You need to get your messages in front of users. What's the best way to do this? Find out in this article about SMS notifications and push notifications.
Call me Captain Obvious, but it’s clear that business owners want to get their customers’ attention.
The hitch here is that there’s a lot of static to cut through first. We receive a constant stream of notifications on our smartphones every day, including messages, reminders, and alerts. So, how can you stand out?
Digital marketers need to be aware of all the tools they have at their disposal to reach their audiences. Two of the most effective tools out there are SMS notifications and push notifications.
But, maybe you don’t know the difference between these two kinds of alerts on your phone. Or, maybe you have the ability to use both, but you aren’t sure when to use them. Let’s go over the strengths and weaknesses of push vs. SMS notifications.
Let’s go over what these notifications are and why people use them.
SMS notifications are notifications that are sent when you receive a text message. Basically, if you’ve ever seen your phone light up with a preview of a text message you just got, that’s an SMS notification.
SMS stands for “Short Message Service.” SMS notifications are sent the same way as any other text message. Usually, they’re limited to 160 characters.
With our expanded messaging feature, however, you can send SMS notifications that are up to 306 characters long. While SMS can be used as a marketing tool, SMS notifications can be used for time-sensitive and safety purposes also.
Many businesses and organizations choose to use SMS notifications because they work on every device. There’s no app to download or software to install. Nearly all cell phones can receive SMS.
Consider the following: your friend needs to inform you about something quickly. Would you rather them send you a quick text, call you, or email you? Most people prefer text because of its straightforward nature.
SMS notifications can be used to send emergency text alerts, inform users about new features, and send out advertising messages—among other things. Here are just a few of the most common use cases:
Sometimes mistaken for SMS notifications, push notifications are pop-ups that appear on a mobile device. These messages may appear while customers are on their phones, or on the lock screen if the device isn’t in use.
The biggest difference is that push notifications come from an app or website, not as a result of a text being sent.
The maximum character count of a push notification varies from device to device, but the usual length is between 100 and 200 characters.
The main benefit of push notifications is that users don’t need to be in a particular app or on a site in order to see them. App or website publishers can send them at any time. Plus, many people opt into push notifications when they download an app.
Data from Moengage tells us that push notifications have a lot of potential. Transactional and super-personalized ones can reach a click-through rate as high as 30% or more if you know what you’re doing.
SMS notifications work best for longer messages that the reader can revisit when needed. Here are just a few of the most common use cases:
SMS notifications offer two ideal qualities for emergency alerts – they’re fast and stick around in the inbox for people to reference. You can easily set up an alert system using a contact list in your texting service. Just make sure to send a test alert to ensure that everyone who needs to get your messages sees them.
Get the word out about your event with a text. Thanks to their snappy nature, SMS notifications can quickly notify people about an upcoming event. They also work well for reminders and rundowns for registered participants.
For example, Soul Focus Sports uses texts to prepare participants for its athletic events, such as for the Under Armour HOVR Challenge:
Don’t underestimate texting’s potential for internal communication. You can also use SMS to set up a contact list of your team members to keep everyone in the loop on important matters. And since everyone gets their own SMS thread, it works well for coordinating logistics per person, such as Intelycare’s team COVID tests:
While ecommerce stores typically turn to email to notify customers of their abandoned carts, you can opt for text as well. Texting your abandoned cart messages adds another channel to the mix to make sure your customers catch them. But before you text anyone about an abandoned cart, make sure you have permission to text the person with marketing SMS.
Here’s what an abandoned cart SMS notification could look like:
According to our 2025 study on SMS marketing, appointment and reservation reminders are the top reason people opt into text messages from businesses. So, chances are your patients want to get reminders via text.
Appointment reminder SMS messages were a game-changer for Lighthouse Dental Centre, raising their response rate to nearly 100% with texts like:
Similarly, customers want to get reservation confirmations over text from restaurants, recreational zones, and any other business that offers space to reserve. Texting services like SimpleTexting integrate with restaurant management software so you can automate the reservation process. For example, you could send a text like this to confirm a reservation:
SMS notifications also come in handy for nonprofits, whether they’re trying to raise money, reach out to people in need, or find new volunteers. These notifications’ speed makes them great for addressing urgent needs or connecting with people to help. For example, U.S. Hunger uses text to communicate with people who need food:
Push notifications can be used for many things: to ask users to take an action, let them know about new updates, and send them promotions. The most compelling reason to use push notifications is to make sure users don’t forget about your brand.
Let’s look at some ways you can use push notifications through your app or website:
Although push notifications generally don’t stick around as much as SMS notifications can, you can offer persistent notifications in your app. These notifications stay in your customer’s notification bar for them to constantly reference. For instance, WeatherBug’s app offers the option to keep a persistent push notification so you can always know what the weather is like:
Your mobile app can also detect certain settings on its users’ devices and send notifications accordingly. For example, State Farm needs a user’s phone to have location and Bluetooth on while driving to use its Drive Safe and Save feature. So, when you turn those permissions off, it’ll provide reminders to turn it back on when you plan on driving.
