Airship Glossary

A

A/B Test

A/B tests let you send variants of a message to cross-sections of your audience. Each variant in the test returns data to help you determine the most effective ways to engage your audience. A/B tests support up to 26 variants and a control group per test.

Action

An action is a configurable behavior that occurs when a user interacts with your message, e.g., opening a web page.

Active User

An active user is a member of your audience that has opened your app, had an active web session, or clicked a web notification in the last 30 days.

Activity Log

The Activity Log is a unified list of all your messaging activity from both the dashboard and the API, excepting unicast and Automated messages.

Adaptive Link

An Adaptive Link is a 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.

Alias

Deprecated. An alias is a tool for mapping channels to an internal identifier. Use Named Users instead.

Anonymous Contact

Airship can set targeting data on a user before the user is associated with your internal ID and becomes a Named User. In this state, the user is an Anonymous Contact.

APID

An APID, or Airship Push Identifier, is our own identifier used for Windows devices only. All other platforms use channels as the primary identifier.

App Key

The Application Key (App Key) is the unique identifier for your Airship project. It is used to authenticate the application for API calls.

App Open (Mobile App), Session Start (Web) Trigger

The App Open (Mobile App), Session Start (Web) trigger causes an In-App Automation or Scene to appear based on the number of times your audience opens your app or starts a web session.

App Secret

The Application Secret (App Secret) is used to authorize requests for low-security API calls. It is intended to be embedded in your distributed application, and as such is limited in what it can do.

App Update Trigger

The App Update trigger causes an In-App Automation or Scene to appear when your audience opens your app or starts a web session for the first time after an app or website update update.

Apple News

Apple News is a news aggregator for iOS and MacOS. An Apple News notification is a push notification that links to an Apple News story. Apple News notifications are available to select publishers. If you are interested in sending Apple News notifications, contact your Airship Account Manager.

Attributed Web Sessions

Attributed web sessions are the total number of sessions attributed to a push notification. An attributed session is a session that occurs within a 12-hour window of a web push notification. Sessions are generated when a user directly visits the website with the Airship Web SDK present, or by clicking a web notification that leads the visitor to the site. The page the user visits must have the Web SDK installed to track sessions.

Attributes

Attributes are metadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. They extend the concept of Tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience.

Audience

Your audience is the selected recipients of your message.

Audience List

Audience Lists are messaging recipient groups based on either your own data or automatically-generated app user lifecycle information. You can use audience lists to target specific users.

Audience Retargeting

Audience retargeting is a method for sending follow-up messages to the audience of a parent message. This method is available for push notifications (app and web) and email in the Message composer.

Autogroup

Autogroup is a default tag group. When devices are registered in Airship, they are automatically assigned a tag within the autogroup tag group; the tag is a numeric value of 1 to 100. Some uses for autogroup tags are creating a control group, and to randomly Segment your audience. Autogroup must be enabled for your account — contact Support or your account manager.

Automation

Automation is a set of conditions that your audience must meet before they receive a message.

Automation Rule Limits

Rule limits cap the number of messages a user can receive from an Automation within a time frame, preventing you from over-messaging your audience, e.g., a maximum of 1 per day. Rule limits are set per Automation.

B

Background Processing

The background processing option wakes the app and give it some running time to perform work, such as downloading content for future display. Data included in the push notification is available for background processing, e.g., to send URLs and then download that content. iOS only.

Badge

A badge is the numeric display on an app icon that typically indicates the number of unread messages. The badge count can be used as an engagement strategy, notifying users about new content and driving them to open your app.

Ban List

A Ban List is an externally maintained record of users that should not be included in Airship message audiences. Before sending a message, Airship validates the audience members with the Ban List. Any matching recipients are dropped from the audience before sending the message.

Baseline

The baseline is the benchmark conversion rate of a Sequence’s control group. It represents the conversion rate you would expect to see without messaging, and it is used to calculate the lift rate.

