Push notifications people keep on are personally useful, well timed and few. Ask for permission after the customer has seen the app's value, not on first launch; start with service notifications (order status, appointments, replies); cap marketing pushes per week; respect quiet hours; and make every notification open the exact screen it is about.
- push notification best practices
- how to get users to allow push notifications
- best time to send push notifications
- why do users turn off app notifications
- how to add push notifications to my app without coding
What push notifications do people keep on?
Push notifications that people do not turn off feel written for them: 'Your order is at the gate', 'Your appointment is in two hours', 'The item you saved is back in stock'. A daily 'Don't miss our deals!' is the fastest way to send a customer into settings to switch everything off, and sometimes to delete the app.
Push is one of an app's strongest tools because it is nearly free and direct. But it is a limited budget: every useless notification draws down the customer's trust. A simple test: if this were a personal message from a staff member who knows the customer, would they send it?
A good notification is a service that arrives on time. A bad one is an ad that interrupts your day.
This guide focuses on in-app push on iOS and Android. For WhatsApp messages, read send WhatsApp notifications from your app; the two channels complement each other.
When and how should you ask for permission?
On iOS an app receives notifications only after the user accepts the system prompt, and recent Android versions require permission too. The system prompt usually appears once: if the user declines, getting them back means they have to go into settings themselves. So timing is everything.
- The system prompt the moment the app first opens
- No explanation of the benefit
- Before the customer has ordered or booked anything
- Asking for every permission (location, camera, notifications) at once
- After the first order or booking: 'Want us to tell you when it ships?'
- Your own pre-permission screen explaining the benefit before the system prompt
- A respectful 'Later' button instead of pressure
- Each permission at the moment the app actually needs it
What should you send? Notification types and their value
| Type | Examples | Value to the customer | Suggested limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional | Order status, payment confirmed, appointment changed | Very high | Every important event |
| Reminder | Appointment tomorrow, subscription renewing, unfinished cart | High when well timed | One or two per event |
| Social or interactive | Reply to your message, review on your listing | Medium to high | Can be grouped into a digest |
| Personal | Saved item back in stock, price drop | High when accurate | Per event, with a weekly cap |
| General marketing | White Friday sale, National Day discount | Low to medium | 1 to 2 per week at most |
Transactional messages need no cap because users expect them, while marketing needs discipline. Apple's App Review Guidelines say push should not be used for promotions unless users have explicitly opted in, so make marketing consent a separate in-app setting. See why apps get rejected by the App Store for more.
Write it like a message from a person
- A short title that says what happened: 'Your order is on the way'.
- One line with the key detail: 'Ahmed will reach you in about 15 minutes'.
- In the customer's chosen language, Arabic or English, not a mix.
- No stacked exclamation marks, and no 'urgent' unless it really is.
Timing and frequency: the Gulf has its own rhythm
The right notification at the wrong time becomes noise. These timing rules suit Saudi Arabia and the UAE:
- Quiet hours for marketing, for example 11 pm to 9 am in the customer's time zone, while transactional messages still go through.
- Ramadan: activity concentrates between iftar and suhoor. Send food offers well before iftar and avoid the call to prayer and iftar itself.
- Weekends: Friday and Saturday in Saudi Arabia, Saturday and Sunday in most of the UAE.
- Seasons: Saudi National Day and Founding Day, Eid Al Etihad in the UAE, White Friday and the Eids. Plan them ahead instead of flooding the whole week.
- Grouping: ten likes in an hour become one notification: '10 people liked your listing'.
Deep links and putting users in control
An 'order delivered' notification that opens the home screen wastes a step and makes the app feel clueless. Every notification should carry a deep link that opens the exact screen: the order details, the conversation, the product.
Give users an in-app preferences center so they do not have to kill everything from phone settings:
- A toggle per type: orders, reminders, messages, offers.
- On Android, put each type in its own notification channel so users can control it from system settings too.
- A choice of notification language.
- An in-app inbox that keeps what the customer missed.
Native app or PWA? And how to build it in Fanann
Native apps on iOS and Android use Apple's and Google's official push services and are the most reliable. Progressive web apps support push too, but on iOS the user usually has to add the app to the home screen first. For the full comparison, read PWA vs native app.
In Fanann you build real iOS and Android apps from the same conversation and describe notifications in plain language: when they fire, to whom and with what text. The agent builds the sending logic, preferences, deep links and a campaigns screen.
- 1List the events
Write down the events in your app that deserve a transactional notification.
- 2Design the permission moment
Choose the right moment and write the pre-permission screen.
- 3Write texts in both languages
A short title and one line per notification, in Arabic and English.
- 4Set the rules
Quiet hours, the weekly marketing cap and grouping.
- 5Test on two devices
Try it on an iPhone and an Android phone through the QR preview before publishing.
Add push notifications to my store app on iOS and Android. Do not ask for permission on first launch; after the first successful order show a pre-permission screen saying 'Want us to tell you when your order ships and arrives?' with Yes and Later buttons, and show the system prompt only on Yes. Transactional notifications: payment confirmed, order shipped, order delivered, support reply; each deep-links to the details screen. Marketing notifications: only for users who turned on the offers toggle, at most 2 per week, never between 11 pm and 9 am in the user's time zone. Add a preferences center with a toggle per type, separate Android channels, an in-app inbox, and notification language that follows the user's language. In the admin dashboard add a campaign scheduler with open rate and opt-out rate per campaign.
Try it in FanannHow do you measure notification success?
Do not judge notifications by how many you sent. These numbers tell the truth, and you can put them on one screen as described in analytics for your app:
| Metric | What it tells you | What to do if it is bad |
|---|---|---|
| Permission acceptance rate | Whether the moment and wording convince | Change the moment or the pre-permission text |
| Open rate per type | Which notifications are truly useful | Rewrite the text or change the timing |
| Opt-out rate after a campaign | Whether the campaign annoyed people | Lower frequency or improve targeting |
| Conversion after open | Whether the push led to an order or booking | Check that the deep link opens the right screen |
| Uninstalls after pushes | A strong warning sign | Pause the campaign and revisit your cap |
Test two versions of the same campaign on two samples (A/B testing) before sending to everyone. Next step: list your transactional notifications today, and drop any marketing push whose value to the customer you cannot explain in one sentence.
Key takeaways
- Ask for permission at a meaningful moment, such as after the first order, with a screen that explains the benefit before the system prompt.
- Service notifications build trust and marketing spends it: separate them and give users control of each type.
- Set a cap on marketing pushes, quiet hours and timing that fits Ramadan and weekends.
- Every notification should deep-link to the screen it is about, not the home screen.
- Measure open rate and opt-out rate after each campaign, and stop whatever drives opt-outs up.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add push notifications to my app without coding?
Why do users turn off app notifications?
When should I ask users for notification permission?
How many push notifications per week is too many?
Can a PWA send push notifications on iPhone?
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