This article provides you with information for setting up Silent Push notifications to user groups across multiple mobile platforms and devices.
Introduction
To check the existing Silent Push Messages, go to Channels -> Mobile Engage -> Push Messages tab.
On the main Mobile Engage page you can switch between the following tabs:
Push Messages tab
On this tab you can see details of all your push messages listed with their Name, Recipient source, Status, App name, number of messages Sent as push, number of messages, the date it was Created and last Changed.
Clicking the delete is a hard delete action. It means that the delete action is irreversible and will delete the Silent Push message permanently.
Recipient Source
A Silent Push message can have one of the following Recipient sources:
- Automation Center – Sends push messages from an Automation Center program.
- Using a segment – Sends push messages to a standard Emarsys segment.
Status
A Silent Push message can have one of the following statuses:
- In design – Some content or settings are still missing.
- Tested - Test message has been sent but not launched yet.
- Ready to launch – Not activated yet, but ready to launch.
Silent push message
Silent push messages require as a prerequisite of at least the 2.4.1 version of the Emarsys SDK to be integrated into the mobile application to be able to receive the silent push messages.
Also the push delivery services of Google or Apple do not guarantee delivery of silent push notifications. Both platforms may throttle silent push messages to less than 3 messages per hour per device. This is outside the control of Emarsys.
Finally, to receive the silent push message, push permission has to already be granted by the contact.
Click Create Silent Push Message in the Push Messages tab to open the message creation wizard. Emarsys offers a very intuitive workflow for creating new messages. These are presented in the form of the following main steps:
- Message settings
- Event Creation
- Scheduling
Message settings
Define the General settings of the new silent push message.
General settings
- Message name – Name the silent push message to identify the campaign on the Push Messages tab.
- Mobile app – Select the mobile application to be sent the silent push message. You can send your message only to one application. Only apps already associated with the account are listed here.
- Recipient source – Define the target audience of your message.
- Apply segment criteria for devices – Optionally you can apply segment criteria for devices with various conditions
Recipient source
The options for Recipient source are as follows:
- Automation Center – Sends silent push messages from an Automation Center program.
Mobile Engage Silent Push Message can only be used in an Automation Center Program if the Recipient Source is set to Automation Center and the Silent Push Message is launched. After the Silent Push Message is launched, it can be selected in the drop-down menu of the Mobile Engage node in Automation Center. If the Silent Push Message is not yet launched, then it will not show up in the drop-down.
- Using a segment – Sends a silent push message to a standard Emarsys segment.
Mobile Engage segmentation is included in the universal segmentation feature of Emarsys, available in the Contacts->Segments menu. For details, see Creating Mobile Engage segments.
To create a Mobile Engage segment for broadcast messages, select Contacts who have linked devices for application for the segment criteria. The result is that all contacts, anonymous and known, are included in the segment.
Apply segment criteria for devices
Tick the Apply segment criteria for devices checkbox to enable device level filtering. By ticking this option, the Conditions drop-down list is appearing.
Conditions
In the Conditions drop-down list you can select a segment criteria for mobile devices. If you initially created the segment and you added device level criteria here you can select that segment. The earlier set device level condition will be taken into consideration when sending a push message.
If you want to specify a device level condition you can do so by creating Mobile Engage segments. Here you can only verify that device level conditions specified when created a segment and these conditions are really taken into account.
An example of device-level conditions is to target a specific OS platform. Therefore if the contact has 2 registered devices, e.g. iPhone and Android, the contact is only received the message on the targeted OS device. Device-level conditions are also useful as the contact list does not display device information like OS platform, OS version etc.
To refresh conditions from the segment, click the Refresh icon on the right.
When you are finished with your general settings, click Save & Next to save your message for the first time.
Event Creation
In the Event Creation step you have the option to Add Application Event and update the badge count for iOS devices.
Add Application Event
- Click on the Add Application Event button.
- The pop up box that appears allows the configuration of the JSON object that will be sent to the app. Enter the name of the event, the Key as predefined by the developers of the app and the Value to be passed with the key.
- It is possible to add multiple key and value pairs by clicking the + symbol on the right. Also to send different key and value pairs depending on device platform by toggling the Use different setup for iOS and Android option on the bottom right.
- Click on Apply to save the application event.
iOS Notification Badge
For iOS devices only, it is possible to manipulate the badge count of the app by increasing/decreasing the badge count number or setting it to a specific value. The options are:
No Change - No changes are made to the badge count.
Modify amount by - Update the badge count by increasing or decreasing the badge count by a specific value. To configure, use the up/down arrows next to the option. Positive values entered will increase the badge count and negative values will decrease the badge count.
Set amount to - This option will set the badge count to a specific value.
Testing a silent push message
Click Test Messages button on the left.
In the appearing Send Test Message window, you can specify an email address or contact list to which a test message will be sent.
The test email address must be a valid address in your Emarsys database, associated with a known device.
For sending the test message to a contact list, the maximum number of contacts allowed in the contact list is 50. This is to mitigate the risk of sending to a large audience by accident.
If sending of the test message fails, a red warning message appears on the screen. The reasons for this could be the following:
- No contact has been found in Emarsys database with the given email address.
- The email address has been found, but there is no device associated to it.
Scheduling
When you have tested your message, and the recipient source is using a segment you can continue to the Scheduling step.
In the Scheduling section, you can either select Launch now for immediate action, or you can define a specific date and time in the future and click Schedule. Scheduling launches in the future is available to all kinds of recipient sources except the Automation Center.
When a message is scheduled for launch, the contents of the message are still editable right up until launch and can even be deleted.
Also, if a message needs to be sent within the next few minutes, please use the Launch Now, rather than the scheduling option. Any messages launched that are scheduled in the past, even by seconds, will not be sent.