A new way to reach users
Aciety holds top software companies from (Eastern) Europe, so we also strive to keep to the latest trends in technology and UX development. Once we saw about the new release of push notifications, offered by Chrome browser, we decided to give it a try.
The new notifications appear in mobile devices or web browser to help users to engage with different web apps better and get relevant information in a convenient way. The early adopters for this functionality will include companies like Facebook, Pinterest, Product Hunt and others.
Tools to build it fast
After a quick research we found Onesignal – a startup offering API, which covers all types of push notifications. They have raised $2m to make push notifications less annoying. So the only thing we needed was to create a php API for OneSignal SDK. We give it for free at GitHub. It’s not perfect but it may help you to get moving.
Use case
Before building a couple of use cases we acquired verbal feedback that such notifications can be annoying, should be limited and be used for the most relevant content only. Therefore we decided to use them for one purpose only:
“To inform clients and providers about new messages they receive at Aciety”.
In other words, we make their internal communication on our system more agile and responsive as users are notified when they receive a message.
The value
As communication at Aciety is strictly focused on project development and partnership management, such notifications are pretty relevant. They help to reach users on different devices and are way more visual. It decreases your chances of simply missing an email and being late to respond. Mr. Algirdas Stasiunaitis from OSOS describes it in his own words:
“Agile response to client requests and, especially, to lead inquiries is an important factor in winning deals. It’s good to multiply notification channels to make sure you will read them as soon as you get the message”.
The clients also value fast response. Usually they want to move through phases of sourcing and development event faster than realistically possible. Therefore responding to any messages from partners makes their development time shorter and more valuable as a consequence.
To sum up, we are happy about the new way to engage or at least communicate with users. As our use case is limited to relevant content only and avoids too frequent intrusions most of the feedback we received was positive. Yet, testing period is just several days, so only the future will finally show the real impact of the new Chrome’s push notifications.