C

Campaign Categories

Campaign categories are labels that group messages of a similar type or messaging strategy for aggregate reporting. Campaigns help you track the efficacy of both your individual messages and a messaging campaign as a whole.

Cancellation Events

Cancellation events are Custom Events that prevent an Automation, Sequence, In-App Automation, or Scene from sending/displaying if they occur while the Automation (or other) is in a delay period.

Channel (Development)

A channel is an instance representing an entity addressable via the Airship service, e.g., an iOS device, email address, SMS number or web browser. The channel instance or channel object contains all relevant information about a channel, including metadata used for targeting, opt-in status, device-specific information, and, importantly, a unique identifier for the channel, the Channel ID.

Channel (Engagement)

A channel is a communication medium supported by the Airship service. Supported channels include app, web, email, SMS, and Open Channels. Within some channels there may be specific platforms with individual characteristics. Example platforms include Chrome for the web channel and Android for the mobile app channel.

Channel Coordination

Channel Coordination is a group of strategies you can use to target users where they are most likely to receive your message.

Channel ID

A Channel ID is an Airship-specific unique identifier for a channel instance, e.g., a smartphone, web browser, email address.

Churn

A churn outcome occurs when a previously active user becomes inactive, i.e., Airship has not seen any activity (measured in app opens, website visits, or web notification clicks) from a user in the last 30 days. Push opt-in status does not factor into the churn outcome, so it is possible that a user who opted out of notifications could still appear active for churn prediction purposes.

Collapse Key

A collapse key is an optional delivery feature that acts as a grouping and replacement mechanism for messages with the same value. The Collapse Key comes into play when a device is offline (e.g. airplane mode) or in doze mode; if multiple messages are available with the same collapse key value when a device comes back online, it will display only the most recent message and discard previous that have the same value.

Color Set

A Color Set is a named pair of hexadecimal color values supporting device Light and Dark modes. Color sets can be selected for any color field in a Scene and when configuring the default appearance of Scenes and In-App Automations. Dark mode is supported for Scenes only.

Commercial Email

Commercial email is promotional messaging sent to an audience of users who have opted in to receive marketing messages from you.

Composer

A composer is a tool for creating messages in the dashboard. Composers are defined by what you can include and control: message types, delivery, and automation.

Composer Favorites

Composer Favorites are reusable messages with preset settings and/or content. You can use Composer Favorites instead of recreating commonly used messages.

Conditions

Conditions are channel-, subscription-, or Segment-based requirements for members of your audience to receive a message from an Automation or Sequence. The message is not sent if your conditions are not met.

Coupons

Coupons is a service for adding promotional codes to messages. You provide a CSV file with the codes and other optional campaign data and reference the data using Handlebars in your message content. When you send the message, Airship uses the information from your uploaded CSV file to insert the code into the message.

create-and-send API

The create-and-send API is used to simultaneously register and send a notification to email, sms, or open channels; synonymous with the Upload Users feature. Use this API to notify new contacts without having to wait for new channels to register with Airship.

Cross-channel Retargeting

Cross-channel retargeting is a method for sending messages in a Sequence to selected channels based on behavior in a different channel.

Custom Event

Custom Events are events that indicate that a user performed a predefined action, such as adding an item to a shopping cart, viewing a screen, or clicking an Unsubscribe button. Custom Events can trigger Automation, including Sequences and Scenes. You can code them into your app or website, or send them to Airship from an external source using the Custom Event API. Custom Events contain properties that you can use to personalize messages.

Custom Event Filter

Custom Event filters are the individual Custom Event properties or values that will trigger your Automation. You can set Custom Event filters in conjunction with a Custom Event trigger.

Custom Event Trigger

The Custom Event trigger initiates an Automation or Sequence when a Custom Event associated with members of your audience occurs.

Custom Event Trigger (In-App Automation, Scenes)

The Custom Event trigger causes an In-App Automation or Scene to appear to your audience when Custom Events occur a specified number of times.

Custom Keys

Custom keys are additional key-value pairs in your push notification payload for use by custom code in your app or website. You can use custom keys to pass additional campaign identifiers for analytics, pass user information to the device, control the look and feel of the app, provide image links, etc.

