Scheduling an in-app message

In-app messages are displayed to your users only while they’re using your app. This means that you’re not necessarily sending an in-app message; you are simply setting the rules for when the message should display.

For this reason, scheduling an in-app message doesn’t guarantee that everyone within the chosen audience will see the message—they will see it only if they open the app (that is, have a session). Scheduling allows you to choose when exactly in their app usage, for example, at session start or after a certain action, the message should appear.

After you’ve built the creative for your message, you’ll move onto the Scheduling step.

You’ll have three options:

• Trigger
• Frequency
• Schedule message (start and stop)

Trigger

The trigger for an in-app is the action that the user takes in order to see the message. You’ll have two options:

• Session start: when the user starts the app
• Event: when the user takes an action

Session start

Scheduling an in-app message is a great option if you’re looking to message users about any number of things:

• A new sale on their favorite item
• Upgrading to the latest version of your app
• Onboarding workflows

You can also add filters to your trigger to better qualify users for your message. This is similar to qualifying users to your audience—so if you’ve already done this in an earlier step, you don’t need to repeat it.

1. Select Session start to display your message at the beginning of the user’s session.
2. Select a session option from the drop-down list:
   • Any session
   • On first open after a new user installs the app
   • On first open after a user upgrades the app
3. (Optional) Select a filter from the drop-down list.

Event

You can also schedule the message after a user takes a certain action. These can be Localytics default events (for example, Localytics In-App Displayed) or custom events you’ve built within your app (for example, Added item to cart).

1. Select Event to display your message when the user takes an action.
2. Select an event from the drop-down list.
3. (Optional) Select a filter from the drop-down list.

Frequency

Scheduling a frequency at which your audience sees the message allows you to better control how often they see the message. You'll have two options:

• Display only once per device
• Display each time the device qualifies

Display only once per device

Once per device is pretty self-explanatory—the message will only display once on the device when the user qualifies to see it.

Note: If a user has downloaded your app onto more than one device (say a phone and a tablet), they may see the message more than once.

For example, if your message is an onboarding workflow, you’d probably want to show this message only once per device.

Display each time the device qualifies

When you display the message each time the user qualifies, the user will see the message whenever they take an action that triggers the message. This is a good option if you need users to update their app to your latest version.

1. Select Display each time the device qualifies.
2. To limit the amount of times the message is shown on the device, select the total number of messages your user receives, the frequency at which they receive them, or both.

Tip: Keep in mind, if you’re on SDK version 3.4 or lower, you cannot specify a repeat frequency for your users. This is a limitation of the SDK and will need to be updated by your Development team if you’d like to use this feature.

Schedule message

You have the option to set a start and stop date and time for your message. You can also limit the hours when your message will be displayed each day. This is a great option if you have a flash sale or a limited-time offer.

1. In the Begin at field, select the date to start displaying the message in the app. You can set a start time and display the message continuously or you can limit the hours when the message displays:
   • To display the message continuously, select a start time.
   • To limit the hours, select and select between from the drop-down list, and then select a daily start time and end time.
2. In the Run until field, select the date and time to stop displaying the message.

Scheduling terms

Here’s a quick overview of each of the in-app scheduling settings.

Feature	Definition
Trigger	Display the message when users in the qualifying audience have a session while the message is active.
Frequency	Determines how often a user in the qualifying audience should receive a message if the user performs the trigger behavior more than once while the message is active.
Schedule	The time range over which the message should be active.

When you are done, select Continue and Confirm.