Understanding iOS & Android push permission
On iOS and Android 13 and higher, users must give consent to receive push notifications from your app (or "opt-in"). Users who didn't see the push permission prompt or refused to receive push notifications are considered as "opt-out".
iOS and Android push permission prompts are similar:
On iOS, the permission prompt can only be displayed once. On Android, users can tap in the grey area to dismiss the permission prompt. It will be displayed again the next time users open the app.
The wording of the push permission prompts cannot be customized.
Developers can choose when the permission prompt is triggered (e.g. after a pre-permission screen, as part of the onboarding tutorial, presenting why you are asking users to turn on push notifications. 👉 See our example below).
Users who don't allow push notifications cannot trigger the push permission prompt again later. They need to go to the system settings to grant the push permission for your app.
On Android, the system (via Play Protect) will automatically revoke the push permission for long-time dormant users.
There are four actions every marketer should take to grow their push opt-in base and make sure users don't disable notifications over time:
Improve the onboarding experience in your app, to explain the value behind push notifications before triggering the system opt-in prompt.
Set up a re-optin campaign using Batch In-App messages
Leverage iOS' provisional authorization
Allow opt-in users to adjust their push preferences from the app
1. Improving your onboarding
On iOS and Android (starting from Android 13), the "native" request for push authorization can only be displayed once. For this reason, and following Apple and Google recommendations, we advise you to develop a pre-permission screen that can be displayed:
As an additional step, in your onboarding tutorial
On the first session
Or/and after a meaningful action: login, order confirmation, service subscription, etc.
Here is how a pre-permission prompt looks like:
If users click the "Turn On notifications" buttons, they will see the system permission prompt that can only be displayed once.
👉 Here are some of the editorial best practices we recommend to design your pre-permission screen:
Added value: Explain why users should turn on notifications and what they will gain by doing it.
Trust: Provide good examples of push notifications so users can understand what kind of alerts they may receive.
Frequency: Tell them how often you usually send push notifications.
Ask later: Always include a "later" button so they can turn on notifications later, once they have engaged with your app.
From a technical point of view, here is what must be done:
iOS: Simply call the
BatchPush.requestNotificationAuthorization()method of Batch SDK when users click the right button on your pre-permission screen.Android: Make sure your app targets at least Android 13 (API 33) and you are using a recent version of Batch SDK (1.19.2 or higher). Then, call the
Batch.Push.requestNotificationPermission(context)method when needed to trigger the push opt-in prompt.
2. Creating a push re-optin campaign
You can use Batch In-App messages to improve your push opt-in rate.
Indeed, In-App messages can be displayed to every user, whether they are opt-in or opt-out to push notifications.
Our platform allows you to segment your audience according to the push opt-in status (true or false) by using the native attribute "Push opted-in":
Then, you can target opt-out users via our In-App messaging technology to suggest users to subscribe / re-subscribe to push notifications.
💡 Discover how to do it here: Creating a push re-optin campaign
3. Leveraging iOS' provisional push authorization
On iOS 12 (and higher), the Provisional Authorisation feature allows you to send push notifications to users who haven't displayed the system permission prompt yet. Please note these notifications will be displayed in the notification centre only.
Users will have a chance to fully turn on push notifications for your app directly from the notification they received:
ℹ️ More details here: https://help.batch.com/en/articles/2370621-provisional-authorization-on-ios-12
4. Allowing users to customize their push preferences
We observe a better opt-in rate for apps that have:
A thematic opt-in demand
A notification preferences page in the app allowing users to manage themselves their push preferences by theme.
This makes sure users can simply disable a category of alerts instead of disabling push notifications for the entire app from the system settings.
