What are push notifications in VK. How to deal with negative user reactions to push notifications. How browser push notifications can be of interest to internet marketers and business owners

Believe me, you encounter push notifications several times a day. They lie in wait for you when you visit a website or download applications to your mobile device or personal computer. Moreover, subscribing to them sometimes happens as quietly as possible. Let's figure out what push notifications are and why they are needed?

As a rule, this term refers to a small message that periodically appears on the phone screen or personal computer monitor. Such notifications tell you about interesting and new events. Many companies use push notifications as a marketing technique. And this is not surprising, because with their help you can quite successfully advertise a particular brand. However, first of all, such messages are used to inform Internet users about the appearance of new content, various news, resource updates, and the emergence of new versions interesting applications etc.

Several years ago, when the first push notifications to phones appeared, their main goal was to provide communication between mobile applications and phones (tablets) themselves. But after some time, due to the popularity of this method of presenting information, it began to be used in Web-push mode as well.

Of course, push notifications are a powerful advertising tool and good source information. However, we should not forget about its main drawback - Such messages, as a rule, take up a lot of time from the Internet user. How more applications you allow to send notifications to your phone or PC browser, the more often you will be distracted from work, eating or even sleeping.

Just imagine that late at night you suddenly receive a message that someone has added you as a friend on Facebook. Agree, most often such news can safely wait until the morning. However, from the sound notification you wake up, look at this news and are about to go back to bed, but suddenly you see that several more push notifications have arrived on your phone. One of them talks about the release of a new film, the second talks about an upcoming event (which is actually not that interesting to you). One way or another, you spend a few minutes of precious sleep sorting out the mess that is left behind from such intrusive mailings.

But imagine that in addition to mobile applications, web resource owners use push notifications in the full version of sites. Now, as they say, you are surrounded - various kinds of notifications will accompany you throughout the day until you figure out how to turn them off.

It would seem that such an intrusive technique cannot be liked by Internet users. However, push messages have been successfully showing their effectiveness for several years.

In 2013, Apple commissioned a special study, the results of which were stunning. It turned out that the company’s servers missed more than 7 trillion push notifications in one year. And, if this is data from 2013, imagine what the situation is now.

The solution to the push notifications problem is quite simple. You just need to turn them off. Of course, you don’t have to unsubscribe from all mailings. Leave the most necessary ones in order to keep abreast of interesting news.

Push notifications - a new marketing channel

We already said above that push notifications take up too much time. However, if you configure it correctly, you will receive notifications only about new products and events that interest you. Initially, such messages were designed to convey information from an application to the user. However, today, browser push notifications are an effective marketing channel. The main thing here is not to cross the line. Modern marketers plan everything in such a way that such notifications convey information that is exclusively valuable to the user and contain content that is relevant to him.

For example, imagine that the developers of applications for children gave space for notifications to, for example, a hookah store. Agree that such advertising will be perceived solely as spam and will not be relevant to users.

By the way, today relevant content is calculated not only based on downloaded applications, but also based on a person’s location. Many marketers today, calculating how close the user is to certain retail outlets, send him messages about new products, promotions and discounts.

To make push notifications on your website as effective as possible, you need to follow several recommendations:

1. All. If possible, information should be linked to any of the social networks. This gives people the opportunity to comment on the news.
2. Along with the registration of the newsletter, it is necessary to provide the opportunity to refuse notifications.
3. Don't overdo it. The optimal number of push notifications per day is no more than 5 messages. Otherwise you will only cause irritation.
4. Please note that before you start sending out, you must carefully study target audience.

Of course, the effectiveness and success of push notifications may not happen immediately. Here, as in any marketing move, everything is done by trial and error. Try several methods to determine the optimal number of messages and their content.

Why do many marketers consider pop-up push messages to be optimal advertising:

1. This is primarily due to the fact that it is as simple as possible for users to subscribe to such a newsletter. Typically, you just need to press a button to do this. "Agree" in a pop-up window or simply download the application.
2. Recent research results have proven that push notifications have high percentage clicking on links (about 50%).

