Send an In-App Message
In-app messages are a type of communication tool with mobile users that includes banners, pop-ups, and other formats that appear on the screen of mobile applications while end users are interacting with them.
In-apps are important for mobile engagement in that they can be triggered by end user behavior, and when they are interacted with, they can do certain actions inside the app.
The key benefit of in-app messages is that it allows you to set up and run communication and promotion campaigns from inside an application without coding and publishing a new version in app stores.
Thanks to the Infobip in-app editor you have all you need to create beautiful and personalized in-app messages and mobile SDKs that deliver and display content for end users directly in the app. What's more, marketers don't need to depend on developers to create in-app messages which significantly decreases the time to launch in-app communication campaigns.
Key Benefits
- In-app messages appear when an end user is already inside the app to attract maximum attention
- In-app messages don’t require opt-in by an end user. The channel can be used for all active audiences of mobile applications that are segmented by personal attributes and real-time behavior
- Use different messaging formats (banner, pop-up, and full screen) and flexible design of in-app messages for a wide variety of use cases
- Creating and launching in-app campaigns don’t require coding and releasing a new version of an app. With in-app messages, marketers don’t depend on developers and can quickly launch campaigns and validate a hypothesis
- Use button actions to send the end user to a page in the application or browser URL
Fully featured in-app messages
Fully featured in-app messages are available as stand-alone messages over Flow in Moments. Use in-app messages in Flow to create and launch communication campaigns for mobile users. You can create content for in-app communications that match the use case of an application without the need for developers and coding experience.
Use in-app messages for a variety of use cases including:
- Promotional - for segments of your mobile audience and based on end user behavior. For example, hot sales items, special promo campaigns
- Reminders - to prompt the viewer to complete an unfinished action as part of app onboarding or purchase funnels. For example, cart abandonment and unifying personal data
- Feature adoption - Encouraging usage. For example, new functionality that has been introduced to the app
- Feedback - Requesting feedback. For example, requesting end users to interact with surveys for customer research
- Important Notifications - General important messaging such as regulation news, rules and conditions changes, and company updates
Supported SDK versions
The full features of all the formats of in-app messages are available in the following platforms:
- SDK for iOS - 11.0.0 and later
- SDK for Android - 9.0.0 and later
- SDK for Huawei - 6.0.0 and later
- Plugin for React Native - 10.0.0 and later
- Plugin for Flutter - 4.0.0 and later
- Plugin for Cordova - 4.0.0 and later
To enable in-app messages in the platform, refer to the following documentation.
Messaging Formats
You can send in-app messages in the following formats:
- Banner - Banners are small in-app notifications that are temporarily displayed over the content of the mobile app. They are displayed either on the top or the bottom of the screen of the mobile device and then close automatically after a few seconds.
Use banners when you need to inform an end user about something without stopping them from what they are doing in the app. You can use banners in situations when you need to show confirmation that an action has been performed in the app, make a short announcement, or when combined with push notifications, to ensure that the end user sees the information from a push notification when they use an app.
- Pop-up - Pop-up is a type of mobile in-app message that pops up on a screen and overlaps part of the content. Pop-up in-app messages suit scenarios when you want to get the full attention of the end user and ask them to do something.
- Full screen - Full screen is a type of mobile in-app message that fully covers the screen. Full screens suit scenarios where you have a significant amount of information that you want your end users to read and perform a certain action.
Create an in-app message in Flow
To create an in-app message in Flow. Navigate to Moments > Communications. Create Flow, define the trigger elements, and select the Send Push and In-app Notification element.
Click In-app notification to enter the in-app editor and start building our in-app notification.
Define the type of in-app message that you would like to use for your communication. Select one of the following messaging formats.
- Banner In-App
- Pop-up In-App
- Full-screen In-App
Drag and drop elements from the side panel to the design field and populate the sidebar fields to format your communication with:
- Image: .jpg, .png, .jpeg images can be uploaded directly or over a URL link.
- Title: can be personalized with placeholders.
- Body text: can be personalized with placeholders.
You can define text and action buttons to:
- Open the page in the mobile app: enter deep link (Learn more about enabling deep links for iOS and Android).
- Open URL with a web-view: enter the web-view link (iOS or Android).
- Open URL in a browser: enter URL.
You can apply a dismiss button text or disable it completely.
Choose a font for the text and select text and background colors to make your in-app message align with your mobile app design.
Placeholders in text
In addition to using personal attributes, such as names and account numbers, in links and fields of your in-app message, you can also add placeholders for standard and custom attributes to target many end users at the same time.
When you add a link, you can set the behavior of the link to be a special link, which lets you choose whether to view the message in a browser or to unsubscribe from receiving more links.
