• Push notifications what is it. Step-by-step guide to implementing web push notifications

    To improve its own service, Sberbank created a virtual telecom operator that sends notifications to customers via the cloud. Such messages do not depend on SIM cards mobile operators, Push notifications are generated in Sberbank Online and sent to those subscribers who have connected this service. It will be discussed in more detail in the article.

    What is it

    Push Notifications – short messages, pop-up at the top of the smartphone screen. No installation required to display special program, just download the Sberbank Online application. It works well on both iPhones and smartphones with the Android operating system and allows you to perform transactions in real time.

    Push notifications in the Sberbank Online service are provided free of charge. The provider's Internet connection services are provided for a fee.

    This format of notifications about completed transactions is not suitable for some clients. They prefer SMS messages and try to block or completely remove the push themselves. The correctness of performing such procedures will be discussed below.

    Blocking, deleting

    If necessary, you can block the receipt of push notifications from Sber. Depending on operating system smartphone, the sequence of actions will have some differences:

    1. If mobile device on Android based, then you need to first go to “Settings”. Then on the “Device” tab, go to “Sounds and notifications”, click on “Application notifications”. Go to tab. Then find “Sberbank” in the list, open it, opposite the “Block notifications” line, move the slider to the right to the “on” position. If you activate Do Not Disturb mode, then messages from everyone installed applications will no longer appear on the phone screen. In this status, information about incoming calls will be unavailable.
    2. On iPhone the principle of operation is similar. In the settings you need to find “Notifications”. In the list of applications, find “Sberbank”, go to the “Allow notifications” window that appears, move the slider to the “off” position.

    In order to delete push notifications, you need to log into the mobile application. Open "Notifications". Press and hold the message for a few seconds until a trash can icon and a square surrounded by dots appear. If you need to completely clear the list, you should click on both buttons. To delete one letter, click on the first one. Depending on your decision, either all letters will be deleted, or the list will be reduced by one unit.

    Conclusion

    Thus, push notifications from Sberbank are short messages that pop up at the top of the phone screen. Each of these alerts contains information about transactions performed with the card. In order to delete or disable incoming notifications, you need to set the settings of your phone and the Sberbank Online application correctly.

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    Push notification is a pop-up window on a mobile phone screen or in a browser window.


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    Regular users can subscribe to topics and resources that interest them. Every time an update is downloaded to the server, it is automatically delivered to all recipients.

    How push messages work for a website

    There are several ways to ensure that a person returns to the site: automated sending of emails, SMS messaging, retargeting and push notifications. TO the last instrument people treat differently. Some consider it useful, others do not see any practical meaning in it. From a user point of view, the operating principle here is as follows:

    • When entering the site, a person receives a notification.

    • If you block a pop-up window, it will no longer appear on subsequent visits to the web resource.
    • If enabled, you will be automatically subscribed to notifications.
    • Next, messages will pop up on the device screen informing you about important events: holding promotions, publishing new material, etc.

    Today, most websites use this tool. It is convenient and works much more effectively than email newsletters or retargeting: firstly, notifications are shown immediately after going to the site, and secondly, you can subscribe in just one click.

    Push messaging services

    To find out how users perceive pop-ups and track how effective this decision, it is recommended to use . They transmit information about traffic characteristics to the web analytics system used. There are a huge number of services offering notification sending services. The most famous of them:

    1. SendPulse is a multidisciplinary platform for email marketing, SMS, push notifications and transactional letters with a Russian interface and free traffic.
    2. PushCrew is an English-language project for beginners whose total number of subscribers does not exceed 500 people.
    3. WonderPush is an English-language project with free traffic. It is perfect for beginners who independently promote and advertise a project.
    4. Letreach is major project, which is used by large corporations like Facebook and eBay.

    When using the service, it is necessary to monitor the intensity of sending messages, since an overly intrusive offer of services pushes away users, as a result of which the project loses subscribers.

    Who uses the utility

    Today, almost every website has built-in push notification functionality. This allows you not only to create convenient channels of communication with customers, but also, in a sense, to manage the behavior of a large audience. In practice, the tool is relevant for the following business categories:

    • Online store and advertising. Here you can encourage potential customers to make purchases by sending them information about product discounts, sales or new arrivals.
    • Online cinemas, webinars. They usually send subscribers announcements of new films, remind them about payment, or inform them about the start of the broadcast.
    • Information and news web resources. To keep a visitor on the site, he needs to subscribe and receive notifications when new content, feature articles or news blocks are added.
    • Statistics and technical information. Many users use notifications at work to receive the latest information about exchange rates, stock exchanges, etc.

