Sending Push Notifications

Iterable can send push notification campaigns to contacts who use iOS and Android devices. These push notifications can include sounds, images, videos and action buttons to create engaging content for your contacts (note that iOS and Android support different options).

This document describes how to create and send a push notification campaign with Iterable.

# Table of contents

# Setting up Iterable's mobile SDKs

Before sending push notifications, have your mobile engineers add Iterable's mobile SDKs (iOS, Android) to your mobile apps and configure them to work with push notifications.

# Sending push notification campaigns

To send push notifications to your contacts, follow these instructions:

# 1. Create a campaign

First, create a campaign:

1. Navigate to Messaging > Campaigns and click Create New Campaign.

2. Specify various campaign details:

   

   • Provide a Campaign Name.

   • Choose whether or not to use a custom conversion metric.

   • Add labels as necessary.

   • For Campaign Type, choose Blast or Triggered.

   • For Message Medium, select Push.

   • Choose whether or not to use Selective Push to send the campaign to specific mobile apps associated with your project (rather than all of them).

     

     If you have multiple mobile apps and only a subset should receive the push notification campaign, enable Selective Push and select the mobile apps to include.

     With selective push disabled, Iterable sends the push notification campaign to all push integrations defined in the project, regardless of whether or not they have been assigned to mobile apps.

     NOTE

     Define mobile apps in Settings > Mobile Apps. For more details, see Setting Up iOS Push Notifications and Setting Up Android Push Notifications.

   • For a blast campaign, choose send and suppression lists.

     In order for users to receive push notification campaigns from Iterable, their user profiles must have a device token associated with your mobile app. Iterable's mobile SDKs (iOS, Android) populate these tokens when the users run the app.

3. Click Continue to Templates.

# 2. Select a base template for the campaign's content, or start from scratch

If there's an existing base template that you'd like to use as a starting point for your campaign, select it and click Continue to Design. Otherwise, click Create a New Template.

# 3. Configure the campaign's template

To set up the campaign's template, use the template editor to configure its options and content. For more information, read Template Options for Push Notifications.

When you are done, click Save Template.

# 4. Preview the push notification

Once your mobile engineers have configured your app to display push notifications, test the campaign by clicking Send Proof and selecting an option.

Alternatively, use the Preview With Data button, which renders the push notification in the browser and resolves merge parameters with data from a user profile of your choosing. For more information, read Previewing Templates with Data.

When you are done previewing the template and making edits, click Save & Continue to Review.

# 5. Review and launch the campaign

On the campaign's Review & Launch screen:

• Send the campaign immediately by clicking Send Campaign Right Now.
• Schedule the campaign for later by clicking Schedule Campaign for Later.

# Sending push notifications from workflows

To send push notifications from workflows, use Send Push workflow nodes.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Messaging > Workflows.

2. Select an existing workflow or click Create New Workflow to create a new one.

3. Set up up the workflow as necessary.

4. At the point in the workflow where you'd like to send a push notification, drag a Send Push node onto the workflow canvas and connect it to another node.

   

5. Configure the new node by double-clicking on it.

   

6. Provide a Campaign Name, select a custom conversion metric if necessary, and add Labels.

7. Select a template and click Update Node.

   Alternatively, edit an existing template before selecting it:

   • Right-click the name of a template and open it in a new browser tab.
   • Edit the push notification template as necessary.
   • Click Save Template.
   • Back in the original browser tab, close the workflow node.
   • Double-click the Send Mobile Push node to re-open it.
   • Select the edited template and click Update Node.

8. Back on the workflow canvas, click Save.

9. Enable the workflow with the toggle in the upper-left corner of the workflow canvas.

# Events

For general information about how Iterable captures campaign-related events, read Events Overview.

# Further reading

User guides:

• Template Options for Push Notifications
• Push Campaign Metrics

Developer documentation:

• Iterable's iOS SDK
• Iterable's Android SDK
• iOS SDK Release Notes
• Android SDK Release Notes
• Setting Up iOS Push Notifications
• Setting up Android Push Notifications
• Advanced iOS Push Notifications
• Personalizing Templates with Data Feeds
• Testing a Workflow
• Messages Channels and Types Overview
• Snippets Overview