Getting started with message inbox

What is message inbox?

Message inbox is a space in your app or on your website where messages stay available after delivery. Users see them when they open the app or the page, not as a system notification.

Inbox messages:

• Do not show a push banner or alert on their own.
• Do not change the app icon badge on their own.
• Appear in the inbox list when the user opens the app or the page.

Use message inbox when a message should remain readable later, for example when users opt out of push, dismiss a push, or you want content in the app without sending a notification. For silent pushes that update the app without an inbox entry, see Silent push notifications.

Note

Behavior on mobile and on web is not the same. See How web message inbox differs from mobile.

How web message inbox differs from mobile

On web, the inbox reaches every visitor on a page where it’s enabled. Visitors don’t need to have accepted push notifications.

Until a visitor logs in, their inbox history stays in that browser only. After they log in, that history moves to their account. If they clear site data, switch browsers, or switch devices before logging in, that history is lost for good and a later login won’t bring it back.

Timestamps: on web, inbox times show in UTC. On mobile, they show in each user’s device timezone.

Share the Web message inbox guide with your developers for setup.

Set up message inbox

Developer assistance needed

You’ll need help from your developer team to configure message inbox. Share the guides below with them to get started.

Before you send inbox messages, complete these steps:

1. Configure your project

   Set up platforms (iOS, Android, Web, and others) for your project. Learn more

2. Embed the Pushwoosh SDK

   Add the Pushwoosh SDK to your app or website, including the message inbox module. Learn more

3. Register users

   Subscribe devices and sync user data so messages can reach the inbox. Learn more

Implement message inbox in your app

Share these guides with your developer team:

Mobile message inbox

Implement message inbox in mobile applications.

Web message inbox

Set up message inbox for web applications.

Customize the message inbox UI

You can use the default message inbox UI or customize it to match your app. Share these guides with your developer team:

Customized iOS UI Guide

Customized iOS XCFramework Guide

Customized Android UI Guide

Example

This is an example of what the message inbox design can look like:

Send messages to the inbox

After message inbox is set up in the app, you can fill it in two independent ways. Pick the option that matches the campaign.

Send a message only to Inbox

App Inbox sends a message only to the inbox. It has its own content, audience, and schedule, and it does not send a push.

Send a message only to Inbox

Save a push to Inbox

Save to Inbox turns on a toggle when you send a one-time push or use a journey Push element. The user gets the push, and a copy of that message also appears in the inbox.

Save a push to Inbox

Track message inbox performance

• To see how many people got and opened an App Inbox message, open the element’s statistics in the Control Panel.

Learn more

• To see how a Save to Inbox push performed, check its push statistics.

Learn more

• To count how many times users opened the inbox copy of a Save to Inbox push, use the API.

Learn more