Submit a newsletter push notifications It’s quite simple to use sites – you just need to insert a few lines into the site code. After setting up, you will be able to send completely different messages: trigger information, sales news, new products, reminders of certain events, congratulating users on holidays, etc.

How push mailings work: principle of operation

Well, now you know what push notifications are and why they exist. In addition, we looked at how such techniques are used among marketers. Now let's try to find out how pop-up push notifications on a website work. The whole principle of operation of such messages is based on several important stages:

1. Creating a database. A few years ago, many sites used email newsletters. However, over time it lost relevance due to the complexity of subscription. To do this, users needed to enter their email address, which was not always convenient. Now push notifications have replaced it. Subscribing to them is as simple as possible, which is why within a month after connecting messages on the sites there is an increase in new users exceeding 100%. This is explained by the fact that subscribing to push notifications does not require filling out applications or entering personal data. In addition, it is important to remember that subscribing to the newsletter is completely voluntary. The user can easily refuse pop-up push notifications if he considers them not relevant to him.
2. Information analysis. Once you've researched your target audience and set up browser push notifications, you need to carefully examine what effect the messages had on users. It will depend on the reaction of your subscribers whether to continue the newsletter or change its format, appearance or dispatch time. Be sure to use the received data when creating a new link.
3. Making a plan. Together with mass subscription After push notifications, after a few weeks, many web resources suffer mass unsubscription from mailings. This is due to an incorrectly planned strategy. In order to avoid this, several factors must be taken into account: frequency of sending, time at which the newsletter arrives, time messages are displayed on the phone screen, relevance of the content to the user. It is proper planning that will allow you to choose the required mailing format, set the appearance of pop-up windows and calculate optimal time to receive push notifications.

Sending times vary depending on the purpose of the messages. For example, if you are setting up a newsletter for office employees, it is better to choose working hours from Monday to Friday. But if you want to notify about upcoming promotions or events, the newsletter can be sent on weekends. Here we should be guided by the following logic - marketers must choose the time at which it will be most relevant for the user to receive this or that information. Otherwise, he will not accept the news and the effect of the push notification on the site will be zero.

It should also be taken into account that the number of notifications should depend on the number of news items. It is least effective to send the same message several times a day throughout the week. This move will irritate the user. As for the time during which the message will be displayed on the screen, it should vary depending on the text of the pop-up push notification. However, you should not choose the shortest option even with a minimum of words in the message. You must make sure that the user has time to read all the information while the window is on the computer screen.

In order to send exclusively original content, it is necessary to collect statistics and analyze the target audience. This is the only way you can discover user interests and preferences.

Mobile push notifications

Before describing examples of push notifications on a smartphone, you need to understand how they differ from notifications that come in the browser.

The fact is that messages on a mobile device come exclusively from the downloaded application. While browser notifications can be sent without any downloading. Just go to the website and click on “Agree to the newsletter”.

The principle of messages appearing from mobile applications is quite simple. All push notifications to a mobile device appear in the so-called curtains on the screen of the phone or tablet. If you wish, you can install beep to know exactly when a new alert will arrive. Most modern mobile devices running on the iOS or Android operating systems require support push messages default.

As a rule, push notifications on Android or iOS perform the following functions:

Above we have listed mainly useful (service) types of notifications. However, advertising mailing also works for mobile devices. For example, an application from an online store can notify about promotions in order to return the user to the program and set up new purchase. By the way, push notifications on iOS and Android are slightly different:

Browser push notifications

Having figured out howpush notificationswork for mobile devices, let's get started with the mailing that arrives on a personal computer. We will talk about browser messages that are actively used by the owners of web resources. This technique is also called differently web push. The first such notice appeared in 2015. Until this time, mailing was actively used exclusively for mobile applications. Results after the first month of appearancepush notificationson the personal computer has amazed many marketers. As it turned out, about 50% of users followed the link.

The first browser that decided to use mailing was Chrome. However, a few months after this, Yandex browser and Mozilla Firefox joined it. In fact, the principle of operation of browser notifications is very different from its mobile counterpart. The distribution technology in this case is much more complicated. It requires a larger chain of actions that would transfer information from the resource to the user’s desktop.

