Create and Send a Push Notification

Use the Outbound Message template in MobilePush to send a push message to mobile devices based on demographic attributes.

Important Journey Builder push notifications are no longer created in MobilePush. Instead, create your Journey Builder push notifications without leaving Journey Builder.

Before you begin, keep these considerations in mind:

• MobilePush limits outbound messages to 2048 bytes for iOS and 4096 bytes for Android, including sounds and features.
• To use a data extension as your audience source in MobilePush, it must be marked as sendable and have the subscriber key set as the primary key. You can't pull attributes from source data extensions during a scheduled send.

1. In MobilePush, select a push method.
   • The Alert push method sends a push notification.
   • The Alert + CloudPage push method launches a web page when the user opens the push notification.
2. Click Create Message.
3. Select the Outbound template.
4. Click Next.
5. Enter a name for the message, and then select the app and send method..
   • Schedule—Send immediately or at a specified time.
   • API Triggered—Send based on an external API call.
   • Inbox - Automation—Send as part of an automation in Automation Studio.
6. For the push method, select Alert, and then click Next.
7. Select or create the audience. To send only to contacts who meet certain criteria, create a filtered list or create a data extension in Contact Builder.
   • Contact List—Drop selected contact lists in the Targeted and Excluded boxes and click Save.
   • Data Extension—Drop selected data extensions in the Targeted and Excluded boxes and click Save.
   • 

     Note When a subscriber is listed in multiple targeted data extensions, personalization can be pulled from either data extension. The order in which the personalization is chosen can’t be guaranteed, and it can differ every time you send a message.
8. Click Next.
9. Enter a title, subtitle, and content for your message.
   If you insert personalization strings or AMPscript, the number of bytes used isn’t available.
10. To personalize your message, click inside the Message field and select contact attributes from the personalization dropdown menu.
11. Customize your message.
    1. Add media to your message.
    2. If you enabled Custom Sound for your app, select which sound to play when a push message arrives.
    3. Select whether to update the number of unread messages displayed on the iOS icon for this app when you send the message.
    4. Enable your mobile app to use badge count correctly and use the correct API calls to increment badge counts. Changing this switch to No doesn’t reset the badge count for users of your app.
    5. If you enabled OpenDirect for your app, enter the URL address for the screen to display when the user selects a message in the OpenDirect field. Specify a full URL address with subdomains (if any), including https://.
    6. If you enabled Interactive Notifications, select which to use.
    7. If you enabled Custom Keys for your app, enter the key values.
       To insert unique keys based on Contact attributes or campaigns, you can include an AMPscript value in the Custom Key text fields.
12. Click Next.
13. If you selected API Triggered, send the message.
14. If you selected Schedule or Outbound - Automation, move to the next page.
15. To improve the send throughput of upcoming sends, select Future and choose a future date and time. Then, click the checkbox next to Pre-compile subscribers one hour prior to send.
    

    Note

    This feature allows Marketing Cloud Engagement to assemble the sendable audience before the scheduled send time by processing inclusions and exclusions in advance. Sends continue to use real-time personalization.

16. On the Review and Send Page, click Send Copy to Inbox to send the same push notification to the user's inbox as a message. This feature is compatible with SDK version 9.0 or newer.

    By default, an End Date for Send Copy to Inbox message is automatically set for 1 months. You can set the End Date to a maximum of 1 year.

    

    Note

    Carousel notifications don't support Send Copy to Inbox. For Standard notifications, the following fields are available for Push Copy to Inbox: Title, Subtitle, Message, Open Behavior (Cloudpage, App/Web URL), Media, custom key-value pairs.

17. Click Save.
18. Schedule or send the message.