User Notifications in iOS — bringing the app out of the app
User notifications in iOS have evolved drastically over the last few years. Something that changed very little for the first seven iterations of the operating system has definitely seen some love from Apple in recent updates.
Notifications were first introduced with iOS 3 back in 2009.
In 2014, iOS 8 brought with it actionable notifications, and the ability to enter text (e.g. reply to a message).
And in 2016, iOS 10 allowed for media and other rich content to be shown in notifications. It also provided the ability to modify the content received before showing it to the user (which, for example, allows messages to be decrypted before being shown).
In 2018, iOS 12 was announced, which will allow for an even richer and more engaging user notification experience. It will allow:
- full interactivity within the notification, e.g. to move around a map, to toggle switches, to flick through multiple images;
- the ability to modify the “actions” supported while the notification is visible, e.g. to give secondary actions, based on the selection of primary action;
- custom grouping options, e.g. to separate time-sensitive alerts from advisory updates;
- and, provisional authorisation (also known as “automatic trial”), which may increase the chance of a user opting in to receive notifications.
But why don’t we see more rich notifications?
Two years on from Apple’s previous big update to notifications, and so many apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, still don’t take advantage. If a friend tags me in a photo on Facebook, it would be great to see the photo in the notification. And if a friend shares a photo on WhatsApp, I’d like to see the image without launching the app.
You might ask, “why give away all the information in the notification? “We want to drive users to open our app!”
But the way I see it, in a world of notifications, we need to make ours stand out! And if we engage people with the notification, they are more likely to open the app.
Or if the app supports another service, and the aim is to simplify a common user journey, then removing the need to ever open the app is even better.
Apps with a business model based on advertising revenue will always prefer users to open the app. But there’s still value in engaging the user with more helpful notifications, which may encourage them to open the app.
Evolution by Example
I’m going to look at the evolution of the notification, from its simplest form, through to a rich, engaging, user-friendly experience. And I’ll give my recommendations on how to group notifications, and when to use provisional authorisation.
For this example, I’ll use the concept of an energy provider’s app.
The humble text-only notification
Above is how the simplest form of user notification will look on iOS 12. You might use this notification to inform the user their new bill is available, or to remind them it’s time to submit a meter reading.
Improving the experience with custom actions
Let’s take the example of reminding the user to submit a meter reading. We can use notification actions (introduced in iOS 8, 2014) to give the user the option to submit now, which would launch the app, or to snooze the notification, if now’s not a good time.
Adding visuals
Since iOS 10 was released in 2016, we’ve been able to make our notifications much richer, adding images, videos, maps, or custom animations.
Let’s look at the example of notifying the user that their balance has been updated.
Sending a text-only notification would invite the user to open the app. But if we present to them something more useful, we can remove the need to open the app at all.
Note that the notification also has a thumbnail image, prompting the user that there is useful, visual content within the notification.
Dynamic animation within the notification is a great way to capture the user’s attention. It’s important not to over-complicate the notification. It should just be a light summary, highlighting important information.
Going the extra mile
I really believe that notifications are a great way to engage our users. If the user has authorised us to send them notifications, I think we owe them a rich user experience.
And as more apps pick up on this, any app that doesn’t will stick out like a sore thumb — like the popular social media and messaging apps.
Here is how I envision an energy provider could take advantage of notifications to improve the experience for their users.
In this concept,
- we remind the user that it’s that time again;
- we give them the option of setting a reminder (e.g. in 2 minutes while I nip out to the garage; or tomorrow when it might be more convenient);
- we also allow them to submit right now, from within the notification, without launching the app;
- and a moment after submitting, they receive a new notification revealing their amended account balance with a three-month comparison.
Further Considerations
It’s crucial to be considerate towards our users, given iOS 12 makes it easier than ever to silence or disable notifications. Luckily iOS 12 introduces more ways to be considerate with notifications.
Grouping
iOS 12 automatically groups all notifications of the same app, so the user will just see the latest notification, visually stacked in front of all other unread notifications. Tap the notification to reveal all the notifications in the stack. App developers can choose to customise the way their notifications are grouped, for example, the iOS News app groups notifications by News Outlet. Notice in the example below, CNET notifications are grouped separately from notifications for The Telegraph. But these are all notifications from the same app, News.
In the energy provider example we see two different types of information we’re giving to the user — meter reading reminders, and balance updates.
We should think about grouping meter reading reminders separately from balance updates, because we want to attract the user’s attention.
The default is to combine all notifications from a single app into one group. It’s up to us as developers to think about how we could group types of notification to improve the user experience, and make more important messages stand out.
Provisional authorisation
In iOS 12, we are no longer required to ask in advance for the user’s permission to send them notifications. We now have the option of sending notifications quietly. Notifications that are delivered quietly will appear in Notification Center, but with no banner or sound.
When notifications are delivered quietly, the user can later decide to deliver them prominently:
With the changes to grouping, it’s much more likely that a user will see these quietly-delivered notifications in Notification Center, because it won’t be flooded with countless unread notifications from the same apps. When the user finds the notification, they can then choose to show these prominently in future, disable completely, or continue receiving them quietly. This is also referred to as automatic trial.
If we don’t ask for permission up front, then all notifications will be delivered quietly. We cannot control on a case-by-case basis.
When considering provisional authorisation, it’s worth questioning: would we stand a better chance of users giving permission if we send notifications quietly to being with?
If you do send “quietly” to begin with, and your notification helps the user achieve their desired outcome sooner and more easily, then they will quickly decide to receive these “prominently” in future.
In Summary
- Consider adding rich content to your notification, removing the need to open the app
- If you have custom content to show, add a custom thumbnail
- Instead of pushing the user to the app to complete a task, consider whether an interactive notification can improve the user experience
- Group important, actionable notifications separately from informative updates
- Consider sending “quiet” notifications for provisional authorisation, if the notifications are not user critical
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