Rely On Our Content Delivery Network to Get Your Rich Push Notifications Where You Want Them to Go

As more and more brands take advantage of the new rich push notification capabilities with iOS 10, there’s also a need to find a better way to manage all those media files they’re sending.  

This week we extended the availability of our content delivery network (CDN) media hosting solution to Enterprise-level customers looking to send rich push notifications through our Engage platform. This is the same, trusted CDN we’ve used for several years to provide reliable, fast downloads for brands who use rich media in their in-app message centers and landing pages.

Content delivery networks exist to improve the speed and reliability of media downloads by dynamically caching media in critical locations around the globe to minimize download times — even across lower-bandwidth cellular connections.

A CDN is useful for meeting three key needs related to managing and sending media files:

1) Speed

Operating systems only give an app about 30 seconds (at most) to attempt to download a media file in a rich push notification. So the faster a media file downloads, the better chance it has of actually being delivered and displayed to your customer.

2) Volume

Can your web server handle 1M simultaneous requests for the media file in your rich push notification?

Customers sending rich push notifications to very large audiences (over 1M) need to consider how they’re hosting their media files — and make sure their hosting solution can withstand the punishing traffic push notifications can generate. Android and iOS attempt to download media as soon as they receive a notification, so your server needs to be able to handle it.

If 1M people are simultaneously trying to access your media file and it floods your server, the net effect will be like creating a DDOS attack on yourself. That’s definitely something you want to avoid.

3) Global Distribution

By dynamically caching media in locations around the world, content delivery networks allow files to be downloaded faster and more reliably — even in areas of the world where connections are less reliable.  

Audio and Video and Images, Oh My!

Our content delivery network can handle just about any kind of rich media. Based on real-world testing of iOS 10 rich push notifications, as of this writing we recommend using file sizes around 1MB to ensure successful delivery of hosted media to most of your audience.

Here’s a snapshot of the types of files we host, along with our recommended sizes for each:   

Ready to Get Started?

Bottom Line

For brands using rich push notifications, a content delivery network gives hosted files the very best chance of your push notification being displayed on your customers’ devices. That’s  important, especially since our data shows that push notifications with images have a 56% higher response rate than those without. 

Want to learn more? Check out our release notes or get in touch anytime to get going with Engage, rich push notifications, or both!  

For more on leveraging rich notifications in your mobile marketing strategy, check out these resources:

• Rich Notification Inspiration Guide

• Rich Notifications Plus Interactive Buttons: A Compelling Combination

• Rich Push Notifications: Use the Power of Pictures to Further Mobile Engagement

• iOS 10 Rich Notifications: Mobile Marketers’ FAQs