D

Dashboard

The dashboard is Airship’s web interface located at go.airship.com  or go.airship.eu .

Dashboard

A Performance Analytics Dashboard is a collection of visualized queries, providing you with an at-a-glance view of relevant information.

Date Attribute Trigger

The Date Attribute trigger initiates a Sequence for your entire audience or for a specified Segment based on the month and day of a date attribute. You can enter your selected audience into the Sequence on the next occurrence of the actual attribute date or a number of days before or after the date.

Delivery By Time Zone

Delivery by time zone is an option for scheduled messages that delivers the messages according to recipient device’s current time zone. For example, a push notification scheduled for 9 a.m. will arrive for users on the east coast at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, in the midwest an hour later at 9 a.m. Central Time, then on the west coast two hours after that, at 9 a.m. Pacific Time.

Delivery Expiration

The delivery expiration option discards your message if it hasn’t been delivered to a device within a specific period of time.

Delivery Group

A delivery group uses an identifier to group related notifications from your app into a single stack. Notifications bearing the same group identifier are stacked together. iOS 12 and later only.

Delivery Priority

The delivery priority option sends your notification using Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) high priority. When not enabled, messages default to normal priority. Android only.

Device ID

A device ID is a Channel ID, Named User ID, or device token.

Device Properties

Device properties are metadata representing the default attributes and property tags of a device, such as language and time zone settings, OS and browser versions, and notification opt-in status. Device properties are used for audience segmentation. The data used for the tags and attributes is collected automatically from the Airship SDKs, and are updated daily.

Device Token

A device token is an identifier for the Apple Push Notification System (APNs) for an iOS device (iPhone or iPad). As an Airship customer, you need not concern yourself with device tokens, as we will create a Channel ID that acts as your primary identifier for addressing devices. If a device token should change for an underlying app, we will map the channel to the new device token.

Dimension

A Dimension is generally a string field in Performance Analytics. They can be grouped and can act as filters or members of a data set.

Display

Display refers to when and where a user sees a message, as well as how the message appears. Display typically accounts for:

Format: Text or styled. Styled mobile and web messages are banner, modal, or fullscreen. Email notifications may be formatted via HTML.

Timing: Upon receipt, based on defined triggers, or controlled via automation.

Location: Message alerts are handled natively per platform and according to user preferences. The location of the full message content varies per message type.

Double Opt-In

Double opt-in is a process where users who sign up for messaging must confirm opting in before they can receive messages.

Double Opt-In Trigger

The Double Opt-In trigger initiates an Automation or Sequence when a member of your audience opts in to commercial email messaging. You must provide an opt-in link in the body of the message, and users must follow the link to confirm opting in.

Dynamic Content

Dynamic content is variable message content created using Handlebars syntax. The content is populated at send time, resulting in personalized messaging for each member of your audience.

E

Embedded Content

Embedded Content is an alternative Scene format that can be displayed on any app or web screen in a view defined by a developer. It can also be presented in Story format.

Event

An Event is the part of an event ticket representing the venue and times of an event. You can make changes to an event to easily update passes for attendees.

Events

Events represent activities in the Airship system, as well as user behavior in your app or website. You can also send external activities (e.g., POS transactions) into the Airship system as events. Events power Airship data products and can be used in audience segments, as Automation triggers, and for partner integrations.

Explore

An Explore is a pre-defined query in Performance Analytics you can use as the basis for building custom Looks.

External Data Feed

An External Data Feed is a connection to an external API. When you send a message, Airship uses a response from that API to personalize messages.

F

Fan Out

Fan Out is a channel coordination strategy that targets a Named User on all the channels they are opted in to, maximizing the chances they receive your message. This strategy is suitable for highly urgent messages, where the user will not be sensitive to over-messaging. This is the default strategy when a Sequence does not have a triggering channel, e.g., a message sent as a result of a Named User Custom Event or tag change, which equally applies to all channels.

