Does your Android smartphone hamper delivery of push notifications?

Smart battery management features may block more than half of app notifications, especially for apps that are used less frequently.

Push notifications are a choice communication channel chosen by consumer brands to remain competitive in South-east Asia. However, in the Android mobile market where smartphones with up-to-date optimizations are programmed to disable or mute background app activity to optimize battery consumption, some 40% to 70% of push notifications may go undelivered or unnoticed.

According to one customer engagement platform, its data analyses of South-east Asian customer data point to an average push notification delivery rate of 42% in the region.

Specifically, the actual delivery rate was different across industries, with e-commerce having the highest rate (45%), followed by financial apps (28%), travel and hospitality (28%), media and entertainment (7%), and other apps (37%).

Also, delivery rates of push notifications varied greatly based on the type of app and its usage. This is because the apps of different businesses vary in usage frequency and time between usage. For example, travel and hospitality apps were not as frequently used as shopping apps in the data set. This factor accounted for an 18% impact on delivery rates.

Finally, the data set showed a direct correlation between the users’ last activity on the app and the push notification delivery rate—with the highest delivery rate of over 80% observed for apps that had app activity within the last 24 hours.

According to Saurabh Madan, Vice President and General Manager (SEA and ANZ), MoEngage, the firm that analyzed the regional data: “Our data shows that to improve user reachability via push notifications in 2022, it’s imperative for digital businesses in South-east Asia to optimize and improve the users’ app interaction.”

Madan was alluding to a way to boost push notification delivery rates using a service that cannot be closed or killed by the device owner, and which involves exclusive access to smart devices’ push notification system channel.