Push

Overview

Push channel refers to both mobile (iOS, Android) and web push.

Each push message can be sent to all platforms at once or to a subset of them. By default only iOS and Android platforms are enabled, but this can be changed at any moment.

Your message can be previewed on iOS, Android, Web (iOS) and Web (Windows).

A push message is composed of:

• A title
• A message body
• (optional) A custom icon (Android & Web only)
• (optional) An image (iOS, Android and web notifications for Chrome)
• (optional) A deeplink redirection
• Advanced settings (see dedicated section)

Title and Message body

This is the most important part of your push notification, make sure your message is not too long and to write it accordingly to your targeted audience.

Emoji emoticons

You can add emoji emoticons to the title or the body of your iOS, Android, Windows or web push notifications.

If you want to insert an emoji in your message you can:

• Chrome 68+: Right-click any text field and select "Emoji" or "Emoji & Symbols".
• Windows: Simply press the Windows key + the period button to display Windows's emoji keyboard on Windows 10. In case you are using an older version of Windows, you can copy-paste an emoji from emojipedia: iOS / Android / Windows.
• Mac: Press CTRL + CMD + Space to display the emoji keyboard and pick an emoji.

On Android, emojis may look different on your users devices:

• Custom emojis: Some device manufacturers use a set of custom emojis. See how they look here: Samsung / LG.
  
• Android 4.4: On Android versions before 4.4, emoji emoticons might not be displayed correctly.

Image & Custom Icon

You have two options to add an attachment:

• Browse media from your computer.
• Use a URL to your media : These URL can use personalization.

Image (optional)

Batch lets you send large-format notifications with a large image attachment on iOS, Android and Chrome (Web). We require a landscape image, PNG, JPG or WebP, with a minimum width and height of 200px (max. 10MB). For web push notifications, the image is displayed only on Chrome for Windows and Android, but it will not appear on other browsers like Chrome (macOS) or Firefox.

Custom Icon (optional)

On Android and Web, you can add a specific icon for the notifications sent by a push campaign. Batch requires a square image, PNG, JPG or WebP, with a minimum width of 192px. On Web, if a default icon is set in the settings, this custom icon overrides it. The custom Icon is not an iOS setting and does not impact iOS messages.

Deeplink URL (optional)

Deeplinks allow you to direct users to a specific place in your app. Batch Push campaigns can accept this link scheme to direct users to a particular area within your app upon opening the push notification (i.e. The news you mention in your notification, etc).

Please note that the Deeplink URL must be a link based on a URL scheme that you specify within your app and should begin with "app://", "http://", or "https://". URLs starting with "www." are not compliant.

If the same push orchestration is targeting several platforms, the deeplink URL can be specified by platform.

Advanced settings

Custom payload

An optional JSON string that can contain additional parameters that your application can handle when receiving push notifications if configured to do so. The root of the JSON must be an Object and cannot have the reserved key com.batch. You can use {BATCH:TITLE}, {BATCH:BODY} and {BATCH:DEEPLINK} variables. They will be replaced.

For example, you can use the custom payload to:

• Set a badge value for your app icon on iOS
• Customise your notification sound on iOS
• Add action buttons to your notification (iOS / Android)
• Send silent notifications (iOS / Android)

FCM/APNS Priority

Defines the priority of your message on iOS (APNS), Android (FCM) and Web. The default value is high.

On Android, you can use the high priority if you have a messaging/voip app and if you notice delivery issues due to native (Doze) or constructor related (Samsung Smart Manager, etc) energy saving features.

High priority Android notifications can drain your user's battery faster since they 'wake up' the device and open a network connection. Switch to Normal priority if your notification is not time-sensitive.

FCM Collapse key

Defines how notifications are managed when an offline device goes online. If enabled, the device will only show the most recent notification. If disabled, it will show all the notifications received when the device was offline.

You should disable the collapse key if all your notifications matter (E.g. messages, etc). You can use up to 3 different collapse keys if you want users to get only one notification of each kind when coming online (E.g. marketing message, alert, etc).

Expiration (TTL)

You can set an expiration delay or a Time to Live (TTL) in hours for your notification. The notification won't be displayed if the device doesn't receive the notification or doesn't come back online within this time.

By default, Batch sets a TTL of 14 days for all the notifications you send. If your user's device comes back online before being off for two weeks, it will display the last notification you sent to your user (iOS) or all the notifications sent over the previous two weeks (Android and web push).

In addition to setting an expiration delay for your push campaign, you can set a global expiration delay that will be applied to all your notifications. This can be done from the dashboard settings > Channels > Push settings.

Important: We strongly recommend you set a short global TTL for web push notifications to prevent customers from wanting to opt-out. Users who accept to receive web push notifications are more likely to turn off their device (e.g. a laptop at home, etc) and receive many notifications from your website when they go back online.

Send a Test

• When specifying a Custom ID, the test will only be sent to installations on platforms enabled for the given push message. For example, if the push message is configured for Android and Web only, no test will be sent to an iOS installation.
• Similarly, if an installation ID is specified but corresponds to a platform not enabled for the push message, the test will not be sent.
• Other behaviors are similar to test messages across all channels. See more details here.

Safari APNS

For web push, Safari APNS is no longer supported. As of macOS Ventura (13.0), Safari implements the same Web Push Protocol other browsers do and does not require any additional configuration from your part.

Note that this description is focused on describing Push v2 behavior. Push v1 work in a pretty similar way with the following main difference: it is fully siloed by platform (iOS, Android, Web), in terms of composition but also data leveraged for personalization and targeting.