Feature Flag

A Feature Flag is a toggle for controlling the availability of content or functionality in your app or website. A flag’s Configurations determine the audience, schedule, and property values to apply when the flag is enabled. Flag properties enable making immediate code updates, bypassing the need for traditional code changes and release processes.

Filter

A filter is a set of criteria that limits the data returned by a query, look, or dashboard.

Firebase Cloud Messaging

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is Google’s official push notification transport system for Android apps, replacing GCM in 2016.

First Seen Trigger

The First Seen trigger initiates an Automation or Sequence when members of your audience opt in to notifications or open your app for the first time.

G

Goals

Goals are selected events that generate a set of performance reports. They can also be used for measurement in Holdout Experiments.

Google Cloud Messaging

Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is Google’s now-deprecated notification transport service, supplanted by Firebase Cloud Messaging.

Group ID

A group ID is a unique identifier for a group of notifications delivered over an interval of time, e.g., multiple push IDs related to an ongoing Automation, Sequence, or a push-to-local-time send.

H

Handlebars

Handlebars is Airship’s templating language for personalization. Handlebars expressions use double curly braces wrapped around a content template, ranging from a simple variable, e.g., {{first_name}}, to complex evaluations of personalization data.

Holdout Experiment

A Holdout Experiment measures the effects of excluding a group of audience members from all messages or messages with specific Campaign Categories. You can compare the performance of the two audience groups in reports for selected goal events.

I

Impression

An Impression is a metric used to quantify an on-screen display of content delivered by the Airship SDK and displayed in your app. In marketing, it is also known as an ad view.

In-App Automation

In-App Automation refers to messages cached on users’ devices and displayed when users meet certain conditions within your app, such as viewing a particular screen or opening the app a certain number of times.

In-App Message

An in-app message is a message that appears inside of your app. You can send in-app messages to your entire app audience, not just users who have opted-in to push notifications. The standard format, as opposed to In-App Automation, is a banner that slides downward or upward from the top or bottom of a device screen.

Inactive User

An inactive user is a member of your audience that had a predictive tag of high, medium, or low and has not opened your app, had an active web session, or clicked a web notification in the last 30 days.

Inactivity Trigger

The Inactivity trigger initiates an Automation or Sequence when a member of your audience does not use your app or website for a period of time.

Inline List

An Inline list is an ad-hoc, CSV-formatted list of email addresses, phone numbers, open channel addresses, or Channel IDs that you want to send a message to. Unlike static lists or segments, you upload this list when creating your message. Airship registers new addresses in the list as channels when you send the message.

Interactive Editor

The Interactive editor is a tool for creating content for landing pages, Message Center, email, and In-App Automation. You can provide your own HTML or design using the drag-and-drop WYSIWYG option.

J

Journey

A Journey is a continuous user experience of connected Sequences, Scenes and/or In-App Automations.

Journey Map

The Journey Map is a visualization of messaging components that can be connected to create a continuous user experience. You can also create and edit from the map.

L

Last Active

Last Active is a channel coordination strategy that targets a Named User on the opted-in channel they used most recently. In many cases user recency is the best indicator of preference.

Lifecycle List

Lifecycle lists are automatically generated audience lists that capture app open, uninstall, notification, and dormancy information within the past 24 hours, one week, or 30 days. For example, with Lifecycle lists you have a built-in recipient list of all users who have opened your app in the past 7 days. You can disable Lifecycle list auto-generation.

Lift Rate

The lift rate is the percent increase or decrease in the active audience conversion rate against the baseline.

Link Shortening

Link shortening converts HTTP/HTTPS URLs in your SMS messages to unique, shortened URLs for your recipients. The shortened URLs reduce the total number of characters that links consume and produce click tracking metrics, helping you determine how effective your SMS messages are in driving traffic to your links.

Live Activity

A Live Activity displays current data from your app on the iPhone Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.

Live Update

A Live Update displays current data from your Android app in a push notification, home screen widget, or custom app view.