Today you can subscribe to such newsletters on almost any website. Agree that when faced with a proposal for push notifications in the browser Today you can do it several times a day. As a rule, such alerts pop up in the left top corner screen. Here you can click on the “Block push notifications” button if you think that the information is not relevant or uninteresting.

However, do not think that browser push notifications are purely advertising. A similar technique is used for many other more useful purposes:

• many online stores use pop-up push notifications to inform your customers about changes to their order and discounts;
• some weather sites also use newsletters push notifications , through which people are informed about the current weather in the city in which they are located;
• Forum owners can receive messages with information about new members, posts, comments, etc.

In fact, now there are push notifications on the sitecan easily replace email or messengers. They allow you to convey information to the user as quickly as possible. In addition, if a person is interested in the news, go to full version he can access the site by simply clicking on the notification.

If we compare mobile and browser push notifications, then the future still belongs to the second type. The point is that in lately One can note a rapid decline in the number of downloads of mobile applications. This happens because such programs take up too much space in the phone's memory and are not so necessary. Agree that you don’t need to download an entire online store application when you can simply go to its website if necessary. And downloading programs itself takes too much time.

In addition, when installing mobile applications, push notifications start coming automatically. While browser messages are a kind of voluntary interaction between the user and the web resource. You will not receive newsletters just because you have visited the site. All messages will begin to arrive when you agree to receive them.

Push notifications via applications on PC

There is another type of notification. These are messages that arrive on your personal computer, regardless of which browser you use.

They work through applications downloaded to the PC. In essence, this mailing principle combines the two options described above:

1. Like mobile notifications, it is tied to specific apps.
2. Like browser messages, this type of mailing works on your computer.

However, unlike browser notifications, this type of mailing is completely unrelated to specific browser– it displays information useful to you directly on the desktop.

To receive push notifications through applications on a PC, you must:

1. Download the application on PC. Carry out all necessary installation.
2. Agree to the newsletter offered by the program.
3. You will then be able to receive relevant notifications for as long as you need it. Once you realize that the messages are no longer relevant, you can go to the application settings and cancel the mailing.

Push notifications via applications on a personal computer can be of a very different nature. Most often this information messages, notifying about program updates, malfunctions, etc. However, some applications can also set up advertising mailings that link to third-party web resources.

As you can see, push notifications quickly entered and became firmly entrenched in our lives. Now they are used not only by application developers, but also by marketers who are actively trying to promote their products. The main disadvantage of this kind of notifications is the difficulty of turning them off. Mobile push notifications are installed by default, and people often subscribe to browser ones inadvertently. However, to get rid of the mailing list, users need to go through a huge number of steps.

In any case, if configured correctlypop-up push notificationsyou will be able to receive exclusively current and relevant news about new products, current events or promotional offers.

In this article we will try to explain what push messages are.

Today, many sites offer you to subscribe to push notifications right from the door. And every day there are more and more such sites. Let's start with the theory.

Push notifications are short messages, which come directly to your desktop. Such a message usually contains a site icon and a text field, in rare cases it is added big picture and buttons. Clicking on this message will take you to specified page site that sent the notification.

What does push mean?

The name of this technology translated means push. When sending a message, the site forwards set texts and pictures to browser companies such as Google. Then, with the help of a push, this message is delivered to your browser, which displays its contents on the screen. It should be noted that you are not required to leave any personal data, which makes this channel extremely safe.

Push it new channel, which allows sites to send you information about news, special offers or simply report the status of the order.

Here are some examples of notifications that sites send:

Travel agencies can offer you the best deals:

And airlines can notify you about the status of the flight for which you checked in.

Push messaging technology is new era communications between the sites and you. By subscribing once, you will always be aware of the latest latest news resource.

Push messages have a number of properties:

They arrive regardless of whether you are on the site or not, are delivered instantly, and your subscription cannot be used on other resources, unlike email messages.

It’s as simple as allowing them to be received. We have already talked about this on our blog.

The bottom line is.

