10 Reasons Why Your Push Notifications Are Not Delivered: Common Causes and Solutions
Push notifications are among the most cost-effective marketing approaches for driving customer engagement, enhancing brand recall, and increasing user retention. When used effectively, they provide a direct line to users, offering timely updates, personalized messages, and exclusive offers.
But what if your carefully crafted notifications are never delivered to your intended audience? Many brands struggle with push notification platforms that fail to deliver or have low delivery rates, which can negatively impact customer engagement and revenue.
This article explores common reasons why push notifications might go undelivered and offers actionable strategies to address these issues. Keep reading to discover more!
âś… Push notification delivery issues are often caused by device settings, OS restrictions, or poor connectivity.
âś… Personalization and user segmentation can significantly improve delivery rates and user engagement.
âś… Optimizing technical infrastructure, including token management and push amplification, is essential for reliable message delivery.
1. User Device Settings
The primary reason push notifications fail to reach users is rooted in user-side settings. Device and app-level notification settings can prevent notifications from being delivered, with users often disabling them to reduce interruptions.
Solution: During the onboarding process, provide clear instructions on enabling notifications and highlight the benefits of staying connected. Use in-app prompts and permission reminders, ensuring they are spread out over time to avoid overwhelming the user. Offering users control over notification preferences—frequency, type, and timing—can encourage them to keep notifications on.
2. Network Connectivity Issues
Poor or inconsistent internet connections can also prevent push notifications from being delivered. When a user’s device has limited network access, the notification may fail to send or encounter delays, which can reduce the impact of time-sensitive messages.
Solution: Work with a messaging infrastructure that has reliable fail-safes in place. Some push notification services allow retry mechanisms, ensuring that the message is reattempted until it reaches the user’s device. Additionally, consider implementing push amplification techniques that help notifications reach users in challenging network conditions by optimizing message delivery.
3. OS-Level Restrictions and Limitations
Operating systems, particularly Android and iOS, place various restrictions on notifications to preserve device resources like battery life. iOS, for instance, has strict notification policies, where devices in low power mode may restrict delivery or defer them until later. Android users may encounter issues if the device’s OS restricts background processes, impacting notification reliability.
Solution: Understanding the nuances of each operating system’s push notification framework is key. For Android, adopting push amplification services can be effective, as they optimize delivery for devices where the OS restricts notifications. For iOS, consider designing notifications that align with Apple’s guidelines to improve the likelihood of delivery.
4. Device-Specific Challenges
Different device manufacturers employ unique OS customizations, especially within the Android ecosystem, to conserve battery life. This variation creates additional hurdles for push notifications, as device-level restrictions differ across brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei.
Solution: Implement testing for various device types and optimize push notifications accordingly. Choose push notification providers with device-specific optimizations. Furthermore, keep your app updated to comply with the latest OS guidelines, which can sometimes change notification behavior across devices.
5. Unstable Push Token Registrations
Push tokens are unique identifiers that link a user’s device to your app for receiving notifications. When a user uninstalls the app, or the token expires, notifications won’t be delivered. Problems with token registration often lead to undelivered notifications.
Solution: Regularly refresh and update push tokens, especially after app updates or when users log in again. Integrate token validation checks to automatically clean out invalid or expired tokens. With robust token management practices, you can prevent undelivered notifications due to token expiration.
6. Inactive or Unreachable Users
Over time, some users may simply stop using your app, either because they’ve found alternatives or they’re no longer interested. In such cases, notifications may still technically be “delivered” but never opened.
Solution: Segment your audience based on activity levels. Target active users with push notifications while implementing re-engagement campaigns like email or SMS for inactive users. Dormant user notifications could be re-allocated to different channels or reduced in frequency, freeing up resources and increasing the likelihood of engagement.
7. Backend Server Failures
Occasionally, push notifications may go undelivered due to backend server issues on your provider’s end. Downtime, server maintenance, or technical glitches in the push notification platform can prevent messages from reaching end users.
Solution: Monitor your push notification service provider’s status and error rates to understand if delivery issues are due to server errors. Have redundancy and backup servers to route notifications through alternative paths. Select a provider with a track record of high uptime and transparent reporting on downtime.
8. Limited Notification Quotas
Push notification services often impose quotas or rate limits, restricting the number of notifications sent within a specified timeframe. This can be problematic if your notifications exceed these limits, as some messages may be deferred or dropped.
Solution: Carefully plan your notification strategy, adhering to any rate limits set by your service provider. If possible, upgrade to a plan with a higher notification quota or explore multiple notification channels, like SMS and email, to distribute messages effectively.
9. Poor Segmentation and Targeting
Generic push notifications, sent without considering user preferences, demographics, or behaviors, often result in lower engagement. If notifications don’t seem relevant to the recipient, they may disable them entirely, reducing overall delivery and open rates.
Solution: Personalize your notifications based on user behavior, location, and past interactions with your app. Leverage segmentation tools to ensure notifications are relevant and resonate with each segment. By tailoring your approach, you can improve delivery rates and encourage users to keep notifications enabled.
10. Technical Optimization for Delivery Enhancement
The technical infrastructure used to send push notifications has a direct impact on delivery rates. Without optimization, your push messages may get lost or delayed, especially during peak usage times or when servers are overloaded.
Solution: Invest in push amplification technology. Push amplification increases the likelihood of notifications being delivered successfully by rerouting them through alternative paths. It’s particularly effective for Android devices with restrictive OS settings. Additionally, consider time-zone-based delivery to ensure messages arrive at the right time.
Why Choosing the Right Push Notification Service Matters
After reviewing the top 10 causes of push notification delivery issues and solutions, it would be natural for some brands to consider creating their own in-house push notification service, thinking it would be a cost-effective, efficient, and reliable solution with greater control over functionality.
However, building a robust, fully functional push notification system from scratch is extremely complex. It requires substantial time and resources for development, rigorous testing, and ongoing debugging. In addition, creating a scalable service involves advanced expertise in server architecture, security protocols, and cross-platform compliance, which can be challenging for brands without specialized professionals and training resources.
For many companies, a more strategic approach may be to partner with a marketing automation platform that provides advanced, user-friendly features out of the box, offering reliability and saving valuable time and resources.
Final Thoughts
Improving push notification delivery rates requires a multifaceted approach that considers device limitations, user behavior, and technical infrastructure. By choosing the marketing automation platform that matches your brand's needs and addresses all these challenges, brands will be able to significantly enhance the deliverability of push notifications and improve user retention.
FlareLane offers a robust set of tools specifically designed to enhance notification delivery and engagement. We provide advanced push amplification that takes into account scalability that improves message delivery in difficult network conditions. Additionally, our customer journey feature allows brands to personalize notifications based on user behavior, ensuring each message reaches the right audience segment and is timed for maximum impact.
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