Locale

Locale is the combination of a language and country. A user’s locale is determined by their device settings.

Location Attributes Trigger

The Location Attributes trigger initiates an Automation or Sequence based on key/value pair metadata associated with a particular location.

Location Trigger

The Location trigger initiates an Automation or Sequence based on an audience member’s device location.

Look

A Look is a saved query in Performance Analytics.

M

Manual Entry Trigger

The Manual Entry trigger initiates a Sequence for the audience members in a specified Segment.

Master Secret

The Master Secret can be used as the Basic authorization password for any API call. Guard the Master Secret carefully, and never embed it in an application you distribute to users.

Measure

A Measure is a numeric field in Performance Analytics — like a count or sum. Measures appear in orange within an explore.

Merge Field

A merge field is a variable in your message or template that you want to populate with a personalized value for each member of the audience. Merge fields use Handlebars syntax — {{merge_field}}.

Message

A message is content you send an audience of users. Messages are generally defined by how the user experiences them.

Message Center

Message Center is both a place in your app where you can display persistent rich messages, including HTML, video, etc., and a message type. Similar to email, Message Center represents both the medium (the in-app inbox) and the message type (the messages you send to the inbox).

Message Limits

Message limits cap the number of messages you can send within a specified time frame, preventing you from over-messaging your users. They are set at the project level.

Message Priority

Message priority determines the order in which messages appear to users; messages appear to the user in order from highest to lowest priority. Message priority is an integer between 1-100, where 1 is the highest priority, 100 the lowest. If a user receives two messages with the same priority, the more recently updated message appears first. Priority is shared across In-App Automations and Scenes.

Message Purpose

Message Purpose is a dashboard setting that designates a message as commercial or transactional.

Messages Overview

Messages Overview is a view of all your project’s messages, with options for editing their settings, content, status, and more.

Mobile Wallet Pass

A Mobile Wallet Pass is the product of a link generated from a template contained within a Wallet project.

Mobile-Originated Message

A mobile-originated message is a message sent from a member of your audience (originating from the mobile handset of a user) to you.

MSISDN

An MSISDN is the mobile phone number of a device in your Airship audience. While MSISDNs represent devices, in general, you can think of an MSISDN as a person — someone in your audience.

Mutable Content

The mutable content option allows a notification’s content to be changed or downloaded before delivery. This feature is automatically enabled if media is defined in the message’s Optional Features » Media settings. iOS 10 and later only.

N

Named User

A Named User is an identifier that maps multiple devices and channels to a specific individual. You may want your Named User IDs to come from your CRM, facilitating integrations between Airship and your customer data platforms.

Native Platform

A native platform is a platform for which an installed SDK is required to register and manipulate channels. Examples: iOS, Chrome.

Notification Category

A notification category is a grouping mechanism for messages in Android versions 8.0 and later, synonymous with Android notification channels. Users can set behaviors for each notification category within your Android app, determining the types of messages they are most interested in.

NPS Category

An NPS Category is based on the score a user submits in an NPS survey. Ratings 9 and 10 have category Promoter, 7 and 8 are Passive, and 6 or lower are Detractor. They are available in survey reporting and are also a text attribute assigned to a user.

NPS Score

An NPS Score is the score (0-10) a user submits in an NPS survey. It is available in survey reporting and is also a number attribute assigned to a user.

O

Open Platform

An open platform is a platform for which an SDK is not available, and channel registration and manipulation are handled via the Channels API. Examples: Open Channels, Email.

Opt-in Form

An opt-in form is a form you can add to your website, where your users can sign up for email or SMS messaging.

Optimal Send Time

Optimal Send Time is an algorithm that determines the best hour for optimal engagement activity — when each individual member of your audience is most likely to receive and act on your message. iOS, Android, and Fire OS platforms only.

Originating Channel

Originating Channel is a channel coordination strategy that targets a Named User on the channel that triggered the Sequence. Messaging users on the channels they use to engage your brand can help ensure a consistent user experience. This strategy is used for all accounts not enabled for channel coordination.

