Prepare for communication

These settings decide how players experience your messages and whether you can tell what works. Set them up before your first message, so players are not asked or messaged at the wrong time and you can measure the results from the first day.

Ask for push permission at the right moment

Developer assistance needed

Moving the push permission request out of the first launch is a change in your game’s code. Please share Before you start with your developers.

On iOS, the system prompt appears only once per install, and if the player taps Don’t Allow, the game can’t show it again. So do not ask on the first launch, when the player does not know the game yet.

Ask in two steps instead. First, show a custom in-app message that explains what notifications give the player. Only its Allow button opens the system prompt.

Show the message when the player already enjoys the game. Choose the event that marks that moment. The message appears the next time the player opens the game after the event. For example:

• After the tutorial: the Tutorial completed event.
• After the first level: the Level completed event.
• After the first reward: the Daily reward claimed event.
• After the first achievement: the Achievement unlocked event.

To set it up:

1. Build the in-app message. See Build the in-app.
2. Create a journey that starts on the event you chose. See Trigger the in-app before permission is requested. For Tutorial completed, add the condition completion is true.
3. If the event repeats, such as Level completed, open Settings, select Campaign Entry Limit, choose Custom period, and set Once in to a lifetime, so the player sees the message once.
4. Skip players who already allowed notifications. See Skip the prompt for users who already opted in.

For players who decline, the journeys reach them through other channels. A Reachability check sends players down different branches depending on the channels where you can reach them.

Set delivery rules before you message players

Delivery rules decide how often a player hears from you, so set them before the first journey goes live. Games run several journeys at once, and without limits one player can receive an onboarding nudge, a reward reminder, and an offer on the same evening.

1. Go to Settings → Message delivery settings → Frequency capping.
2. Turn on the channels you use, such as push, in-app, and email.
3. Set the maximum number of messages and the period for each channel. Allowed values are 1 to 1,000 messages per period, and the period is 1 to 30 days.
4. Choose a counting mode for each channel: Rolling window or Calendar day.
5. Click Apply changes, then Confirm.

Journey messages use the global limits by default. To change the limits of a journey that is running, pause the journey first. For the full behavior, see Global frequency capping.

Each journey also has its own controls: silence period, campaign entry limit, and message type. See Best practices for every journey.

Set up a control group before you launch

A control group holds a share of players out of all marketing messages in the application, or in the countries or tag you limit it to, so you can compare them with everyone else and see what your messaging changes. Create it before you launch the journeys, so the comparison covers them from the first day.

Control groups work by User ID

The group selects players by User ID. Every device the SDK registers has one, the device’s hardware ID (HWID) until the player logs in, so a guest who plays on two devices can be held out on one and messaged on the other. See Identify players by User ID.

To create a control group, you need permission to modify the application.

1. Go to Settings → Control groups and click Add control group.
2. Enter a name for the group.
3. Set Group size, from 1% to 20%. 5% is recommended for most apps.
4. Choose a mode. Permanent keeps the same players out until you turn the group off. Auto-refresh picks new players every 1, 2, or 3 months and returns the previous ones to messaging. Experiment with an end date returns everyone to messaging on the date you set.
5. Click Create.

As soon as the control group is on, the players in it stop receiving marketing messages in any channel, so your journeys reach fewer players by that share. Transactional messages still reach them.

For all the settings, see Create and manage a control group.