Standard and custom attributes are associated with profiles in People. See People to learn more
Custom payload
In addition to customizing content, you can include custom payload in your application logic so that the app can process it according to the required end user experience.
Example: You can include additional web content that is shown to the end user when they open the notification in the mobile app.
To set custom payload, you can use either a key value pair or JSON structure.
Note
Custom payload processing needs to be implemented in the mobile app.
Preview
Use Preview to see how your in-app message design will look on end users' devices and with applied data for personalization placeholders.
When you are reviewing your design, toggle iOS or Android radio buttons to see how your in-app message will look in corresponding devices.
Basic In-App Messages
As well as fully featured in-apps with editable design, Infobip mobile SDK supports basic in-app messages that are a system type of in-app notifications.
The benefit of basic in-app messages is that they can be combined with push notifications. This means that you can create a push notification campaign and also add in-app messages as well. In situations like this, if you have an app open when you receive a push notification the message will be shown as an in-app notification.
Basic in-app notifications can be sent over the following:
- Flow campaigns with a combination of mobile push and in-app messages
- Broadcast
- API
Supported SDK versions
Basic system-type notifications are supported on the following SDK versions:
| SDK | Pop-up (Modal) supported version | Banner supported version |
|---|---|---|
| SDK for iOS | since 3.6.0 | since 5.0.0 |
| SDK for Android | since 1.13.0 | since 2.0.0 |
| SDK for Huawei | since 1.0.0 | |
| Plugin for Cordova | since 0.7.0 | since 1.0.0 |
| React Native | All versions | |
| Flutter | All versions | |
Messaging Formats
You can send in-app messages in the following formats:
- Banner - Banners are small in-app notifications that are temporarily displayed over the content of the mobile app. They are displayed either on the top or the bottom of the screen of the mobile device and then close automatically after a few seconds.
Use banners when you need to inform an end user about something without stopping them from what they are doing in the app. You can use banners in situations when you need to show confirmation that an action has been performed in the app, make a short announcement, or when combined with push notifications, to ensure that the end user sees the information from a push notification when they use an app.
System banners are available for sending over API only.
- Pop-up - Pop-up is a type of mobile in-app message that pops up on a screen and overlaps part of the content. Pop-up in-app messages suit scenarios when you want to get the full attention of the end user and ask them to do something.
Send in-app message over Broadcast
You can send in-app messages over Broadcast that are displayed over the app.
In the web interface click Moments > Communications menu. Select Create Broadcast and choose Mobile Push channel in the dropdown. Define your audience and which mobile application will be used for the campaign. Choose In-app notification and build out your communication:
- Image (optional): can be uploaded directly or over URL link. Formats supported: JPEG, PNG, GIF (only static image)
- Title: can be personalized with placeholders.
- Body message text: can be personalized with placeholders.
You can define text and action buttons to:
- Open page in a mobile app: enter deep link
- Open URL with a web-view: enter web-view link
- Open URL in a browser: enter URL
You can define the dismiss button text or disable it completely.
You also can save messages to Inbox and include Custom Payload content.
If you are sending several in-app notifications to an end user, the mobile SDK will display only the most recently received message.
Send in-app message over API
You can use Mobile push API to send mobile in-app messages for 2 scenarios:
- Sending push notifications with a combination of in-app messages. This supports delivery/transactional information to end users who are inside the app and cannot see push notifications.
- Sending silent mobile push (without it appearing in the notification center) for triggering in-app notifications.
To send in-app messages over API, use the Send single Push notification and Send multiple Push notifications requests with parameters notificationOptions including fields:
- showInApp – to enable in-app messages to show.
- inAppStyle – to define style - Modal.
- inAppExpirationPeriod – to set a validity period for in-app notifications.
- inAppExpirationTimeUnit – to set time units for in-app expiration – minutes or hours
- inAppDismissTitle – to specify the Dismiss button of the in-app notification
- inAppOpenTitle – to specify a custom title for the Open button
- primaryButtonAction – to define which action to perform on tap on in-app notification primary button.
Additionally, API requests offer a wide range of possibilities for destination targeting options:
- Default destinations: platform, SDK version, OS version, device manufacturer, device model, application version, enabled/disabled notifications.
- User-defined destinations: external User ID, phone number, email, and custom attribute parameters.
You can use a single address type or combine two or more to achieve the desired user segmentation.
Send banners over API
System banners are available for sending over API only.
To send banners over API use the Send single Push notification and Send multiple Push notifications requests with notificationOptions parameters including fields:
- showInApp – to enable the showing of in-app messages.
- inAppStyle – to define style - Banner.
- inAppExpirationPeriod – to set a validity period for in-app notification.
- inAppExpirationTimeUnit – to set time unit for in-app expiration in minutes or hours
Head over to Send Mobile App Messages over API to learn more about the send message API capabilities.