Migrating from Conversations to In-app messages
What’s happening
Over the last three years, we’ve been working to consolidate our in-app experience into one unified format, In-app Messages (IAM). Our goal has been to improve the UI to streamline campaign workflow, and improve the range of format features and reporting available to our customers.
As we have released more enhancements, increasing amounts of customers have adopted the in-app message format, meaning Conversations are only being used by a small minority of our customer base.
We understand any change is hard, but for those still using Conversations you might enjoy some of the features we have released in the in-app message format.
Functionality
In-app messages support several capabilities that are not offered by Conversation campaigns, such as A/B testing, localization, and personalization. Additionally, in-app messages provide maximum design flexibility, allowing you to build experiences that are fully on brand, not limited to a predefined layout.
The table below details the features that differentiate In-app message and Conversation channels.
Content optimization
| Feature | Conversations | In-app messages |
|---|---|---|
| A/B Testing – Test different variations of your content to optimize engagement. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Localization – Localize your campaign’s content for different languages. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Personalization – Make your campaign completely dynamic by injecting user profile information directly into images, text, and engagement actions. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Message center details – Localize, A/B test, and customize the campaign content displayed in your app’s message center. | ✕ | ✓ |
Design
| Feature | Conversations | In-app messages |
|---|---|---|
| Animated GIFs – Make your content come to life by incorporating graphic images into any element. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Image URLs – Source images from an external service. Perfect for customers who want to personalize their creative. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Alt text – Add alternative text to images and buttons for accessibility purposes. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Layering – Stack the different elements of your in-app message content however you see fit. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Custom buttons – Design custom buttons in Swrve and apply them to your in-app message campaigns. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Multipage swiping – Create multi-page campaigns that users navigate in either a linear manner through swiping or a non-linear flow with button clicks. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Story mode – Deliver campaigns in a highly popular, consumable format, where the user is auto-progressed through the pages. | ✕ | ✓ |
Triggering
| Feature | Conversations | In-app messages |
|---|---|---|
| Numeric payload conditions – Add numeric payload conditions to your campaign triggering logic. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Contains payload conditions – Add contains payload conditions to your campaign triggering logic. | ✕ | ✓ |
| OR operators – Trigger the campaign if it matches ANY of the advanced payload conditions set for the display event. | ✕ | ✓ |
Reporting
| Feature | Conversations | In-app messages |
|---|---|---|
| Button click reporting – Identity which call to action buttons are generating the most clicks. Perfect for soliciting feedback. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Send event or user property update – Capture supplementary data about the interaction by sending an event or updating a user property when the user engages with the campaign. | ✕ | ✓ |
| Holdout groups – Measure the impact of your campaign by comparing key metrics between users who see the message versus those who don’t. | ✕ | ✓ |
How MessageGears can help
We want to make it as easy as possible for customers to migrate their existing Conversation campaigns over to the IAM format. We know you are busy, so let us give you a hand.
We are offering help for customers who are affected by this change. Our professional services team will assist you in migrating any active Conversation campaigns to in-app messages.
With any change it’s also an opportunity to consider whether your existing campaigns could be improved by taking advantage of all the new features the IAM format offers. Let us know if you have any questions, we would be happy to help! Contact your CSM at support@messagegears.com with any queries.