P

Pass Groups

Pass groups are groups of flights or events that you can modify in bulk. You can assign events or flights to one or more pass groups when you create them.

Performance Analytics

Performance Analytics is a customizable marketing intelligence tool that provides access to reports and graphs based on engagement data.

Performance Report

A Sequence Performance report compares audience behavior to a Sequence’s goal. It displays performance metrics and a link to the message report for each message in the Sequence.

Persistent

Persistent message content remains available even if the alerts for the message are dismissed. For example, Message Center, email, and SMS content can be viewed in the app’s Message Center, email inbox, or the device’s native SMS client until the message is deleted by its recipient. Non-persistent message types become unavailable when users dismiss them. A message’s linked content, e.g., a web link, deep link, an Apple News story, remains available as determined by the source host.

Platform

A platform is an external OS or other system to which notifications are delivered. Mobile platforms include iOS and Android, web platforms include Chrome and Firefox, etc. Airship-supported platforms may be either native platforms, which require an installed SDK, or open platforms, which do not.

Predicted to Churn

Predictive churn analyzes your audience for users that exhibit behaviors indicating they are likely to become inactive, and tags the users as High, Medium, or Low Risk.

Predicted to Churn Trigger

The Predicted to Churn trigger initiates an Automation or Sequence when Airship predicts an audience member’s likelihood of becoming inactive, or churning.

Preference Center

A Preference Center is a page where users can manage their opt-in statuses for the Subscription Lists in your project. Preference Centers are presented within your app or website or as an Airship-hosted web page.

Preheader Text

Preheader text is a short line of text that displays after or below an email subject line in an inbox. You can also have the text appear in the message body. Preheader text is an easy way to expand on your subject line and improve email open rates. Not all email clients support preheader text.

Preview and Test Groups

A preview group is an audience group used for previewing personalized content in the dashboard. Wherever a personalization preview is available, you can select a preview group, and its group members’ attributes will appear for any Handlebars references to attributes. You can enable any preview group as a test group so you can send test messages to its group members. These messages appear as tests in Messages Overview.

Priority Channel

Priority Channel is a channel coordination strategy that targets a Named User on the first channel they are opted in to, of the priority order you set.

Project

A project is the starting point for all Airship operations; a project contains your audience, messages, data, and templates. Whenever you want to perform an operation in Airship, you must first select a project

Push Address

The push address is the underlying device identifier that maps to a Channel ID for message delivery. The push address is analogous to a phone number and has the information necessary to locate and authenticate an installation of an app or browser. Because a push address can change, Airship maps push addresses to channels, which do not change. An example of a push address is a device token in the case of iOS.

Push ID

A push ID is a unique identifier for a push operation.

Push Notification

A push notification is a message that can appear on any screen on a mobile device. Push notifications appear as banners.

R

Real-Time Data Streaming

Real-Time Data Streaming is a service that delivers engagement events in real time via the Data Streaming API or an Airship partner integration.

Recurring Schedule Trigger

The Recurring Schedule trigger initiates a Sequence for the audience members in a specified Segment periodically at specified intervals. You can also set an end date for the Sequence and exclusion periods.

Rich Page

A rich page is a landing page or Message Center message in your app that can include HTML, video, etc.

S

Scene

A Scene is a single or multi-screen in-app experience cached on users’ devices and displayed when users meet certain conditions in your app or website, such as viewing a particular screen or when a Custom Event occurs. They can be presented in fullscreen, modal, or embedded format using the default swipe/click mode or as a Story. Scenes can also contain survey questions.

Scene Rollout

A rollout is a method of limiting a Scene’s total or targeted audience by setting an adjustable percentage.

Screenview Trigger

The Screenview trigger causes an In-App Automation or Scene to appear when your audience views a screen a specified number of times.

Segment

A Segment is a grouping of audience members selected by unique or shared identifiers. Multiple identifiers can be combined within a Segment.