Browser messages are a great tool for modern marketing and are extremely safe for the user. The technology prevents spam from entering the message channel. But you need to be selective and allow notifications only for those sites whose content is interesting or useful to you.

In conclusion, I would like to insert a few lines for companies that charge this opportunity into circulation. By doing everything, you will be able to maintain the loyalty of your audience, and your messages will always be welcome on the subscriber’s desktop.

According to encyclopedias, Push is a technology for distributing information from the server to the client. However, recently this word is most often used in relation to notifications on mobile devices. It is about Push notifications that we will talk about in this article.

Mobile push notifications most often mean small blocks with messages that appear at the top of the screen, the so-called. "curtain" on the lock screen.

Such a concept as push notifications became popular after its introduction by the apple company Apple service Push Notification Service (APNS) for sending notifications to devices running iOS 3. It is worth mentioning that Apple introduced this revolutionary innovation in iOS almost a year later than Google in Android OS.

Be that as it may, based on push notifications for mobile phones, a whole family of services and tools from different companies has grown:
Apple, after adding a push notification system (APNS) for iPhones, implemented them for OS X and, more recently, for Safari.
Google created Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) back in 2008, replacing it with Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) in 2012. Naturally, with the help of this service You can also push in Chrome applications.
Microsoft, as usual, decided not to lag behind and created MPNS (try to guess the meaning of this abbreviation yourself). So push notifications are available on Windows Phone starting from its seventh version.

But why is it that such a bicycle as push technology is implemented in all mobile systems to deliver messages? The reason is simple: savings.
After all this technology is good precisely because when using it to obtain information there is no need to constantly send requests from the application. And, accordingly, there is no need to keep it running in the background: battery power and Internet traffic are saved.
In this regard, the user receives another bonus: the device’s RAM is not cluttered unnecessary applications, waiting for requests from the server.

This is where we should make the difference between things like push, push notifications, and notifications generated by local applications on the system. Push is a technology that is used to deliver information. Notifications are generated within the system and they look different in different operating systems.

Types of notifications in mobile OS

IN iOS There are three types of push notifications:
Audio— the user is informed about the notification by playing a sound notification
Audio/Banners- is playing audio message etc. A “banner” appears on the screen. You can see the information transmitted with the first and second types of messages in the Notification Center - inside the so-called. “curtains”.
Badges(Russian icon, symbol) - a number or a special image appears next to the application icon.

IN Windows Phone 8 There are also three push notification options:
Toast(Russian toast) - the message is displayed at the top of the screen for 10 seconds. Naturally, this message is clickable.
Tile(Russian tile) - displayed as numbers displayed on top of the application icon on the tile (Live Tile).
Raw(Russian rough) - for transferring arbitrary information inside the application. It is assumed that this type of push notification is used for gaming applications.

WITH Android everything is a little more interesting. The official developer manual says:

It does not provide any built-in user interface or other handling for message data. GCM simply passes raw message data received straight to the Android application, which has full control of how to handle it. For example, the application might post a notification, display a custom user interface, or silently sync data.

In Russian: Android OS does not have any built-in system for directly displaying push notifications to the user. All data is “pushed” exclusively into the application, and is transmitted in a completely arbitrary form, just like raw notifications in WP8. The application, after receiving the information, can, for example, issue a notification standard for Android systems, which will be displayed at the top of the screen and in the “curtain”. Or a banner similar to those in iOS may appear.
However, given the openness of Android and the exceptional flexibility of this system, notifications after receiving a push can be displayed, in principle, in any form. For example, one of the most innocent ways to interact with a user could be to immediately open an application window with all the necessary promotional information.

Browser push notifications

For some time now, developers have been able to send push notifications through browsers to desktop computers users: in Google Chrome and Apple Safari. To send of this type push notifications also use GCM and APNs services. From a technical point of view, browser push notifications differ from mobile ones only in that in Chrome and Safari the sender of the notification is the site. Users receive push notifications in the form of small messages that appear on top of all windows in the corner of the screen immediately upon receipt.

