Why Custom Push Sounds are such a big win for your app

person holding smartphone

Push notifications are the most reliable and convenient way to communicate with your customers. In many use cases, push notifications provide extended functionality. They are critical for customers to get the most out of your app.

One cannot imagine a to-do list app without push notifications reminding users of the tasks to complete. The same goes with communication apps. There are even more use case scenarios where push notifications are an absolute must to provide value to your customers.

However, many app publishers consider push notifications as necessary, even when not required. This has created a problem for ethical apps which rarely send push notifications.

As per a recent statistic, on average, a US smartphone user receives 46 app push notifications every day. Push reaction rates of 7% on Android and 4.9% on iOS tells us the horror story – users ignore push notifications (Source: Business of Apps)

How to get users to click your push notifications?

The key is in staying relevant.

“A great push notification is three things: timely, personal and actionable.”

Noah Weiss, Head of Search, Learning, & Intelligence at Slack

As an app publisher, ask this question to yourself – how will you stand out from the daily bombardment of 40+ notifications sent by other apps?

Most of the experts recommend the following four things:

  1. Send notifications only when required and at the right time/ or place. Know your niche and typical user habits. Example – employee apps can remind employees about an internal event in the morning!

One can also allow users to select a custom time when they would like to receive notifications.

I am really impressed with TickTick, my favourite to-do list app. I can set location or time when I want to be reminded of a task, and it does so without fail. The best part is, I never see push notifications from TickTick unless it is crucial. So when I receive a notification from it, I make sure to open it.

  1. Avoid generic language. Get personal with the user.

Use the customer’s name whenever possible. And if you know their preferences related to your app, use the information.

Amazon Music app gets really personal but not freaky personal. The notification goes on the lines of “Hey Shahid! Your favourite artist Lana Del Rey has released a new single which has gained over 1 million likes in 24 hours, would you like to listen to it?”

Of course, YES!

  1. Tell them what will happen if they click on the notification.

User’s do not like unpleasant surprises, especially the ones involving sales and promotions. Let them know what will happen next if they click on the notification.

Amazon Shopping app sends promotional notifications with appropriate personalisation and call to action – “Hey Shahid, an item from your wish list “PlayStation5” is on sale! Click here to go to the pricing page.”

Okay, I know that clicking on the notification will not initiate a transaction. It will only take me to the pricing page.

  1. Standout! Firstly, ensure that your notification can adapt to light and dark themes. Make use of attention-grabbing colours and clear fonts for comfortable readability.

Notification sound is critical to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Whether the screen is on or off, notification sounds can differentiate your app with others.

At tchop, we want our clients to follow push-notification best practices. We want your apps to be heard and be distinguishable from the rest of the herd. With that in mind, we are proudly introducing a new feature:

Custom Push Sounds

Users are immune to hearing the standard beep or ting notification sounds that come built-in to their mobile phones. Obviously, users won’t unlock their phones more than 46 times in a day just to get a promotional notification which they are least bothered about!

Users miss out on useful notifications from their favourite apps only because they sound the same! As recommended earlier, it is very crucial to stand out of the crowd of annoying push notifications to get noticed by your users.

To cover your needs, we are introducing a new feature – Custom Push Sounds in tchop.

This will allow your app to stand out with a unique sound that users can easily recognise and respond to. Users will immediately know where the notification came from, and are less likely to ignore the sound and more likely to interact with your notification

How does it work?

We like to keep things simple. All you have to do is send us an audio file you want as a custom push sound. If you don’t have a specific audio file, please contact us with your ideas. We will help you find a good audio clip.

Here are a few recommendations when implementing custom push sounds:

  1. Do not provide audio files of longer than 30 seconds. Short and simple notifications between 2-3 seconds of duration work best.
  2. Choose a copyright-free or a licensed sound file to avoid legal issues.
  3. Beware of the local time when you want to send push notifications. Set your notifications outside of standard sleep hours.
  4. Do A/B testing to see what sound works best.

Note that the notification sound will not play when the phone is on vibration, silent or do not disturb mode.

To get started with the new feature, send us an audio file today.

Lets make it – bling!