Push Notification Center Overview

Overview

The Push Notification Center feature provides users with a history of received push notifications. This ensures important messages aren't missed and remain accessible for later review, enhancing user engagement.

MoEngage provides two distinct approaches to implementing a Push Notification Center:

MoEngage Push Notification Center: This is a ready-to-use option with extensive UI customization capabilities.
Self-Handled Push Notification Center: This is a fully customizable Self-Handled Push Notification Center.

MoEngage Push Notification Center

Self-Handled Push Notification Center

A built-in inbox inside the application that displays push notification history with basic UI customization options.
Managed and rendered by the MoEngage SDK.
For example, in the MoEngage push notification center, MoEngage provides the look and feel of the inbox where users view past notifications, though you can customize some elements.

A custom inbox developed by your app team using MoEngage SDK notification payloads. In this case, MoEngage provides the notification content (for example, the text of the message), and your developers design and build the UI.
Your developers design and build the UI based on your app’s design guidelines.
For example, in the Self-Handled Push Notification Center, you have full control over the design of this inbox; you populate it with data from MoEngage.

Regardless of the preferred implementation method, the push notification center serves as a valuable tool for improving user engagement, providing message persistence, and enhancing the overall user experience within your application.

Benefits

Persistent content: Users can interact with push notifications inside the app, even after they are dismissed from the notification drawer.
Interaction data: Interaction done within the notification center can be tracked on the MoEngage dashboard.
Non-intrusive: Notification center content appears as a native part of the user's app experience and is non-disruptive. This increases user receptivity, resulting in better engagement.

Use Cases

Offers and Promotions
Gamification and enrolment in contests
Reminders and tips
Changes to policies and terms and conditions
Transactions and service updates
Cart or wishlist reminders
Recommendations

Push Notification Center Capabilities

Note: These capabilities apply to both notification center types unless stated otherwise.

Factors	Description
Delivery Mechanism	Delivered when the push notification is delivered via APNS/FCM or on every app open through the backup delivery mechanism.
Reachability	Any user who is eligible and has opted in for Push notifications.
Trigger Option	Bulk (one-time) Trigger Based Event-triggered Device triggered Location triggered Business event triggered Flow triggered Periodic Inform
Content Retention	Messages are saved locally on the devices that received them. They are not retained across uninstalls, logouts, or data clearing.
Content Behavior	Notifications remain static after delivery. Bulk deletion isn’t supported. Users can delete individual notifications.
Expiry Option	While creating a campaign, you can configure how long the message remains in the notification center before expiring (in days). For more information, refer here.
Grouping and Replacement	Notifications appear as individual entries. Grouping and Replacement features aren’t supported in the MoEngage Push Notification Center. The group key and update key are available in the payload for custom UIs in Self-Handled Push Notification Centers.
Media support	Big images, icons, and other media aren’t supported in the MoEngage Push Notification Center, but are available in the payload for custom UIs in Self-Handled Push Notification Centers.
Placement and Delivery	Notification center content can be displayed to the user in the following ways: MoEngage Push Notification Center with a few UI customization options As a full-page Activity that can be launched on a user action, OR As an embedded Fragment in your app's activity (Android only) For a Self-handled Push Notification Center, you have access to the entire notification payload, which can be used to build a custom UI. For more information, refer to Notification Center Placement and Delivery.

Notification Center Placement and Delivery

You can use one of the following methods to display the Notification Center to your users on your application:

MoEngage Push Notification Center displays push notifications as a feed in the users' notification center or inbox.

Integration Effort	Low It requires basic integration and the setting of UI customization values.
Notification Center UI	The MoEngage Push Notification Center UI provides basic customizations of the inbox appearance, such as: Activity theme Activity Label Toolbar Style Message Text Appearance Header Message Timestamp Scrollbar style Empty Notification Center style
Tracking Analytics	Automatically track deliveries, impressions, and clicks.
Ideal for	Teams with limited developers who are looking to build a Feed (Inbox) inside their app.
Platforms Supported	Android (Native), iOS (Native).

Self-handled Push Notification Center that enables you to create your inbox UI to display push notifications in the form of feed, app widgets, banners, and content carousels in line with app content.

Integration Effort	High Requires building custom UI and parsing the notification's payload to populate the UI.
Self-Handled Push Notification Center UI	Complete control over UI, following your app’s design guidelines.
Tracking Analytics	Deliveries and deletes are automatically tracked. Clicks need to be tracked separately via an SDK function. Note: Review your platform’s SDK documentation for details about configuring these events.
Ideal for	Teams who are looking to: Create custom Inbox (Feed) UI. Create app widgets, banners, and content carousels placed in-line with the app's content.
Platforms Supported	Android (Native), iOS (Native), React Native, Flutter.

Next Steps

To integrate the Notification Center in your app:

MoEngage Push Notification Center
- Integrate with Android (Native)
- Integrate with iOS (Native)
Self-Handled Push Notification Center

Related Information