PUSH notifications for Guests (Watch/Subscribe)

[Alpha1]

One of the most promising opportunities that PUSH notifications offer is to communicate with guests and to pull in unregistered users.
Please consider to add functionality for this.

Here is how it could work:

• Ask the guest if they want to receive PUSH notifications.
• In admincp under 'contact users' provide a function to send messages to guests.
• In node/category settings add a setting to alert users/guests of new threads/entries. (this is useful for announcements)

• For unregistered users display a 'Watch' link in the same places as registered users.
• When replies are added to watched content, send a PUSH notification to the user.

• For unregistered users display a 'Like' link in the same places as registered users. *
• When replies are added to Liked content, send a PUSH notification to the user.

* In case Reactions get implemented for XF, then the same goes for this.

If the above would be implemented then this should increase site popularity and registration rates significantly.

 

[Veer]

Definitely needed PUSH notifications for Guests to Goodbye OneSignal. Most of my audience is guest visitors and I find OneSignal very useful.

 

[doublespaces]

I'm not opposed to more options, bring it on!

 

[TimFL]

This should be expanded to allowing us to specify which usergroups can receive push messages. We might not want, for example, discouraged users from receiving PN.

 

[Alpha1]

This should be expanded to allowing us to specify which usergroups can receive push messages. We might not want, for example, discouraged users from receiving PN.

Excellent point! I have posted this suggestion for you:
Disallow PUSH notifications for banned, discouraged & specific usergroups

 

[MySiteGuy]

Add me to the list of those wanting guest push notifications.

 

[Alpha1]

Add me to the list of those wanting guest push notifications.

Like the first post to get on the list.

 

[TPerry]

Not a bad idea, but I have a feeling it would be a nightmare to implement.

 

[Alpha1]

Mind that the first part of the suggestion is default functionality in OneSignal. The service most people are using on XF1.

 

[Paul B]

I wouldn't waste (more) server resources on people who can't be bothered to register / log in.

 

[Alpha1]

Fair point, but what if you can use those server resources to tell them to register? Or to donate?

 

[TPerry]

Mind that the first part of the suggestion is default functionality in OneSignal. The service most people are using on XF1.

And it's offloaded to a provider who has an infrastructure in place for the API calls... not done natively. I still maintain that doing it for guests would be resource intensive and the implementation would still be a nightmare to implement since there is no core underlying system to track guests at that level AFAIK.

 

[Martok]

Fair point, but what if you can use those server resources to tell them to register? Or to donate?

Isn't that the sort of thing that Notices are designed for?

 

[Alpha1]

No. Because its a completely different situation: PUSH notifications allow you to instantly communicate with people that are not on your site.

 

[vbresults]

If the funding was there and I was able to continue development, this was the next flagship feature on the list for that add-on. The massive potential it had in bringing back visitors and turning them into members could not be ignored.

 

[ichpen]

COA vs COR (cost of acquisition vs retention) will always favour the former by many orders of magnitude. If I can attract more guests to register by pushing new content (posts/threads/whatever) and redirecting them to a registration page at some point it's a price worth paying.

I would suggest providing a parameter for max number of guest pushes and providing a pushed notice to register to receive more or something along those lines. You don't want to indefinitely have them as guests but at the same time you want to give them a taste of your content.


This proposed feature would definitely be useful particularly once XF Native Push comes into play.

 

[Martok]

No. Because its a completely different situation: PUSH notifications allow you to instantly communicate with people that are not on your site.

Fair enough. Personally I'd be rather annoyed at a site pushing 'please register' and 'please donate' push notifications at me but then again, I never enable push notifications on sites that I'm only a guest on, only on those I register and want notifications from. I'm sure some people are happy to receive this sort of spam information though.

 

[Alpha1]

That is the same for notices: if you ask people to donate or register its essentially spam. But not if you word in a way that shows the user what their gain is or why they may find it of interest.

I would suggest providing a parameter for max number of guest pushes and providing a pushed notice to register to receive more or something along those lines. You don't want to indefinitely have them as guests but at the same time you want to give them a taste of your content.

While a posting member is of more value than a lurking member or guest, there still is significant value to non-contributing users. Keeping non-contributing users engaged does translate to income when it comes to advertising, donations and monetizing. If people like what they read they may be willing to pay to support the site. Or click on affiliate links. Advertisers are much more likely to buy a banner ad if you have a mass of guests reading your site.

I'd be happy to send PUSH notifications ad infinitum to guests in order to keep them coming back for more.

 

[Kintaro]

right now onesignal for guests and core push notifications for registered users?
I don't like it but is it viable?

 

[Alpha1]

What would be the benefit for XF push for members if OneSignal is already used for guests? I think it would confuse members if they sign up for both. Sticking to OneSignal seems best if you are sending notifications to guests. Loosing a mass of subscribed guests is a bad idea IMHO. For example: I have about 16k subscribed guests. Some of those people donate a significant amount. It would be foolish to just delete that or to stop gathering Push subscriptions.