Sender ID

A sender ID is an originating phone number or string identifier used to indicate who an SMS message comes from. Members of your audience subscribe (opt in) to each sender ID they want to receive messages from.

Sequence

A Sequence is a series of messages that is initiated by a trigger. Airship sends messages in the series based on your timing settings, and you can also set conditions that determine its audience and continuation. Sequences can be connected to each other and to other messaging components to create continuous user experiences in a Journey.

Sequence Manager

The Sequence Manager displays a preview of the messages in a Sequence, with options for editing and testing, and for running experiments.

Sequence Rule Limits

Rule limits cap the number of messages a user can receive from a Sequence within a time frame, preventing you from over-messaging your audience, e.g., a maximum of 1 per day. Rule limits are set per Sequence.

Sequence Template

A Sequence template is a prefilled Sequence you can use as a starting point for common messaging scenarios.

Silent Push Notification

A silent push notification is a message that wakes a mobile app for processing without appearing on the device or producing sound or vibration. Silent push notifications are useful for performing background tasks such as sending custom keys, updating the app’s badge icon, fetching remote content, and enabling new features.

Single-use Template

A Single-use Template is used by Airship to generate personalized messages in the current Automation rule or message. Airship does not save the template such that you can use it in another Automation rule or message.

SMS

An SMS is a message that you can send to an MSISDN (phone number) over the SMMP protocol to devices that have opted in for a specific sender ID (long or short code). SMS messages appear in recipients’ native SMS clients. Generally speaking, SMS is inclusive of MMS.

SMS Keyword

A keyword is a word you define to perform an action when used in a mobile-originated message, such as triggering a text response, opting in a user, or applying a tag for segmentation.

Snippet

A snippet is a reusable piece of content that you can define in Airship for later use in your messages and templates. Snippets support text or HTML content and can be used for commonly used elements such as a copyright, header image, or custom CSS.

Specific Date and Time Trigger

The Specific Date and Time trigger initiates a Sequence for the audience members in a specified Segment at a set date and time.

Story

A Story is a Scene set to automatically transition to the next screen without swiping or clicking.

Subscription List

A Subscription list is an 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.

Subscription Trigger

The Subscription trigger initiates an Automation or Journey when a member of your audience opts in to or out of a subscription list. Lists enabled for Auto opt-in are not available for this trigger.

Survey

A survey is a question-and-answer experience used to collect and aggregate feedback or generate a net promoter score. The Survey composer was deprecated September 9, 2024. All Survey composer functionality is available in Scenes.

T

Tag

Tags are metadata 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.

Tag Change Trigger

The Tag Change trigger initiates an Automation or Sequence when a tag is added or removed from a device.

Tag Group

A tag group is an array of tags that you can associate with both channels and Named Users.

Template

A template is reusable message content. Templates support personalization using merge fields and other logic.

Transactional Email

A transactional email is a direct response to a user’s interaction with your app or website — receipts, shipping notifications, password reset notifications, etc.

Trigger

A trigger is an event that initiates an Automation, Sequence, or Scene.

Trigger (In-App Automation, Scenes)

A trigger is an event that causes an In-App Automation or Scene to appear to your audience.

U

Uploaded List

Uploaded Lists are reusable audience lists that you create. They are static and updatable. In the API, they are referred to as Static Lists.

URL Parameters

URL parameters are variables you can automatically append to all link URLs in emails. They function as tags for tracking campaign performance, both on the web and in an app.

User Preference

User Preference is a channel coordination strategy that targets a Named User on their preferred channel. This is understood to provide the optimal customer experience.

W

Web Push Notification

A web push notification is a message that appears in the top or bottom right corner of a web browser or in a notification center. On mobile devices, web push notifications appear similar to push notifications.

Web Session

A web session occurs when an end user directly visits a website with the Airship Web SDK present or by clicking or tapping a Web Push Notification that leads the visitor to the website. The page the user visits must have the Web SDK installed to track sessions. A new session is generated after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Welcome Message

A Welcome Message is a default rich page that appears in every new user’s Message Center when they open your app for the first time.