Large-scale deployment in a commercial app · 2018
Real-world large-scale study on adaptive notification scheduling on smartphones
Okoshi T, Tsubouchi K, Tokuda H
What it found
Tests whether holding notifications until a sensed 'opportune moment' works inside a real product used by very large numbers of people, with changing contexts, personalised content and breaking news. Delivering at those moments made people respond faster and open more.
Where the evidence stops
The outcome is opening and clicking, which is engagement, not benefit to the person. Transfer from news notifications to personal guidance is an assumption.
How it shapes Pursue
Pursue
Supports timing as a lever; also a reminder that faster opening is not the outcome Pursue is judged on.
A design input, not evidence that Pursue works.
Cited in
- 01When is the right moment for a reminder or a nudge?When the person is able to take it in, which changes from moment to moment. In a trial with 1,255 users of a workplace well-being app (Bidargaddi et al., 2018), the same message made people about 4% more likely to use the app in the next day, and about 12% more likely at 12:30 on weekends.Timing and receptivity
- 02Do reminder apps change what people do, or just how often they open the app?Often only the second. In a six-month University of Michigan trial with 287 adults with high blood pressure (Golbus et al., 2026), notifications made people use the app more but did not raise steps in the next hour or improve food choices the next day. Opening an app is engagement, not benefit.Engagement is not benefit