Push categories

A push category is a template that is used to outline the general behaviour of a push notification.  

Creating a push category

Navigate to Content > Push Categories. This will give you options to create iOS, Android and web push categories, and to view, edit and delete existing ones.

Web push categories

Set the category name that will allow you to identify the category from the campaign builder. This page allows you to set the default action & buttons. Start by clicking on +Add Button. You can then assign an ID (to identify the button that was clicked), an action (open URL or none) and a title for the button (which will show on the user's device). If the Multi Language support for buttons option is enabled you can define the title of the button in different languages which will be displayed according to the user device language.

Configure push settings

This section of the page allows you to upload a default icon, which will be applied to your web push messages, and choose whether the user will be required to interact with the campaign before it disappears or it is moved to the notification centre, by setting the Require Interaction option to yes. Click Save when you have finished to save the push category. Our Web push notification creative guidelines advises icon sizing.

👍

Interactive notifications

You can use the Require interaction option to increase your open rates for web push.

iOS and Android push categories

The pages for push categories for iOS and Android share most options and only differ slightly in the settings section.

Set the category name that will allow you to identify the category from the campaign builder.

Then establish the default action for the notification:

• No action - clicking on the notification opens the app as usual
• Open URL - to open a URL link
• Go to deeplink - takes the user to a deeplink integrated within your App (it is a callback for deeplink strings)
• In-App Message - opens an In-App Message, which will create a tab for an In-App message in the main campaign builder.

The next step is to configure the behaviour for buttons. Start by clicking on +Add Button. The system will then allow you to assign an ID (to identify which button was clicked), an action for the button (open URL or go to deeplink), a title for the button (which will show on the user's device) and the mode (run in the foreground, which will open the app when the button is clicked or run in the background, which will not). As with the web push category, the Multi Language support for buttons will change the title of the notification button depending on the user's language.

Set up payloads

This menu allows you to add custom payloads. They can be used to navigate a user to specific pages of your app. See our guide on deeplinks.

Configure push settings

Additional settings will be found at the bottom of the page. Different options are available for iOS and Android push notifications.

• Sound: Supported for both Android and iOS. For details on setting up custom sounds on the client side read this guide on custom sounds. If you have a push category with a custom sound, like a cheer for a sports update, the sound filename goes in the sound field (e.g. cheer.mp3 on Android and cheer.wav on iOS).
• Badge: This field is iOS only and sets the badge number on the app Icon.
• Default Icon: This field is Android only and allows you to upload an icon that will replace the default app icon on the notification. Our Mobile push notifications creative guidelines advises icon sizing.
• Heads Up: This field is supported on Android only. If enabled the notification will slide down from the top making the user aware it has arrived when the screen is on and they are using other apps.

Including the category in your campaign

Once you have created the category you can include it in your campaign from the Android, iOS or Web Push tabs respectively. Click on the Category input field, and it will show a list of all available categories that can be used with that particular channel.

If there is any additional information needed for the category (such as the URL for a category with action Open URL, or the deeplink string for a category with action Go to Deeplink), new input fields will be displayed.

📘

Category payloads with empty values

If a push category has a payload without a value and the category is used in a campaign, users can edit the payload value within the campaign. This change doesn't update the payload value in the category itself; it only sends the campaign with the specified value for that payload.

👍

Additional payloads with values

You can also add additional payloads with values to your campaign in addition to the existing payloads of the category.