    In omnichannel communication, push notifications play a huge role, promptly offering a person information that very quickly loses its relevance. If other notification tools are effective over the long term, here the result should reach the subscriber in the shortest possible time.

    Push Notifications for Internet Marketers

    As noted above, alternative ways Forming a client base, be it email newsletters or SMS, is inferior to this tool in the effectiveness of communicating with a large audience. Specifically, subscribers can subscribe with the click of a button, without having to enter email details or register.

    Here also high percentage delivery of information to the addressee. At the right approach, the return can be up to 90%. This ensures that interested people go to the site, view the information offered and take the necessary actions. To activate this service, you need to install a short code that allows you to set up automatic sending of news feed descriptions, article announcements, blog changes, etc. to subscribers.

    Push notification settings

    First of all, you should work with your audience to determine which hyperlinks to include in the body of the message to increase traffic, and how to configure the utility itself. The information must not contain errors or inaccurate data. You can check the effectiveness and correctness of the settings using response statistics.

    1. The body of the message must consist of a title and text (an average of 125 characters).
    2. A notification about content should be sent to a person immediately after publication (taking into account his time zone).
    3. The notification must contain a link to which the subscriber must be redirected.

    When introducing technology into the operation of the server, it is important to ensure that the notification does not repel the visitor:

    • Each notification must be relevant and convey only useful information.
    • Need to create social contacts between subscribers, giving them the opportunity to discuss content. This is done by linking to social networks.
    • The person must have the choice to refuse or accept the notifications.
    • The intensity of messages should be adjusted correctly so that the user does not “drown” in the flow of information, does not get annoyed due to excessive spam and, as a result, does not unsubscribe.

    The technology of short pop-up notifications allows website owners to attract a large audience to their services, popularizing the brand and increasing the likelihood of success in further promotion.

    The dangers of push notifications

    Utility data – effective tool communication with a diverse audience. However, in some cases, apparent simplicity can result in many problems for the user.

    Sending notifications too often irritates your visitors. Will you be pleased to be on the site when you receive a notification every 10 minutes with a link to some uninteresting article? No. Do not overuse such notifications.

    Another danger is direct links that cannot be cleared from a mobile or computer screen. When you click on them, a website opens, which is what attackers take advantage of by creating malicious web pages. Therefore, you should notify users with simple messages that people will trust.

    You probably receive notifications on your email: come in mail client and look at the incoming letters. IN in this case this technology is a pull technology, i.e. you go to the site and “pull” data from it when you need it.

    In the case of push notifications, the resource pushes new data to you itself. At the same time, you immediately receive the latest data, because this technology does not have a specific data verification period; it comes online. Using push notifications you do not necessarily need to receive notifications. Using push technology, you can, for example, synchronize data if it has been updated.

    Notifications are:

    • Browser - via push api or via add-on
    • Mobile - via mobile application
    • On PC via application, regardless of browser
    You can immediately start creating a Push Notification channel,

    Browser (web) push notifications

    They come to the browser from the site to which the user is subscribed. They can arrive both on a computer and on an Android device in the Chrome browser, but iOS devices cannot accept web pushes under any circumstances.

    This is what notifications look like different types in Chrome browser

    First the notification is made via the standard Notification API, second done via Push API. These alerts don't go away - but they don't have image smoothing applied on many platforms. (you can see by the quality of the pictures)
    Third push was made via Rich Notification. These notifications come through extensions, they may contain additional information, buttons, image under the notification. There are more possibilities - but they are automatically hidden, although perhaps in the future they will be available from “pinning”.
    These are notifications in Chrome, but there are also notifications in Firefox and Safari.


    Firefox

    Safari

    Many services provide these types of alerts. web push notifications. However, we want to explain to you that sending notifications itself is free. These alerts are sent via:

    GCM: Google, completely free, you just need to create a key in the developer console
    APNS: Apple requires any developer you know with a certificate, or for $100 a year you can take it yourself
    MSP: Mozilla Push Service, completely free. You don't even need registration. Open standard.

