Overview
A push message is a great way to communicate with your users and nudge their behaviors throughout a Workflow.
Workflows allow you to send messages to users across your apps—including mobile and web apps. Before we dive into how you can add a message to your Workflow, it's worth explaining the logic of our cross-messaging platform.
A Note About Messaging Across Apps
If your App Group (audience) includes users from both web apps and mobile apps, we'll make sure to message your end users wherever we most recently saw them. Specifically, end users will receive the message associated with the most recent opted-in device and with the most recent app used (session) irrespective of events defined in the workflow.
For example, if a user qualified for the workflow by performing the events as defined in the event criteria AND most recently had a session on the iOS app on mobile, we would try and send an app push notification to the mobile device. However, if there was not a push token associated with the device, we would try and send to the next device with a push token, then the next app.
A Note About Browser Variances
An end user can perform an event in any browser but can only receive the push notification on the browser that was used to opt-in to web push notifications.
For example, a user who’s opted into web push on Chrome could perform the add to cart event on Firefox and still receive a push notification. Likewise, a user who’s opted into iOS app notifications and web app notifications will receive the message on the most recent app used.
Now that you understand the basics, let's dive into adding a message to our Workflow.
Push Message Builder
A Push Message allows you to build a push using the typical message functions like title, deep link, key/value pairs, and creatives.
To add a push message to your Workflow, click the + button.
Select Send push message from the pop-up modal.
This will open another modal where you'll be able to craft your message.
Make sure to give your push message a name by clicking the Untitled Message copy at the top of the modal. We'll use this name to identify the message's "push sent" event in the Events section of your Localytics Dashboard.
You can also customize messages by Application (iOS, Android, Web) by using the icons on the left navigation or by selecting from the dropdown in the right editing column.
Message Title
Add a title to your push as the header of the message. The title will appear as a bold text above the message. The title is an optional piece of copy for your push message—so feel free to skip it if you’d prefer.
Message Body
Finally, it’s time for the most important part of your message—the message body! The message body is the only copy that is mandatory.
We do our best to show you an example of what the message will look like on the left. It’s important to note that there is no official character limit for the message body since each phone and OS will handle the content differently.
Liquid Personalization
You're also able to personalize the title, body, and rich media embed by using Liquid templating (sometimes called dynamic content). Simply place your cursor in the appropriate field and select +Personalize above the Body field.
Read our full guide about Liquid here.
Enable Localization
Localization allows you to create unique messages to customers based on their default language (set within the device). This can be done all within the same message editor.
To enable localization, click the Enable Localization button in the message builder.
Choose the default language. This will be the message sent to users when their preferred language message isn't available. For example, if you have users whose devices are set to French, but no French text, they'll receive the default copy.
For help on selecting a default language, Localytics pulls up quick metrics to tell you just how many users you have associated with each.
After you've set the default language, you can continue adding languages using the dropdown menu.
Toggle between languages/copy using the arrows or select the language from the dropdown menu. To remove a language, click the Options button.
Enable Rich Media
Spice up your push message by adding Rich Push elements! For devices and SDK versions that support rich media, you can either embed standard rich media content or personalize rich media content dynamically with Movable Ink.
Standard Media
Standard Media Rich Push messages include any of the following:
- Images
- GIFs (iOS only)
- Video (iOS only)
Localytics doesn't cover image hosting, so you’ll need to upload the image externally. For hosting content, we recommend services like Cloudinary or Amazon S3. Keep in mind HTTPS is a hard requirement for image URLs when targeting iOS devices.
Paste the Rich Media’s direct URL in the Attachment URL line, and select the file type from the drop-down menu. Your options are:
- JPEG
- GIF
- PNG
- Mp3
- Mp4
Like with the message body, you can also use Liquid to serve different rich elements depending on the user’s profile attributes. Read more on the Liquid page.
Rich Push File Size Limits
While there are no file size limits for Android, we still recommend adhering to the limitations shown for iOS below. Keep in mind, these are hard limits for iOS.
| File Type | Size Limit |
|---|---|
| Image | 10MB |
| Animation | 10MB |
| Movie | 50MB |
| Audio | 5MB |
Rich Push Image Dimension Limits
iOS
-
Maximum possible dimensions are 1,038 pixels x 1,038 pixels
Android
-
Keep images between a minimum of 800 and maximum of 1,038 pixels
Dynamic Media
Dynamic Media supports the Movable Ink Creative Tag. To find the Creative Tag, follow the step-by-step instruction below:
- Login to your Movable Ink Account
- Select the appropriate campaign from your Campaigns List
- Navigate to the Code tab
- From the sub-navigation, select In-App Messaging
- Copy the Creative Tag
Under Rich Media Embed, switch on your message builder. With the Dynamic Media highlighted, paste the URL and specify the file type.
Message Preview
On the left side of your Push Message builder, you’ll see a preview of what your message looks like as you build it. It’s important to note that this is just a preview. Depending on the phone type and style your message will translate differently (ie, an iPhone plus might look different from a regular iPhone).
You'll be able to simulate a customer by toggling the Simulate Customer button available on hover within the Message Preview. Use the Randomize option to populate customer IDs or Profile Lookup to add a specific customer ID.
Live Preview
If your App Group includes a web app, you'll also see an option for Live Preview.
This button allows you to send a quick Web Push notification to your browser to test the push before you set it live. Check out the GIF below for a quick demo.
For more on enabling Live Preview, check out our Test Mode doc.
Message Overview
On the bottom left of the Message Editor, you'll be able to access an Overview of your messages. This is to provide an easy view of all of your messages, especially if you are creating and managing multiple messages within the Message Builder.
Click the Overview button to see all of your messages previewed in one view.
After you've crafted your push message (and checked it between all of your grouped apps), click the Add button to add the push to your Workflow.
