I'm sure you've had it once. You saw a nice promotion of 30% summer sales; discount appears on your screen, you tapped on it, got distracted, and then you can't find the message anywhere. Notifications work great and can be used to create the most engaging experience. But what if you just missed a message like that? Meet the Inbox.
Why every app needs an Inbox
If you want to make sure that all your users receive your message and can always find it, you definitely need an inbox. The Inbox is a gathering of all your users's incoming messages. It's the central place where they can always find them in your app.
In Notificare, the Inbox functionality is available for all our clients. Mobile or web apps with a message inbox, enjoy much higher conversions. Due to its nature, users will never miss an update and your messages are always available and can be opened as many times as they want.
Find the best spot
Within your app or website, it is crucial to find the right place for the Inbox. The user should be able to quickly find your messages. The most common use case is that you can navigate straight from the home view or from a navigation bar to the Inbox. To draw even more attention to this, you can also use the unread messages badge. By using this design convention, you will be able drive them to new content.
No opt-in needed
The Inbox itself does not need an opt-in. Whenever you implement push notifications, users are in total control and can prevent you from showing alerts, sounds or badges. With an in-app inbox, messages will always be available to your users, even for those who have turned off their notifications. Beautiful, isn't it?
Features, out of the (In)box
As mentioned before, the Inbox ensures that messages that came in are always retrievable. However, you can do even more with it.
Inbox Only
Send a message solely to the Inbox. The user doesn't get a remote notification but only sees the message by proactively visiting the website or app. Use this for less prominent messages like changes to your terms and conditions or an update to your app.Remote Only
You can also send messages that don't appear in your Inbox at all. Use this feature for messages that are allowed to be volatile. For example, an order status update.Notification Badge
The badge, you know the red dot next to the app icon, will alert a user for unread messages.In-App Notification Badge
Additionally, if you want to draw a user attention to unread messages while they are using your app, you can also implement an in-app badge.Deleting Messages
Offer ways for users to manage the Inbox, let them take control and keep their Inbox nice and clean. By using our libraries it is pretty simple to develop functionality that lets them delete individual messages or all the messages at once.Mark as Read
Let users acknowledge they have seen your content while allowing them to keep a message in the Inbox.Expiration
Another great feature is the Inbox Expiration. By setting an expiration in your messages, you can define how long the message should be visible in the Inbox.Native or Web
Did we mention the Inbox is available in both a native or web app? With our Inbox features you can easily develop a message centre for your Android, iOS, tvOS, or Web app.
Higher conversions and engagement rates
So, what's in it for you as a marketer? Well, if this wasn't enough to convince you, you will also get higher open rates, more engagement, and thus higher conversion rates. According to what we've see with many other apps, adding an Inbox increases the open rates up to 5 times!
How to get started?
In just three simple steps, you are all set to go to deliver brilliant messaging experiences at scale. The Inbox is available in all our plans, but you need to turn it on the dashboard, simply go to Settings > Services > Inbox. Optionally, you can also enable the Auto-Badge feature which will automatically manage the unread number of messages.
After that, just let your developers and designers follow our guides and find the best place for your Message Center inside your app. Pick the functionality you care about and style it all to meet your needs. It shouldn't take more than 4 hours to have an in-app message centre with your own look and feel.
And now, send the first welcome message to your Inbox.
Yes, the Inbox is essential!
As you can see, there are many reasons to have an inbox in your app. Feel free to contact our Support Engineers if you need help to guide you through the process.