If your app or website has a reminder feature, you can set up push notifications to trigger during reminder times. You’ll see this feature most often on organization-related apps, but it can come in handy in all sorts of apps. Check out how Clio, a pet care app, lets you set your own reminders for logging food and bathroom habits.
Push notifications also work well for promotional messages that encourage the user to revisit your app. If you run a store app, perhaps, you can remind users to come back and shop.
Depop, a secondhand selling service, sends regular reminders. Sometimes they relate to a promotion, but other times, they simply remind you that they’re there.
Your app can also push updates in real-time as you complete a service. If you’ve ever used a rideshare or food delivery app, you might have noticed that you get updates for every step in the process. This approach can also work for one-time service updates, such as when you make a transfer in PayPal:
If you count on your app as its own channel for getting purchases or signups, you can also provide exclusive offers through push notifications. Sending the offer through a push notification keeps it separate from your SMS marketing, making it easier to see how you can use your app as a marketing tool. While Uber Eats shares its promos outside of its app, one of these texts could look like one of its promo texts:
A push notification is a notification itself that can come from any app and most websites and will appear on your phone’s lock screen. It is quite literally ‘pushing’ you to open your phone and read the notification.
SMS notifications, meanwhile, are specific to your native messaging app. An SMS notification appears on your lock screen, usually with an opening snippet of the text message you’ve received.
Push notifications and SMS notifications can be used for similar purposes. However, the platforms used to send them are vastly different.
When deciding between the two, here are three points to consider:
If your business offers a mobile app or hosts a website, you may want to send out push notifications. If you don’t, SMS notifications are perfect for you.
To add push notifications to a web app, you must have a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. SMS notifications, on the other hand, can be sent without any coding experience. You can send your first message in just minutes.
When sending a text, the idea is to have customers read and respond to the message.
Push notifications take some of the effort off your customers’ plates by encouraging them to just tap the notification to head to your app or landing page.
Push notifications are convenient for one-way communication. If you need to provide customer service or want your users to be able to reply with questions or requests, you should probably use SMS notifications.
Our platform allows for two-way conversations. And, all incoming SMS messages are free!
While you’ll need an SMS marketing service to set up SMS notifications, push notifications simply require some coding to get started. If you already have developers on your team working on your app or website, you could ask them to integrate push notifications into that project. Of course, if you don’t have a dev team to turn to, an SMS service might end up being the cheaper option.
The extra coding represents a little more work on your part, but for brands on a budget, this could be a plus.
Effective notifications need to be sent to the right people at the right time. With our Zapier integration, you can trigger messages to be sent when events occur in other pieces of software that you use. For example, you can send SMS notifications via SimpleTexting to new Constant Contact contacts. Or send SMS notifications via SimpleTexting to new Shopify customers.
Do you have another question about push and SMS notifications? Find the answer here.
If you get an SMS notification when you get a voicemail, you may be using a voice over IP (VOIP) service that sends you an SMS notification or transcript. Alternatively, you might actually be getting a visual voicemail push notification that looks like an SMS notification because it contains the contents of your voicemail. Check the permissions for your voicemail, VOIP, and phone carrier apps to see where the message comes from.
MMS notifications are the same as SMS notifications, except they notify you of “Multimedia Messaging Service” (MMS) texts. These messages have longer character limits than SMS messages and the ability to include media like images and videos. In an MMS notification, you might see more text than an SMS notification and a media preview, depending on if the sender wrote a long or media-rich text.
Both SMS and push notifications require you to get the recipient’s consent before sending. The type of consent you need to send an SMS message depends on the nature of the message, but express written consent is the surest route. Meanwhile, push notifications require explicit consent, such as the user checking a box or pressing “Yes” on a prompt.
These types of push notifications differ based on platform. Web push notifications come from web browsers and can appear on mobile devices and computers. Mobile push notifications come from mobile apps, so they usually appear on mobile devices only.
The security of push notifications vs. SMS depends on the purpose you want to use them for. For example, push notifications work well for two-factor authentication because they have fewer points of breach, but their security for HIPAA compliance depends on the information included in the notification. If you plan on using push notifications or SMS messages to handle sensitive information, look into the regulations related to that information before sending.
Push and SMS notifications’ speed varies based on the connections available on the recipient’s phone. Push notifications tend to be more reliant on internet connections, while SMS notifications count on a steady data network connection. If speed is a factor in your decision, consider offering both options for customers who have issues with one connection over the other.
It’s easy to add SMS notifications to your brand. Our platform was designed from the ground up to be as simple to use as possible.
Sign up for a free 14-day trial to see how texts can benefit your business. With our SMS API, you can plug your website or app directly into our platform.
Alfredo Salkeld wrote this piece on 12/27/18. Lily Norton contributed.
Alfredo is SimpleTexting's brand manager. He's passionate about using his 10+ years of marketing experience to help small businesses grow.
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