Daily streak journey

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Overview

• 1-day recurring streak reminder (last session time): A simple daily nudge for users who haven’t opened the app yet today.
• 7-day streak Journey (last session time): A guided 7-day challenge that checks daily activity and rewards users who complete the full streak.
• 1-day recurring streak with tags and custom events: A tag-based approach that tracks streak count and sends personalized reminders based on progress.

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Prerequisites

• A OneSignal app with push notifications configured
• External IDs assigned to your users (recommended for cross-channel accuracy)
• Familiarity with Journeys, Segments, and Journey actions

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1-day recurring streak reminder

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Segments used

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Journey settings

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Journey steps

1

Add a Time Window node

Begin by setting a Time Window node to your preferred delivery hours for the first reminder push, for example 8:00 AM – 8:15 AM every day. Enable Use user’s time zone so messages arrive at a reasonable local time.

Users who enter the journey after this window will wait until the next day before receiving the first push notification (this will only affect new sign-ups who have had their first ever session after 8am).

2

Check for activity before first Time Window - Add a Yes/No branch

Before we send any messages, we need to check if the user was active in the last 8 hours, in case they joined the journey after 0:00am.

The Yes/No branch will check membership of this segment and if the user has been active in the last 8 hours, then they skip all of the messaging steps of the journey (following the yes branch).

If you have selected a different time for your first check, then you will need to adjust this segment’s name and filters accordingly to check if the user’s last session was between this time window and 00:00am

3

Add a Yes/No branch

On the “No” branch of the previous Yes/No check, we want to ensure that we send appropriate messaging to our users. Here we want to branch based on whether the user has a streak ongoing or not. To do this, we need a segment of users who already have the streak_ongoing: true tag that is set when a user exits this journey early:

The Yes/No branch will check membership of this segment and send different push notifications depending on whether the user is in the streak or not.

4

First push notifications

Create two different push templates which remind the user to return to the app. One should mention continuing a streak, the other should mention starting a streak. Add the continuing template to the “Yes” branch, and the starting template to the “No” branch.

5

Repeat the above steps.

After the branches converge, repeat the above steps - Time Window → Yes/No branch → Push notifications - as many times as you think necessary, changing the time window appropriately each time.

Think about your users’ daily routines: Set the time windows for times of the day when your users might be active on their device (e.g. during their commute, at lunch time, after dinner time). Always avoid times when users are likely to be asleep.

Don’t be repetitive: Make sure that you use a different push template each time you repeat the steps - users will quickly get frustrated with seeing the same notification repeatedly throughout the day.

6

Add a final time window

Add a time window for 12:00 AM to 12:15 AM. This signifies the start of a new day and the end of the streak.

7

Update the "streak_ongoing" tag

If the user has made it this far through the messaging branch of the journey without exiting early, it means that they have failed their streak. We need to update the streak_ongoing tag to false with a “Tag” node, both for tracking purposes and also so that when they rejoin the journey, they are sent the appropriate push notifications.Similarly, on the “Yes” branch of our first Yes/No node (from step 2), we need to update the streak_ongoing tag to true, as the user completed their streak before our first Time Window check:

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7-day streak Journey

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Segments used

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Journey settings

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Journey steps

1

Add a Time Window node

Begin by setting a Time Window node to your preferred delivery hours for the first reminder push, for example 8:00 AM – 8:15 AM every day. Enable Use user’s time zone so messages arrive at a reasonable local time.

Users who enter the journey after this window will wait until the next day before receiving the first push notification (this will only affect new sign-ups who have had their first ever session after 8am).

2

Check for activity before first Time Window - Add a Yes/No branch

Before we send any messages, we need to check if the user was active in the last 8 hours, in case they joined the journey after 0:00am.

The Yes/No branch will check membership of this segment and if the user has been active in the last 8 hours, then they skip all of the messaging steps for the first day (following the yes branch).

If you have selected a different time for your first check, then you will need to adjust this segment’s name and filters accordingly to check if the user’s last session was between this time window and 00:00am

3

First push notification

Send your Day 1, first push notification.

4

Add another Time Window node

Add another time window node so that you can send a second reminder push for Day 1 (in this example at 12pm).

5

Check for activity before Time Window - Add a Yes/No branch

Before we send the next message, we need to check if the user was active since the last message, and only send the next message if they were not.

The Yes/No branch will check membership of this segment and if the user has been active in the last X hours, then they skip all of the messaging steps for the rest of the day if so (following the yes branch).

6

Second push notification

Send your Day 1, second push notification.

7

Repeat steps 4, 5 & 6 to send more notifications.

Add more time window and message nodes to send as many push notifications in this day as you like.

8

Add another Time Window node for 12:00am

Add another time window node set to 12:00am to move to the next day.

9

Check for activity before Time Window - Add a Yes/No branch

Before we move to the next day’s messages, we need to check if the user was active since the last message, and only continue the journey if they were.

The Yes/No branch will check membership of this segment. If the user has not been active in the last X hours, they have failed the journey.

10

Add a tag to eject the user from the journey.

Down the “No” branch of the above Yes/No check, we need to add a tag to eject the user from the journey as they have failed to continue their streak. Add the tag 7_day_streak with the value failed here. This will put the user into the “7 day streak failed” segment and automatically end the journey for them. Optionally, you can also add a streak_failed_day tag here with the day number as the value in order to track what days your users failed their streaks.

11

Add a wait node on the original 'Yes' branch of this day.

