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Mobile Monday: Custom News Feeds & Engaging Alerts

Posted Feb 20, 2017

In this edition of Mobile Monday, we are examining the importance of customizable mobile news feeds and notifications, as evidenced by Upday’s continued expansion and the latest data from Reuters.

Upday’s Upcoming Expansion
The mobile news app Upday is preparing to expand into new markets soon. The news aggregation platform originally based in the UK is planning to double its editorial staff by June and expand more broadly across Europe. Each editor selects the top stories each day from a myriad of news sources, curating lists that users subscribe to.

While this mechanic isn’t a particularly revolutionary user experience, their execution is working: according to their UK managing director Robin Hough in his recent interview with Digiday,  “90 percent of users return each week” to the app, a rather impressive retention rate.

The impact for publishers? Once again, it’s evident that mobile users crave customizable content & truly catered feeds.

Engaging Through News Alerts
Understanding that users are most apt to return to a news app for stories that interest them, what are news apps doing about it? According to a report by Reuters, many are relying on push notifications. While only 10 to 23% of the users of any of the top news apps will elect to receive news alerts, their response rate is rather promising. Indeed, according to the study, 59% will swipe to open the app.

While this may entice some publishers to immediately ask for push notification permissions upon install, it may still be best if those publishers ask users to customize their notifications. After all, 22% to 29% of users under 45 will adjust push notification settings after using an app for a short amount of time, and half will turn off notifications outright.

About AdColony Mobile Mondays
Mobile Monday examines the latest news, trends, and developments in mobile apps, tech, and advertising. Do you have a story to share for the next Mobile Monday? Tweet it to . For the latest AdColony mobile news and updates, follow  on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or connect on Linkedin.

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