--- title: "A Single Push Notification Can Reach Up to 2 Billion People—So Why Won’t Anyone Open Your App?" locale: "en" language: "en-HK" published: "2016-09-12T13:56:28+08:00" updated: "2026-03-17T23:05:16.206Z" canonical: "https://accordhk.com/blog/a-single-push-notification-can-reach-up-to-2-billion-peopleso-why-wont-anyone-open-your-app-214" --- # A Single Push Notification Can Reach Up to 2 Billion People—So Why Won’t Anyone Open Your App? Push notifications have considerable potential, but attracting users is only the beginning. Building a habit requires careful attention to notification relevance, timing, vibration, and the page users reach after clicking. ## In brief To increase engagement, make push notifications relevant, match their timing to users’ routines, reserve vibration for urgent situations, and take users to the page they expect. Evaluate your strategy through permission rates, uninstall rates, and responses per 100 notifications. Smartphones have been around for nearly 10 years, yet founders of technology companies still describe mobile development as the least mature area. Among mobile technologies, push notifications have the greatest potential for growth. Build your own strategy around the following principles for [push notifications]()。 Acquiring New Users An app can offer only a limited number of features, and you still have to rely on users discovering them the first time they use it. [Mobile app]() growth faces its greatest obstacle in acquiring new users. Several strategies address this problem: effective in-app marketing, social channels, SEM (search engine marketing), and SEO (search engine optimization). But getting users to form a habit is harder than attracting new users. If users grow tired of your push notifications, you face three possible outcomes: they allow only selected apps to keep sending notifications, they turn off push notifications entirely, or they uninstall your app. To evaluate your push notification strategy, use these three measures: 1. The percentage of users who grant notification permission; 2. The uninstall rate; 3. The percentage of notifications that receive a user response, measured per 100 notifications. Managing the Novelty Effect After receiving an unwelcome push notification, users generally take no action, such as changing settings or uninstalling the app, for a month. There is a threshold at which their irritation outweighs the inconvenience of uninstalling the app. Always Keep Three Questions in Mind: How to Send Notifications, When to Send Them, and Where They Lead Push notifications serve one purpose: increasing user engagement. Drawing on years of professional experience, here are some details that deserve particular attention: Enable Vibration Only in the Most Urgent Situations Experience shows that [enabling vibration]() is one of the riskiest choices. If you enable vibration and users discover that the notification concerns something trivial, they may become irritated enough to uninstall your app. Consider an urgent situation, such as being about to miss a flight or receiving a message from a colleague about work that needs further attention. In these circumstances, vibration makes users see your app as a very useful tool. Generally, people check their phones 70–100 times a day, so messages are usually read within 15 minutes of a push notification being sent. Match Users’ Daily Rhythms Timing matters for push notifications. Although there is no clear rule defining the best time, could you pause to consider how users spend their day? Do not send notifications while users are asleep: you could wake them up, or leave them facing a phone full of notifications when they wake. Also consider the content you are sending. News notifications are sure to work well in the morning, and notifications sent during the commute to or from work will certainly attract high readership. You can adjust your notification schedule by observing user engagement. Personalization makes a real difference and demonstrates your understanding of users. Look at Push Notifications Through Uber’s Eyes. If you asked an Uber driver to take you to a particular shop and they dropped you off on some street instead, would you be happy? Clearly not! Many startups forget this point. Users do click your notifications, but if the page you take them to differs from what they expect, they will roll their eyes the next time you send one. For this reason, many [e-commerce apps]() generally send users notifications pointing to the homepage, rather than a specific product or page, for fear of getting it wrong. http://www.hksilicon.com/articles/1175765 ## Frequently asked questions ### How can I measure the effectiveness of my push notification strategy? The article recommends three measures: the percentage of users granting notification permission, the uninstall rate, and the percentage of notifications receiving a response per 100 notifications. ### When should an app use vibration for push notifications? Reserve vibration for the most urgent situations, such as a risk of missing a flight or a colleague’s message about work needing further attention. Vibration for trivial notifications can irritate users enough to uninstall the app. ### How should I choose when to send push notifications? Consider users’ daily routines and the content of the notification, and avoid sending notifications while they sleep. The article highlights mornings for news and commuting periods for readership, and recommends adjusting timing based on user engagement. ### Why does the page opened by a notification matter? Users expect the notification to take them to a relevant page. If the destination differs from their expectations, they may react negatively to future notifications.