On the “Yes” branch from the Yes/No node in step 2, add a wait node for 16 hours (or whatever the time difference between your first time window time and midnight of the next day). This ensures that the users on this branch are kept in line with users who have been receiving messages on the other branch.

12

Add a tag to signify the streak day achieved.

For tracking and personalization purposes, you may want to update the value of your “7_day_streak” tag to the number of the day the user is on at this stage (this step is optional).

13

Repeat for days 2-7.

After the Yes/No branches from step 2 converge, repeat steps 2-12 for each day. Make sure that you vary your messaging each day to reflect the user’s progress through the streak.

You can use message personalisation if you want to reuse your message templates each day. Simply use liquid syntax and the 7_day_streak tag that was updated in step 12 to remind users how big their streak is so far.

14

Add a final data tag

For tracking purposes, and to prevent users from re-entering if you want to only allow them to finish the streak once, just before the exit node as the final step of your journey, update the 7_day_streak to completed.If you have been setting the streak_failed_day tag as well, update this to a blank value to delete the tag.

15

Optional: Send a 'Congratulations' push notification

At this point you may want to congratulate your users via a push notification for completing your 7 day streak before exiting the journey.

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1-day recurring streak with tags and custom events

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Send the custom event and update streak tags from your app

// Fire the custom event to signal streak completion
OneSignal.User.trackEvent("streak_continued");

// Update the streak count tag (your app calculates the value)
OneSignal.User.addTags({
  streak_count: currentStreakCount.toString()
});

{
  "events": [
    {
      "name": "streak_continued",
      "external_id": "USER_EXTERNAL_ID"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "properties": {
    "tags": {
      "streak_count": "5"
    }
  }
}

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Create personalized message templates

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Segments used

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Journey settings

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Journey steps

1

Add a Time Window node

Begin by setting a Time Window node that starts slightly before your first desired reminder time, for example 7:00 AM – 7:15 AM every day. Enable Use user’s time zone so the cycle starts at a reasonable local time.

Users who enter the journey after this window will wait until the next day before the reminder cycle begins. The window starts at 7:00 AM to give the first Wait Until node time to expire before the 8am reminder.

2

Add a Wait Until node (1-hour expiration)

Add a Wait Until node with the condition: Custom Event streak_continued occurs. Set the expiration to 1 hour.

• A branch (event fires): The user already completed their daily action early in the morning, so they skip all reminders and proceed directly to the exit.
• Expire branch (1 hour, no event): The user hasn’t acted yet. Continue to the first push reminder.

The 1-hour expiration covers the gap between the Time Window (7:00 AM) and the first reminder (~8:00 AM). This gives users who are already active a chance to trigger the event before any push is sent.

3

Send the 8am Streak Reminder push

On the Expire branch, add a Push Notification node with your first personalized template (e.g., “8am Streak Reminder”). The liquid syntax in the template will automatically show “Keep your streak alive!” for users with an active streak, or “Start a streak today!” for users starting fresh.

4

Add a second Wait Until node (4-hour expiration)

After the push notification, add another Wait Until node with the same condition: Custom Event streak_continued. This time, set the expiration to 4 hours.

• A branch: User completed their action after the first reminder. Skip remaining reminders and proceed to the exit.
• Expire branch: No action after 4 hours. Continue to the 12pm reminder.

5

Send the 12pm Streak Reminder push

On the Expire branch, add a Push Notification node for your midday reminder (e.g., “12pm Streak Reminder”). Use a different template from the 8am one, but include the same liquid conditional so it adapts to the user’s streak state.

6

Continue the pattern for afternoon and evening reminders

Repeat the Wait Until (4 hours) → Push Notification pattern for each additional reminder you want to send. In this example:

• Wait Until (4 hours) → 4pm Streak Reminder push
• Wait Until (4 hours) → 8pm Streak Reminder push

At each Wait Until node, the streak_continued event can fire to skip all remaining reminders and jump straight to the exit.

Don’t be repetitive: Use a different push template for each time slot. Vary the tone and messaging. Morning reminders can be encouraging, while evening reminders can add gentle urgency. Users will tune out identical repeated notifications.

7

Converge all branches to the Exit node

All A branches (from each Wait Until node where the streak_continued event fired) and the final push notification branch should converge at the end of the journey, leading to the Exit node.

The user exits and re-enters after 10 minutes. Since the Time Window is the first step, they’ll wait there until 7:00 AM the next morning before starting a new reminder cycle.

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How the flow works

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Comparison of approaches

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Tips and best practices

• Don’t over-message. Ensure that you send an appropriate amount of reminders, and use Time Window nodes to control when messages are sent and avoid interrupting users during off-hours.
• Use different channels where appropriate. If your users are subscribed to multiple channels, try experimenting with SMS and Email messages as part of your flow to see if streak retention increases. Note that in-app messages are not appropriate for streak reminders, as the user has to be in the app to see them, and in-app messages in journeys can only be shown to a user once, even if they re-enter the journey.
• Combine with outcomes. Track streak completions as Custom Outcomes to measure the impact of your streak Journeys on retention and engagement.
• Test your timing. Experiment with different delivery windows and message frequencies. Use Split Branch nodes to A/B test.
• Reset streaks gracefully. When a streak breaks, consider sending an encouraging “start a new streak” message rather than a punitive one.

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FAQ

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Can I track the actual streak count without tags or custom events?

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What happens if a user has multiple subscriptions?

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Can I reward users for completing a streak?

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How do I prevent users from getting multiple streak reminders in one day?