For your application or website

Each mobile OS developer has his own approach to the technical implementation of sending push notifications to devices. Services that provide push notification capabilities were listed at the beginning of the article: GCM, APNS and MPNS.
However, it is obvious that to work with them you also need to use an external server to send remote requests to these services. Considering that ensuring an easy life for developers is not a priority for any of the OS author companies, each of the above services functions very differently. To send notifications to different platforms You need to meet a lot of different requirements, and each platform has its own.
That is why there are many resources online that provide user-friendly interface to implement push notifications in applications and on the websites of their clients.

Push notifications are pop-up messages that contain short text, an image and a link to the sender's website. Initially they were used only in mobile applications, but in recent years the technology of browser push notifications, or web push, has become popular.

For sites such notifications are: effective way formation own base subscribers. In order to become one of them, the user just needs to click on the button in the pop-up browser window. After this, web push messages pop up with sound and on top of all windows on the computer screen, even when the browser is not running.

Who sends them and why do users need it?

Push notifications are actively used news portals, online stores, travel agencies and even some banks. The media thus announce new articles, online stores - promotions, sales or assortment updates; travel agencies - current offers on hotels and tours, banks - mailings on their products. In addition, you can receive notifications about payment for goods, reminders about renewal of service tariffs, confirmation of departure/departure information (in the case of travel agencies), and other notifications.

The main advantage of push notifications is that, unlike e-mail newsletters, such messages are more targeted. Each registered subscriber is assigned an encrypted string (token). The token is unique for each domain, key and device type. Thanks to this, a user who has subscribed to web push from a work PC will not receive additional notifications on his mobile phone or personal computer. Therefore, it is also impossible to take the token database of other people’s subscribers: each site will have its own token.

Why is everyone complaining about web push?

The disadvantages of push notifications stem from their own advantages: not all companies use this method for its intended purpose, continuous text messages with the same type of advertising turn into spam. If a user has too many subscriptions to notifications from different sites, at some point it becomes annoying.

How to disable push notifications in your browser if you don't like them:

In Google Chrome:

Launch the Chrome browser on your computer, click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the window and go to “Settings”;

At the bottom of the page, click “Advanced”;

In the “Privacy and Security” section, select “Content Settings”;

Select “Notifications”;

Select the appropriate option:

1) block all notifications - disable the “Ask permission before sending” option.

2) block notifications from a specific site - next to “Block”, click “Add”, enter the page address and select “Add” again;

In order to re-allow notifications from a specific site, next to the “Block” text you need to click “Add”, enter the page address and select “Add” again.

In Safari:

You can hide site requests to send notifications in Safari by going to Safari > Preferences > Websites > Notifications. IN last section You need to uncheck the “Allow websites to ask permission to send push notifications” checkbox. From now on, Safari won't ask you when you visit websites that might send notifications. You can also enable notifications again in your browser settings if necessary.

In Yandex browser:

To create this browser, the same engine was used as in Chrome, so the algorithm of actions here will be almost the same. In order to turn off notifications, you need to go to “Settings”, then open “Advanced”, find the “Personal data” section in them and click on the “Content settings” button. In the “Notifications” item, after this you need to select “Do not show notifications from sites” and click “Done”.

In Opera:

Click on the “Menu” icon with the Opera icon, go to “Settings” and select “Sites” in the list of sections. After this, you need to find the “Notifications” item on the left side of the window and check the “Prohibit sites from showing system notifications” option.

In Mozilla Firefox:

Firefox is an exception among all browsers: here you can also turn off notifications by checking the "Do not disturb" checkbox in the content settings, but they will only be blocked until you restart the browser. Users who want to disable push notifications once and for all should open the new tab and enter into address bar enter the command about:config.

After this, the browser will display a warning about the risk of changing settings - you need to confirm that you accept it. Then type dom.push.enabled in the search bar. In the window that appears, switch the parameter value from true to false. This means that you can forget about push notifications.

Push notifications are pop-up windows that appear on the screen of a smartphone or tablet. They show incoming information from various sources, which can be instant messengers, applications or the system of the device itself. Push notifications are available on absolutely all modern devices: be it Apple gadgets or Google tablets. That is, there are Push notifications for iOS, Android, as well as .

