Feature and usage reference for Urban Airship Messages. See also: Message and Workflow Types.
Channel Registration Requirements
This table represents the minimum requirements for communicating with the various channels supported by Urban Airship. A channel must either have installed the SDK or be registered via the API.
Channel Type | API Registration | SDK Registration |
---|---|---|
Mobile App | ✓ | |
Web Browser | ✓ | |
✓ | ||
SMS | ✓ | |
Open Channel | ✓ | ✓ |
API Equivalents
Additional API equivalents are noted in the various tables in this document.
Messages
Message Type | API Object |
---|---|
Push Notification | "notification": {} |
Web Push Notification | "notification": { "web": {}} |
In-App Message | "in_app": {} 1 |
Message Center | "message": {} |
Apple News Notification | Not supported |
Email Notification | "notification": { "email": {}} |
SMS Notification | "notification": { "sms": {}} |
1 There is currently no server API for In-App Automation.
Workflows
A workflow is a method of creating messages via the dashboard. See Message and Workflow Types for definitions of each and to learn which message types can be used with each workflow and API endpoint.
Workflow Type | API Endpoint |
---|---|
Message | /push |
A/B Test | /experiments |
Automation | /pipelines |
In-App Automation | Not supported |
Apple News | Not supported |
Optional Features
See Platform Overrides for API documentation.
Optional Message Features | API Object |
---|---|
Buttons | interactive |
Title | title |
Summary | summary |
Media (iOS) | media_attachment |
Media (Android and Amazon) | style |
Badge1 | badge |
Sound1 | sound |
Notification category2 | notification_channel |
Icon3 | icon |
1 iOS only.
2 Android only.
3 Web only.
Availability: Channels Per Workflow Type
Workflow Type | Channels |
---|---|
Message and Automation |
|
A/B Test |
|
In-App Automation |
|
Apple News |
|
Display Format and Timing
Delivery applies to message types and their equivalent API objects.
Message Type | Display Format | Display Timing |
---|---|---|
Push Notification | Banner | Upon receipt. |
Silent Push Notification | None | Not displayed. |
Web Push Notification | Banner | Upon receipt, as long as the browser is open. |
In-App Message | Banner, modal, or fullscreen | Upon opening the app. |
Message Center | Fullscreen | Available in the app's Message Center. |
Apple News Notification | Banner | Upon receipt. If the selected story is still processing, it will send when the story is live. |
Email Notification | Template layout, HTML, or plain-text | Upon opening the message. |
SMS Notification | Text | Upon receipt. |
Message Types and Allowed Combinations
Available message types and combinations per workflow and template types.
Messages Per Workflow Type
Available message types and combinations per workflow type and their equivalent API endpoints.
- Silent Push Notifications and Apple News Notifications cannot be combined with any other message types.
- Upload Users (Create and Send in the API) can only be used with a single channel at a time.
The message types you can combine are determined by the channels you select.
In particular, when you select both app (iOS, Android, Amazon) and non-app (Web, Email, SMS, Open Channel) platforms, you cannot include Message Center.
Workflow Type | Message Type | Allowed Combinations |
---|---|---|
Message and Automation |
|
Any combination of: Any combination of: |
A/B Test |
|
|
In-App Automation |
| Not supported |
Apple News |
| Not supported |
Messages Per Template Type
Available message types and combinations per template type.
Template Type | Message Types | Allowed Combinations |
---|---|---|
Push1 |
|
|
| Not supported |
1 Available message types are reduced to those supported by all the channels enabled for your project.
Workflows and Templates Per Message Type
Available workflows and templates per message type and their equivalent API objects.
Message Type | Workflow Types | Template |
---|---|---|
Push Notification |
| |
Silent Push Notification |
| |
Web Push Notification |
| |
In-App Message |
| |
Message Center |
| |
Apple News Notification |
| |
Email Notification |
| |
SMS Notification |
|
Actions
Message actions apply to the Message, A/B Test, and Automation workflows and their equivalent API endpoints, as well as Push Templates. They are related to these message types only:
- Push Notification
- Web Push Notification
- In-App Message
- Message Center
Push notifications and web push notifications use the same configuration screen. See Web Notify to understand differences in behavior.
