Button and text actions

Choose the action that occurs when a user taps a button in an In-App Automation or Scene. Scenes also support actions for text.

Configuring Actions

You configure button and text actions in two places:

To configure button actions:

  1. Select and configure an action and its Web URL.
  2. (Optional) Set and/or remove TagsMetadata that you can associate with channels or Named Users for audience segmentation. Generally, they are descriptive terms indicating user preferences or other categorizations, e.g., wine_enthusiast or weather_alerts_los_angeles. Tags are case-sensitive. when the user taps a button. See: Set Tags.
  3. (Optional) Opt a user in to or out of a Subscription ListAn audience list of users who are opted in to messaging about a specific topic. Users can manage their opt-in status per list using a Preference Center. when the user taps a button. See: Subscription List Opt In/Out.
  4. (Optional) Limit the message display to once if the user taps the message. Check the box to enable.
     Tip

    Use this for repeated goal-related messages, e.g., prompt to opt-in. You would want to prevent re-display when the user accomplishes the goal.

Repeat for each button in the message. After you configure all the buttons, click to move on to the next composer step.

Web fallback URL

For Scenes with both App and Web channels selected, these actions apply to mobile apps only:

  • App Rating
  • App Settings
  • Deep Link
  • Preference Center
  • Share

When configuring the actions, enter a URL in Web URL as an alternative behavior. Selecting the button or text opens a web page or any valid device-level URL such as App Store or app protocol links. The web page opens in the device’s default browser.

Actions

Supported actions and options per composer:

 Note

Footer buttons are only available in In-App Automation. Available actions for footer buttons: Adaptive Link, Deep Link, Web Page.

ActionsIn-App Automation — ButtonScene — Button (App)Scene — Button (Web)Scene — Text
Adaptive Link
App Rating
App Settings
Deep Link
Dismiss Message
Location Opt-in
Next
Preference Center
Previous
Push Opt-in
Share
Submit Responses
Web Page
Option: Set Tags
Option: Subscription List Opt In/Out

Adaptive Link opens a mobile wallet pass. Select an Adaptive LinkA vendor-agnostic, shortened mobile wallet pass link that supports templates for both Google Wallet and Apple Wallet. When a user taps the link, Airship determines the user’s platform and generates the right pass for that platform. from the list.

App Rating

App Rating prompts the user to rate the app in the app store. Optionally enter a custom message title and body.

 Note

App Rating display behavior differs by operating system:

App rating prompts will process as configured by your message settings, but the displayed dialog is controlled by Apple, not Airship.

 Important

iOS requires that you provide your app’s Apple ID, which is used as the iTunes App Store Identifier. (Android and Fire OS generate app store links automatically based on information already in your app, so no configuration is required.)

You can do this by adding the ID in your Airship project settings, or by editing your plist dictionary.

In your plist dictionary, add the following, substituting 1111111111 with the app’s actual ID:

<key>itunesID</key>
<string>1111111111</string>

A quick way to find the Apple ID is to copy the numbers at the end of the app’s App Store URL. If the URL is https://apps.apple.com/app/id1195168544, the Apple ID is 1195168544.

Another way is to locate your app in iTunes Connect and copy the Apple ID.

App Settings

App Settings opens the device’s settings page for the app.

Deep Link opens a screen in your app or website. Select a deep link from the list.

Our Deep Link functionality supports URL templates, which expose a friendly interface to your users in our UI, while constructing the correct URL behind the scenes on the fly. You can specify substitution parameters by enclosing them in brackets. For example, if you want to define a Deep Link for a product page screen in your app (or on your mobile website), you can make the product ID number a substitution parameter. Here are example template URLs:

https://yourcompany.com/products/{Product Id}

yourapp://products/{Product Id}

When you enter this URL in the Airship interface, the form parses it and previews the form your users see in the composer. It automatically identifies “Product Id” as the parameter name, and provides a field to substitute in the actual identifier. So if you had previously entered a product ID of 1872983490 for the above Product ID, the generated URL would be:

http://yourcompany.com/products/1872983490

yourapp://products/1872983490

The interface treats all values for each field as a string.

Dismiss Message

Dismiss Message closes the message.

Location Opt-in

Location Opt-in opens the system prompt for location opt-in.

Next

Next opens the next screen in a Scene.

Preference Center

Preference Center opens an app preference center. Select a preference center from the list.

Previous

Previous opens the previous screen in a Scene.

Push Opt-in

Push Opt-in opens the system prompt for push notification opt-in. Device behavior differs depending on opt-in status:

  • If a user has not previously opted out, they will see the system prompt after clicking the button.
  • If a user previously opted out, the app settings will open after clicking the button, and they can opt in from there.

Share

Share prompts the user to share your message with apps, social media accounts, and other services. Enter the text you want to accompany the share, including any promotional information, shortened links, hashtags, etc.

Submit Responses

Submit Responses can be configured to open another screen or close the Scene. When a user interacts with the button, their responses to questions or NPS in the Scene are recorded for reporting.

  • If your Scene includes a question or NPS, you must configure a button using this action.
  • A button using this action must be positioned after the last question or NPS.
  • A button using this action is inactive until the user answers all required questions/NPS.
  • This action can only be used once per Scene.
  • If you later delete all questions/NPS from a Scene, the action automatically changes to Next and the Confirmation screen, if any, is deleted.

Select a behavior:

BehaviorDescription
DismissThe Scene closes.
Dismiss and cancel RepeatThe Scene closes and Repeat is canceled.
Next screenThe Scene advances to the next screen.
Open confirmation screenA Confirmation screen opens, where you can tell the user that they successfully submitted their responses. If you select this option, a Confirmation screen is added to your Scene automatically for you to configure.

Web Page

Web Page opens a web page or any valid device-level URL such as App Store or app protocol links. The web page opens in the device’s default browser. Enter a URL.

Button Options

You can set options after selecting button actions. Scenes support additional options. See Button or Button Group in Configure Scene content.

Set Tags

Set and/or remove a TagMetadata that you can associate with channels or Named Users for audience segmentation. Generally, they are descriptive terms indicating user preferences or other categorizations, e.g., wine_enthusiast or weather_alerts_los_angeles. Tags are case-sensitive. on the channel ID when a user taps a button.

After selecting a button action:

  1. Click Configure options.
  2. Select Add tag or Remove tag, then search for tags that exist in the system, or create a new tag.

Click Configure another option for additional tags.

 Tip

Use tag-based targeting to prevent an in-app message from being seen or to chain the display of messages. E.g., set a tag “message1” on display of one message, and only display a second message to users who have the “message1” tag.

 Note

The ability to set tags based on user actions is key to promoting new features. The suggested approach is to display messages regarding a feature if the tag does not exist, and to then set the tag to record either the fact that the user has acknowledged the message, or to record actual usage of the feature. You can set a tag when a user clicks a button on an message, or even upon display, but recording actual feature usage requires some native code within the app. See:

Subscription List Opt In/Out

AXP iOS SDK 16.9+Android SDK 16.7+

Opt a user in to or out of a Subscription ListAn audience list of users who are opted in to messaging about a specific topic. Users can manage their opt-in status per list using a Preference Center. when the user taps a button.

After selecting a button action:

  1. Click Configure options.
  2. Select Opt in to or Opt out of, then search for a subscription list by name. When you first click the search field, you can select from your five most recently modified subscription lists.

Click Configure another option for additional subscription lists.