Setting up push notifications on devices running operating systems iOS systems, Android and Windows Phone

Recently, the introduction of this function into the computer operating system has become especially popular. The first was Apple company with its own axis for OS X poppies. This is, of course, due to the high efficiency and convenience of push notifications, which have established themselves as the first source of information arriving on a smartphone or tablet. Indeed, it would be stupid to refute such a convenient method of notification: push notifications save RAM devices, since they do not require permanent job programs or applications. Therefore, there will also be Internet traffic.

But besides caring so much about the user and timely notifications, push notifications can be annoying. Why do you need periodic reminders from or Twitter service that a certain user wrote: “I ate an omelette today. Was it delicious? Agree that this message does not carry any useful information load for you. It turns out that not all alerts are very useful. Of course, if you indiscriminately give access to and agree to send you notifications to programs and applications, then you will have millions of them. It’s not entirely pleasant to delete them later, because on some systems you can’t delete everything at once. This makes it necessary to know how to set up and disable push notifications. So let's figure it out correct installation this method of presenting information.

Volume buttons do much more than just increase or decrease the volume of your device's audio. Completely new options and features have been added to this menu, which will undoubtedly be useful to any user. They allow you to switch between alert modes:

1. “Do not disturb” - all incoming reminders and messages will arrive silently;
2. “Important” - you will only receive important messages, from a list of programs that can be adjusted. When you turn it on, you will see a settings tab. Here you can change the operating time of the mode. Moreover, there is a special tab that allows you to configure this mode more flexibly;
3. “Everything” is the standard operation of the device.

It is worth noting that push notifications configured in this way will be much more useful. Especially convenient is the “Important” mode, where you can easily manage the list of applications to access notifications.

For finer adjustments information windows Just go to the section specially designated for this. It is located in the Settings menu of your device. In it you can, for example, remove notifications on the lock screen, open the notification option for individual programs, and change the list of blocked applications. Also a very interesting feature is that in the menu separate application you can choose at your discretion:

1. Do not show from this application, thereby completely getting rid of the program's news;
2. Or show them at the top of the list, including when only important notifications are allowed.

You can enable or disable push notifications on iOS using the Settings menu located on the Home screen. You won’t have to search for a long time for the required submenu, because in operating system it’s called “Notifications”. Once you have entered it, you will see a list on the right installed programs on the device. Above some there will be the inscription “turn on”, and above others it will be written “do not turn on”. This means that in the first case, alerts and push notifications are allowed, but in the second, accordingly, they are not. Let's consider detailed example settings.

So, it’s on our first list. Click there and go to the alert settings page for this program:

1. The very first thing we have is the permission for notifications with the corresponding slider. If you move it, you will turn them off. Accordingly, Skype will not notify you of anything;
2. Our next item is “In the notification center”. It allows you to control the number of recent events displayed in the notification bar (that is, in the notification center);
3. Sounds. With this slider you adjust the presence of sound for notifications;
4. Badge sticker. Here you can adjust the presence of a sticker with the number of incoming events on the application icon located on the main screen;
5. The penultimate setting in this menu is on the locked screen. It is responsible for displaying an alert when the screen of a tablet or smartphone is locked;
6. Well, the last thing is the warning style on the unlocked screen. The first one with such a categorical word “No” removes all visual notifications. Banners are a line at the top of the screen. Well, and “Warnings”, which are displayed in a rectangle in the center of the screen with answer options. In fact, they are all clearly shown on the notification settings page.

Users may also have a question: why don’t push notifications arrive? In fact, there may be several reasons:

1. As in the iOS example, the program may simply not be included in the allowed list. Then you will just need to go to the same menu and scroll down and select from the “Do not include” category the necessary program. On its page, just move the slider next to “Allow notifications”. On Android the situation is similar;
2. The second reason could be that the application requires an Internet connection for notifications to work.

Now you’ve figured out why push notifications don’t arrive on Android or iOS, and how to enable, configure, or even disable them. Now you will only receive really important messages, and annoying game notifications will no longer bother you!