The In-App Automation workflow has the same button actions available in every message.
Workflows
Available message actions depending on selected message types. Combining all three message types gives you the same available actions as Push Notification + In-App Message.
Message Action | API Object | Push Notification (with or without Message Center) | In-App Message (with or without Message Center) | Push Notification + In-App Message | Message Center |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Home | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Message Center | ✓1 | ✓1 | ✓ | ✓2 | |
Landing Page1 | open 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Deep Link | open 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Adaptive Link | open 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Web Page | open 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Share | share | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
1 When Message Center is combined with another message type, the Actions dropdown menu defaults to Message Center, but you may choose another action.
2 When Message Center is the only selected message type, the Actions dropdown menu is replaced by a Rich Page create button.
3 With type
attribute landing_page
.
4 With type
attribute deep_link
.
5 With type
attribute url
.
Web Notify
When Web Browsers is the only selected audience channel, the only available actions will be Home, Adaptive Link, and Web Page.
When combining a Web Push Notification with mobile app Push Notifications and In-App Messages, you may select from these Message Actions:
- Home: Opens the app's home screen for mobile users. Home for web browsers is the default URL configured in the Web Notify setup.
- Adaptive Link
- Web Page
- Landing Page
- Deep Link
Landing Page and Deep Link are for mobile app users only. When Web Browsers is an included channel and Deep Link or Landing Page is chosen as the message action, also enter a Web Page URL for your Web Notify audience.
Rich Pages
Rich Pages can be configured with buttons that perform these actions:
- Deep Link
- URL
- Share
See: Message Actions: Rich Pages.
Templates
Push templates support these actions:
- Home
- Deep Link
- Adaptive Link
- Web Page
The same actions are available for push notifications, in-app messages, or combining the two.
Configuration and Requirements
Actions that do not require configuration cannot be disabled from appearing in the dashboard, and do not have a minimum SDK:
- Home
Actions that require configuration, can be disabled from appearing in the dashboard, and have a minimum SDK:
- Message Center
- Landing Page
- Deep Link
- Adaptive Link
- Web Page (URL)
The minimum SDK version is listed in Settings » Configuration » Composer, along with an enable/disable toggle. The Adaptive Link action is enabled via the UA Actions Framework.
The Share action is an exception. It requires configuration, cannot be disabled from appearing in the dashboard, and its minimum SDK is 4.0.
Delivery
Delivery applies to workflows and their equivalent API endpoints.
- The In-App Automation workflow does not have delivery settings. The messages are instead stored on the user’s device then displayed according to the triggers you define.
Equivalent API endpoints are noted.
Workflow Type | Immediate | Scheduled1 | Optimal Time2 | During Available Window |
---|---|---|---|---|
Message | /push | /schedules | ✓3 | |
A/B Test | /experiments | /experiments | ||
Automation | /pipelines | /pipelines 4 | ✓ | |
In-App Automation | ||||
Apple News |
1 Scheduled messages must contain a schedule object.
2 Optimal Time is one of our Predictive features. Please contact your Urban Airship Account Manager to purchase.
3 In the API, Optimal Time uses the schedule specification best_time
.
4 See: Automation Timing.
5 If the selected story is still processing, it will send when the story is live.
Automation Timing
Workflow Option | API Object |
---|---|
Delay | delay object with seconds attribute |
Schedule | date object with start and end attributes |
Send during available window | date object with recent attribute |
Optional Delivery Features
These apply to the workflow Optional Delivery Features only. Also refer to their entries in the API Platform Overrides documentation. For Start and End Dates, see the API Automation documentation.
Workflow Option | API Object |
---|---|
Start Date | activation_time 1 |
End Date | deactivation_time 1 |
Expiration | expiry |
Custom Keys | extra |
Background Processing1,2 | content_available |
Mutable Content1 | mutable_content |
Group2 | thread_id |
Critical2 | critical |
Collapse Key (iOS) | collapse_id |
Collapse Key (Amazon) | consolidation_key |
Collapse Key (Android) | collapse_key |
Delay While Idle3 | delay_while_idle |
Delivery Priority3 | delivery_priority |
Require Interaction4 | require_interaction |
1 Used with Automation only.
2 iOS only.
3 Android only.
4 Web only.