Getting Started with Push Notifications

Push notifications are a powerful way to reach your community with timely, relevant messages. Push notifications have higher engagement rates than emails, which makes them a popular way to communicate with people who have downloaded your app.

Push vs Text: The Difference

Push messages are sent to anyone who has downloaded your app and opted into push notifications, while text messages can be sent to anyone whose phone number you have.

Ways to Use Push Notifications

• Broadcast Push Messages. Send a message to everyone who downloaded your app and opted into app notifications. Great for all-church reminders and updates!
• Tag-targeted messages. For example, send a message about volunteer opportunities to people who have expressed an interest in volunteering and opted to receive communications about volunteering.
• Content-targeted messages. For example, schedule a message that opens up to your live stream video inside of your app. No need for people to search through the app to find the content - you can link straight to it with the push message!
• Geo-targeted messages. For example, engage with people on Sunday mornings by sending an encouraging, welcoming message when they walk onto your church property.

Schedule a Broadcast Push Messages

Broadcast push messages will go to everyone who has downloaded your app (as long as they have opted to receive app notifications), regardless of whether they are part of a tag. 

1. Go to the Messaging > Schedule a Message page in your portal and enter the message you want to send. Fill out the Send Date and Send Time for the message.
2. Under Who gets this message?, leave it as Send to everyone.
3. Toggle on the App Push button, so it turns green.
4. Click the Schedule Message button to schedule the message

Manage Push Messages

After a message has been scheduled, you can view it on the Messaging > Sent Messages page in your portal. 

• Click the garbage can next to the message to cancel it before the scheduled delivery date and time. 
• Under the Status column, you will see either Delivered if a message has been sent, or it will be empty if the message is scheduled for a later date/time. 
• The Type column will show what type of message it was.

Learn More about Push Notifications

• Read this article to learn more about content-targeted push notifications.
• Read this article to learn more about tag-targeted push notifications.
• Read this article to learn more about geo-targeted push notifications.

Check out our short video below on scheduling push messages!

If you have any questions or need help, send us a note at support@aware3.com!