How to send a web push notification

Before you start

• At least one subscriber. Until then the send button stays greyed out, but you can still send a test to yourself.
• If a banner asks you to verify your email, do that first — sending is blocked until you do.

Set it up

1. 1Type a Title (required) and a Message. Keep the title short — long ones get cut off on phones.
2. 2Add a Link: the page people open when they click. Leave it empty to use the default link from Settings, or your homepage if there isn’t one.
3. 3(Optional) Add an Image: paste an image link or click Upload (up to 2 MB). Images show in Chrome and Edge on Windows, and in Chrome on Android — Macs and iPhones show the notification without the image.
4. 4Under Send to, choose All subscribers, a topic, or one of your saved segments. You’ll see about how many subscribers will get it.
5. 5Under Delivery, choose Send now, Schedule (pick a date, a time and a time zone), Same local time or Smart timing.
6. 6Click Send test to check it on your own device first.
7. 7(Optional) Open More options for buttons, an A/B test, languages, display settings and offline devices.
8. 8Not ready yet? Click Save draft. Drafts are on the Send page under Drafts, and save themselves while you edit them.
9. 9Click the send button, for example “Send to all subscribers” or “Schedule for all subscribers”. Check the review, then confirm. Results show up under Reports.

Every setting, explained

Send test

Sends the notification right away to your test devices only. The first time, you get a private link: open it on your phone or computer and click Allow, and that device becomes a test device. The link works for 24 hours and on more than one device. Tests don’t go to your other subscribers and don’t appear in Reports.

Your test devices

Click the arrow next to Send test to see your test devices or add more. Remove only stops test notifications to that device: it stays subscribed to your website. On WordPress, the plugin’s Subscribe this browser button also adds a test device.

Delivery

Send now sends it straight away (during your quiet hours it waits until they end). Schedule sends it once, at the date and time you pick in the time zone you pick; until then you can cancel it from its page or from Reports. Same local time sends at the time you pick in each subscriber’s own time zone, over the next 24 hours. Smart timing sends at the hour each person was last active on your website. Same local time and Smart timing can’t be used with an A/B test that picks the winner automatically.

Drafts

Save draft keeps everything you’ve set, including the audience and delivery, without sending it. Open Drafts on the Send page to find them. A draft saves itself a moment after each change. Send it from its page, through the same review as any other notification, or delete it there.

Preview

The tabs show Chrome on Windows, macOS, Android and an iPhone. A dot on a tab means something won’t show as written there: a title or message that will be cut off, an image (Macs and iPhones don’t show them) or buttons (iPhones don’t show them).

Emoji, Improve my text, Personalize

The buttons under the message. Emoji adds an emoji. Improve my text suggests rewrites — tap one to use it. Personalize has + City, + Country and + Name, which add a placeholder with backup words, like {city|your area}. Country shows as a 2-letter code such as US. City and Name only fill in if your website saves them; everyone else sees the backup words.

Templates

Save as template (top right of the Message card) keeps the title, message and link, nothing else. Saved templates appear under “Start from a template:”. Click one to load it, or × to delete it. After loading one, Update saves your changes to it.

Buttons

In More options. Up to two buttons, like “Shop now”. A button without its own link opens the main link.

A/B test

In More options. Write a version B, and subscribers are split evenly between the two versions. Tick “Test on a small group first” to try both on a small group (20% of subscribers for 4 hours, unless you change them); the version with the better click rate then goes to everyone else. While this is ticked, the two timing options (same local time and Smart timing) are switched off — the test group gets it right away.

Offline devices

In More options. If a device is offline, the notification still arrives if it comes back online within the hours you set in Keep trying offline devices for (24 if empty, up to 672 hours, which is 28 days).

Languages

In More options. Add the title and message in another language. Each subscriber gets the version matching their browser language; everyone else gets your main text. The link stays the same.

Display

In More options. “Keep it on screen until it’s clicked or closed”, an Icon instead of your logo, or a Replace label: a new notification with the same label replaces the earlier one on the device.