Why is my 'Recipients' count much lower than my 'Sent' count for push notifications?

It's common to see a difference between the 'Sent' and 'Recipients' metrics for your push notification campaigns. Here's a breakdown of why this happens:

1. 'Sent' Metric: This number represents the total count of messages successfully sent from Pushwoosh to the push gateway (like APNS for iOS or FCM for Android) for all devices targeted in your segment that had a valid push token at the time of sending.

2. 'Recipients' Metric: This number counts only the users within your target segment whose devices have push notification alerts enabled for your app. These are the users who can actually see the notification banner/alert on their device.

The Key Difference: The main reason for a lower 'Recipients' count compared to 'Sent' is user permissions. A message might be 'Sent' to a device, but if the user has disabled push notification alerts for your app in their device settings, they won't be counted as a 'Recipient' because the alert won't be displayed visibly.

• Essentially, 'Sent' includes all targeted devices with valid tokens.
• 'Recipients' includes only those 'Sent' devices where the user has also granted permission for your app to show notifications.

What about 'Delivered'? You might also see a 'Delivered' metric. This tracks messages successfully received by the device itself. However, achieving accurate delivery tracking requires specific SDK configurations (like implementing the Notification Service Extension for iOS) and can be affected by device-level factors like battery optimization modes (Android Doze, iOS DASD) or background process limitations.

How to Improve Recipient Rate: Since you cannot remotely change a user's device settings, consider using In-App Messages to encourage users who have disabled notifications to re-enable them. You can create a targeted in-app message explaining the value of your notifications and include a button that directs users to their device's notification settings page for your app.

• Learn how to create In-App messages: Create In-Apps Documentation
• See an example campaign: How to Create a Re-engagement Campaign