Push Notification Best Practices — The Ideal Length (2019)
Read on to learn push notification best practices and ensure your push notifications are of the optimal length to get your message across without being cut off.
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Disclaimer: This article was originally posted on the PushOwl blog.
Browser updates affect your push notifications as well. One question that we frequently hear is “Why is my push notification title and (or) message not being displayed completely?” Read on to learn push notification best practices and ensure your push notifications are of the optimal length to get your message across without being cut off.
Recommended Character Limits:
Let’s look at these platforms/browsers in a bit more detail.
WINDOWS
Chrome:
On Windows 10, title supports a maximum of ~67 characters before the text gets truncated. The message length stays the same, 159 characters, with or without a hero image.
On Windows 8 (and older versions), the title supports a maximum of ~57 characters before the text gets truncated. The message length also stays the same — 126 characters- whether a hero image is added to the notification or not.
Important note: On Windows, there are two different kinds of notifications, one is a white design and the other has a black layout. So, the same notification is likely to look different on two Windows devices.
Firefox:
On Windows 10, title shows ~52 characters without truncation, while the message can show ~135 characters.
On Windows 8 (and older versions), title shows around 54 characters without truncation, while the message can show ~200 characters.
Note: Firefox does not support hero images
ANDROID
The optimal title length for Android is around 47 characters. But the message length varies depending on whether the notification contains a hero image.
MAC
All browsers on Mac have different character limits for the title and message. It’s best if you keep your title around 20 characters and the body below 27 characters.
Important: The width of the individual characters will also affect how much of the notification is visible before it gets truncated.
Summary:
Chrome offers the best experience for web push notifications, due to higher character limits and support for hero images. And more often than not, you will end up creating notifications which will look great on Chrome, but they won’t be as effective on other platforms/browsers.
So, ensure that you design your notifications keeping the restrictions of Mac and Firefox in mind. This will ensure that your message gets across a clear and precise manner.
Want to ace your push notification strategy? We’re here to help.
