’d like to quickly start building a message, click the Create new button available on hover to choose the message campaign type.

The Messaging overview page will highlight some of your recent campaigns, and give you insights into the success of your messages. For a full walkthrough, check out the Messaging dashboard overview doc.

There are five (six, if you’re sending a geo-push message) steps to sending a message in Localytics. Those steps are:

1. Selecting a goal
2. Selecting an Audience
3. Building the message
4. Scheduling the message
5. (Selecting the geo-fences)
6. And confirming the message

These steps are fairly similar between each type of message. Some messages can be triggered by events (like in-app messages), so the scheduling step might look slightly different.

For more information about building each type of message, check out the corresponding guides for Push Messages, In-App Messages, Inbox Messages, and Places Messages.

We also highly recommend that you enable Test Mode for your apps. Test Mode allows you to test messages before sending them out to your wider audience. You can read more about Test Mode on the Test Mode page.

If you want to get up and running as quickly as possible, check out our Quick Start guide for Push Messaging. This walkthrough is about a 15-minute read and will help you send your first push with Localytics.

Otherwise, let’s head onto the Messaging dashboard walkthrough guide.