    We warn you that you do not need to pay several thousand rubles for the number of alerts or subscribers. Since the mailing service itself is free (unlike, for example, SMS, where you need to pay the operator), you can only charge money for intermediary services, convenience, statistics, etc. But it’s not worth several thousand rubles, especially as the number of subscribers grows. Yes, the load of a million alerts per hour will be significant - you can pay money for such numbers, because your server may not be able to handle it. But believe me, sending even 100 thousand notifications per day is nonsense. Through GCM you can send more than 5-7 thousand push notifications in 5-7 packets in a second. Many web push services require 1000 rubles per month or even more for this. In 1 second of a small script.
    PushAll supports all these types of notifications and allows you to send newsletters absolutely free and without restrictions.

    Mobile push notifications

    These are alerts that come to you mobile phone from various applications. For example, notifications on Android through the PushAll application look like this
    And this is how it is on iOS in our application

    You will not be able to attach these alerts “natively” to your website. It is possible to receive browser notifications on Android via Chrome, but these notifications are very cumbersome and of poor quality, the difference can be appreciated in the example below:

    Alert comparison

    For example, you can send an alert via telegram (1) , but then you won’t have an icon for your site, and when clicked, the user will be taken to a dialogue, and not immediately to your resource. (2) This is just a browser notification on Android, it’s not so noticeable in this screenshot, but the image is more low quality, an extra button with settings, and a line with the site address. Plus, due to content updates, an unnecessary notification may appear. (4) . Native solution through the application (3) is the most attractive solution for the user.
    Push notifications on Moto 360 smartwatches:



    The difference is most noticeable on smart watches. Top web alert, bottom app alert

    Also notifications on Android in latest version our application can group by channels:

    Grouping notifications on Android Android History inside the iOS app

    Exotic Alerts


    You have already seen above that notifications from our service can even come through telegram. Due to this, users who actively use Telegram can easily connect. We also send alerts by email. In this case, notifications arrive “in batches” at set intervals.

    The end result is that we provide a secure "bridge" between the user and third party service. The user can trust his email the intermediate side, in which he is confident and not afraid that his mailbox will be compromised or he will end up on the spam list. At the same time, the sending site also does not pay for mailings as well as for all other types of notifications.

    Letters arrive in the style of notifications

    What types of alerts are most popular?

    We have extensive experience in sending push notifications, we have sent over 60 million of them. Below is data on the 33,214 devices in our system, as well as which devices and connection methods users prefer:
    • 11936 35% - Android application
    • 6992 22% - Chrome add-on
    • 6204 18% - WebPush
    • 3514 11% - Telegram
    • 2688 8% - Email
    • 1465 4% - SocketPush
    • 227 1% - iOS
    • 188 1% - Safari
    As you can see, about 60% of users choose native solutions that are installed on their devices. Simpler doesn't mean better. Only 18% of users choose one-click alerts, most likely due to previous bad experiences on other sites. 11% of users use Telegram - most of them iOS users, who were previously waiting for a native solution.

    As a result, we want to convey to our readers that the implementation of web pushes on your website will cover only 18% of the needs of your audience, you lose mobile users, losing those who had a bad experience with web pushes and much more.
    Also interesting is the high share of Email and SocketPush. For the user this is the most safe method, when he can open a website and receive notifications from services, and then close it and they will stop bothering him. At the same time, you need to understand that the same principle works here as in other Push notifications - when the user appears online - all missed notifications come. For some reason, many web services push notifications This function is presented as an innovation, but it is already built into the GCM and APNS protocols.

    It's interesting to see the statistics for the last 2 weeks, the fact is that we recently released an application for iOS, and we updated the application for Android and everything has changed somewhat.
    It should be taken into account that no new large channels have been added during this time - that is, this is a purely passive influx of new users - 950 devices.

    • 202 20% - WebPush
    • 72 8% - iOS
    • 38 4% - Email
    • 3 about 0% - Safari
    • 1 about 0% - SocketPush
    These statistics show that WebPush is growing passively as the easiest subscription method for a small number of channels. However, 70% use a native solution. Moreover - iOS app installed more often than adding a bot to telegram.

    What if I still need clean web push notifications on my website?

    Let's start with what you'll need:
    1. SSL certificate. It can be obtained for free, but its main problem is not that it can be bought or obtained. The main problem is the load. The fact is that when making an encrypted connection, a lot of server resources are consumed. This means that if your server could cope with the load without SSL, but was loaded at 50%, most likely you will have to buy 2-3 more servers, or carry out a lot of optimization. Also, during mailings, you will need to give the content (header and text) of the notification to all users who accept it. That is, if you have 100 thousand subscribers, then several thousand requests will come to your server in 10 seconds and all of them will require SSL Handshake.

