Effective Strategies for Ensuring Your Push Notifications Avoid Spam Filters and Engage Users

Building a reliable push notification system is crucial for any social media platform striving to enhance user engagement. However, even with a well-implemented system, notifications may sometimes end up in users’ spam folders, defeating their purpose. If you’ve recently developed a push notification setup in a Next.js application and are facing challenges with notifications being marked as spam, you’re not alone. Here’s a comprehensive overview to help you refine your approach and deliver notifications that users find valuable and trustworthy.

The Context: Implementing Push Notifications in a Next.js Environment

Since Next.js is a server-rendered framework, traditional WebSocket connections might not be the best fit for real-time notifications. Instead, many developers turn to cloud-based services like Ably to manage push notifications efficiently. After successfully integrating and testing the push system, the next step is ensuring that notifications are delivered effectively and not misclassified as spam.

Common Challenges and How to Address Them

1. Notifications Being Marked as Spam

Even correctly configured notifications can sometimes be filtered as spam or ignored by the browser or device. To improve deliverability:

• Verify Your Notification Payload: Ensure that your payload contains all recommended fields, such as icon, badge, ttl (Time To Live), tag, and renotify:true. Missing or incorrect parameters can trigger spam filters or prevent notifications from displaying properly.

• Use a Consistent Source and Content: Notifications originating from trusted origins and containing personalized, relevant content are less likely to be marked as spam.

• Implement Proper Permission Handling: Always request notification permissions politely and clearly explain why the user should allow notifications.

2. Ensuring Notifications Wake Up the Device and Appear Correctly

To make notifications immediately noticeable and effective:

• Set the requireInteraction Property: On some platforms, this can keep the notification on the screen until dismissed, increasing visibility.

• Configure Icons and Branding: Use your app’s logo for the notification icon and ensure it adheres to size and format standards specified for push notifications.

• Specify priority and visibility: High-priority notifications are more likely to wake up the device and appear prominently.

3. Customizing Notification Grouping

When multiple notifications with the same tag or collapse_key are sent, they should be grouped into a single notification rather than appearing separately. To