Use in-app triggers to display the the in-app message to users within the audience at a time of your choosing. Unlike push, email, and sms that just send the message to users in the audience, in-app messages require a trigger to display the message to eligible users defined by the audience. Triggers can be combined with AND and OR operators to only show under very specific conditions.
A few things to note:
  • Keys and values are space and case sensitive.
  • The is not trigger needs to be used alongside the exists trigger.

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Select trigger conditions

When creating an In-App Message, you can set a trigger action. This enables you to select a trigger which, when its state is changed, will send the In-App Message. Similarly, you can also specify additional behaviors such as the duration since the last In-App Message. This ensures your users are not overwhelmed by too many In-App Messages.

Image showing how you can set a trigger when creating an In-App Message

Below are a series of triggers you can specify.

On app open

Show message upon next app open. Use this to make sure all users within the segment get the message when they open the app.

In-App Trigger

Show message when user performs certain action. Message shows when calling the addTrigger method for the corresponding key-value pair.

Session Duration

Show message after x seconds within the current app session.

Duration Since Last In-App

Show message after x seconds since the most recent in-app message.
If the Trigger is On app open or Session Duration then the user must open the app to see it again.If trigger is Duration since last in-app then the message will show after this timeframe is satisfied.If the trigger is a programmatic In-app trigger, then the method must be called again after the “multiple times gap” timeframe is satisfied.

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Set message dismissal

Control how long the message should stay on the screen.
  • Show until dismiss - will show the message until physically acted upon.
  • Dismiss after certain amount of time - set how long the message should show before automatically being removed from screen.

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Setup re-trigger options

Navigate to Schedule > How often do you want to show this message?

Image showing the ability to schedule an In-App Message

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Set when and how many times the message shows

Only once is default. The in-app message will only show 1 time on the current device. Every time trigger conditions are satisfied will show this message each time the Trigger conditions are met. Multiple times allows you to set the specific amount of times this message can be shown and how long to wait in between each display.

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Examples

If you set: “2 times with a gap of 1 hours in between” - The message will be allowed to trigger a total of 2 times. The first time when the triggers are met, then the 2nd time when the triggers are met and 1 hour has passed.If you set “12 times with a gap of 30 days in between” - The message will show roughly once a month for a year.

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FAQ

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Are triggers tags?

Triggers do not need to be existing tags. The value of a trigger is not viewable within the OneSignal dashboard.