    2. Device control and database. You will need to record each user and their key, make sure it is new (it is updated sometimes), discard old data, collect statistics yourself, etc.

    3. The key for GCM in the Google console is free. To send notifications on Safari, you need a developer account - it costs $100 per year.

    Inept use of notifications, especially if you call the request window immediately when the user enters the site, can lead to disastrous consequences



    iGuides users 'really excited' about alerts

    The fact is that many users activate alerts without understanding what they are. In fact, if the user has not confirmed his desire to receive mailings from you (in his right mind), and you send him content, then by law it is spam. That is, any user who accidentally clicks “Allow” on your site, and you do not warn him on your site that you will send him notifications, can sue you for spam.

    You can implement alerts yourself, and we will not completely rewrite it here (only if later, in detail, the instructions themselves with code)

    Is there ready-made solutions for browser notifications?

    If you yourself cannot implement notifications, but you need browser notifications on your site, you can try, for example, OneSignal. They provide good alerts, and they are free. tariff plans should be enough.

    Under no circumstances use services that ask you for money for the number of subscribers. The point is that over time, more and more users will disable these alerts on your site. You'll find that a certain percentage of your alerts don't get through. At first it will be 30%, then 40% and can even reach 80%. In this case, they will demand from you the amount for the full number of subscribers.

    Also pay attention to small text - some services limit notifications. For example, a limit of 30 notifications per month per user. What does it mean? This means that you can send 1 notification per day to all users. If you have articles on your website, this is not so bad - you can highlight one important one and send it. If you need to send personal messages and sometimes more than 1 notification per day, this is unacceptable. Such services will require you to pay the full monthly fee for every 30 alerts - for free alerts.

    Results

    Push notifications are useful tool, but you need to be able to work with it and know pitfalls. This market is now just developing, services are appearing that demand money “for novelty.” But in fact, throughout the civilized world, notifications have been used for a long time, and there they are already, for the most part, free. You also need to take into account the interests of users and not limit them in choosing methods for receiving notifications.

    We've provided you with compelling evidence that alerts are used across multiple platforms and that users love the approach. And if users are happy, then notifications will be perceived in a positive way. Users will receive the most useful information from you in a form convenient for them, which will expand the active audience of your resource.

    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, in the right top corner window, click on the three dots 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 in 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 you can forget about push notifications.

    Hello, dear readers!

    This technical article is primarily dedicated to all of you. To keep up with the times, in October 2016, I added to my website the ability to send push-up pop-up notifications for Chrome browsers and Firefox. To do this, I switched to protected https connection, may Google and Yandex reward me with traffic.

    What are Push-up notifications

    Push-up notifications are short pop-up notifications that appear on the screen personal computer or smartphone, which report updates on the site and other important events. For example, you can use them to congratulate readers (subscribers), but not write a “congratulatory” article.

    Initially, Push notifications appeared as a way of interaction mobile applications with smartphone and tablet users. However, in lately The technology of browser push notifications or web push has become very popular.

    How to subscribe to a web push website

    When you visit my website immediately or after a while, the following notification will appear on your browser screen. Click ALLOW

    Or this notification (on a darkened screen)

    You will immediately receive a subscription confirmation

    Now you will receive such notifications as soon as it appears on my blog new article. Sometimes I make announcements of popular old articles - perhaps they will interest you too.

    Three easy ways to disable Push notifications

    For example, you became uninterested in receiving news from my website and decided to unsubscribe.

    Two mouse clicks

    It's simple! To do this, you can right-click on the next notification you receive and click TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS

    Two mouse clicks somewhere else

    Site setup

    If you do not want to wait for the next message, you can unsubscribe at any time in your browser settings on the site. To do this, click on the padlock in the address bar and go to the site settings

    Then scroll through the settings to ALERTS and click “Configure exceptions”

    Then REMOVE my site from notification exceptions

    This way you will prevent the receipt of push notifications.

    Push notifications on a smartphone



    To unsubscribe from push notifications on your smartphone, click on the padlock in the address bar mobile browser. Next, click SITE SETTINGS

    Click ALERTS

    Click BLOCK

    And the second option is to click CLEAR AND RESET

    If you want to be the first to know about new articles, subscribe to PUSH notifications about my blog updates. If you suddenly get tired of receiving messages from me, you can unsubscribe at any time.

    Repost the pinned post on my VKontakte page and receive .

    Also here you can leave a review about my newsletter, what you liked and what you didn’t.