How to clean up inactive devices automatically

Sometimes you may notice that the number of registered devices in Pushwoosh is larger than in your own CRM or Business Intelligence tool. The reason for that is usually the accumulation of outdated and invalid devices.

The most effective way to keep your user base up-to-date is to send broadcast notifications to the entire audience every once in a while. When you send a broadcast campaign, all push tokens in your user base are validated by Apple and Firebase notification services. If there are any invalid push tokens detected, Pushwoosh removes them from your user base.

However, if you are only sending transactional or segmented notifications to small parts of your user base, this may contribute to accumulation of inactive devices, since Pushwoosh cannot validate your entire user base effectively enough.

To keep your user base up to date without sending any broadcast campaigns, you can use silent pushes. Silent pushes were designed to pass data to apps remotely without users being aware of that, meaning that such pushes are absolutely invisible to users — but they still validate every push token they are sent to.

Step 1. Create a preset with a silent push

1. Select your project and go to Content > Presets, then add a new preset.
2. Specify the platform — iOS or Android only. Web and desktop platforms do not support silent pushes.
3. Add a title and a message (users will not see them, so any test copy will do), then check the Silent Push checkbox.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and save the preset.

Step 2. Send it on a schedule from a Customer Journey

There is no separate Autopush section any more — recurring sends are built as a campaign. A recurring schedule is only available with an Audience-based entry.

1. Go to Campaigns > Customer Journey Builder and create a campaign.
2. Add an Audience-based entry element and pick a segment covering your whole user base.
3. In that element set Entry schedule to Recurring entry → Periodically, and set ENTRY EVERY to the interval you want. Once a week is a good starting point.
4. Add a Push element and select the silent push preset you saved. Check that the message preview is empty.
5. Add an Exit element and click Launch campaign.

From then on the silent push goes out on the schedule you set, and every invalid or non-existent token it hits is removed from your user base.

If you also want to pass custom data to the app in the same send, use the Data to app element instead of the Push element — it sends a silent push with the JSON payload you provide.