App-marketers beware, Android users are more likely to engage with push notifications than their iOS counterparts, according to a report by mobile engagement platform Urban Airship.
Released at Google I/O last week, The Mobile Engagement Benchmarks report detailed interaction rates on apps across both mobile operating systems, finding an average notification engagement of 20% on Android- over twice that of iOS, trailing behind at just 8%.
The study was based on the industry’s huge available data set of nearly 3000 apps, responsible for 100 billion push notifications sent out to more than 500 million users throughout 2014.
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Both Android and iOS have recently elevated the visibility of notifications on the phone’s lock-screen, but that’s where the “consistencies in notification handling end”, according to Urban Airship.
“The primary reason Android notification engagement rates maintain a wide lead over iOS is because it’s easier to find notifications later.”
On Android, notifications remain on the lock screen until shoed away, then become easily accessible from app icons in a notification status bar on the home screen when the device is unlocked, while they appear much more ‘ephemeral’ on iOS, with users provided a wealth of options as to how they appear.
Always-on
A UK-based study released by the DMA last year found that app marketers may be fighting a war of attrition.
Nearly one in three UK consumers said they had never enabled push notifications on their device, while 30% said they simply ‘did not like being notified’ when making the decision to disable push.
However, 73% of respondents stated that they would personalise push notifications if they had the chance.
Further findings from Urban Airship’s report included that the rate at which consumers are engaging with notifications is holding steady year-on-year, while engagement with ‘high-performing’ app messages has increased almost a quarter on iOS (24%) and 13% on Android since last year.