The push notification you should never send

There is a notification almost every app eventually sends, and it is the one that gets apps muted for good. It says, in one wording or another, "We miss you." Sometimes it is dressed up: "Your streak is waiting", "Don't forget to check in", "You haven't opened the app in a while." It is the same message underneath, and the message is: we have nothing to tell you, but we would like you to open the app anyway.

The only rule

A notification must carry something the person did not have before it arrived. A result. A change. A piece of news about their own stuff. If the sentence would be equally true whether or not they open the app, it is a nudge, and nudges are how apps teach people to swipe them away without reading.

What passes

• "Tonight's story for Lily is ready." Something was made for them. It exists now and did not an hour ago.
• "Your stroopwafel is ready to collect." A reward they earned has changed state.
• "A new scene about the house near the sea." The thing they asked for has arrived.
• "Your voice is set up. Stories can be told in it from tonight." A change they were waiting for.

What fails

• "We miss you." Nothing new has happened.
• "Keep your streak alive!" The streak is the app's invention, not the user's need.
• "Did you know you can..." A feature tour, delivered as an interruption.
• "50% off, today only." Unless they asked to hear about offers, this is spam with a countdown.

The moment is the notification

If the app owns a real moment in the day, most reminders are unnecessary. Bedtime arrives. The coffee shop is on the way to work. The quiet minutes before sleep come every night. An app built around a ritual can afford to be quiet, because life does the reminding. An app that needs to shout is usually an app that has not found its moment yet.

A test for every notification you send

Read it as the person receiving it, at the moment they will receive it, with their hands full. Ask: what do I have now that I did not have a second ago? If the answer is "a reminder that this app exists", delete the notification. Every muted app got there one of those at a time.