On October 25th, 2018, that Android will discontinue support for Nearby Notifications from December 6th, 2018, citing misuse of the service resulting in irrelevant and spammy marketing messages being delivered as notifications on Android phones. Google announced It is unfortunate that Google chose to entirely shutter the service instead of working on improving the end-user experience and implementing mechanisms that can easily and effectively address the spam problem. Throughout the time Nearby Notifications was in existence, Google made almost no effort to improve documentation or clarify to marketers how best to make content relevant and timely. Nevertheless, this was an important innovation in the proximity marketing space, and we thank Google for its efforts. Does this mean proximity marketing is no longer viable? . Physical stores continue to exist and ad relevance is crucial especially because of how important customer delight is over mere customer satisfaction. said they would prefer ads that are tailored to their personalized interests and relevant to where they are. Proximity marketing is more relevant than ever 71% of respondents Google Nearby was just one of the many channels available to receive beacon notifications. What’s next for beacons? Although Google Nearby Notifications will be discontinued, here are exciting alternatives that address all of the issues with Google Nearby while still delivering a great consumer experience: Beacon integration with your brand app NearBee app for Android (scans for Physical Web notifications) Let’s evaluate each of these options for your business – 1. Have a brand app for Android and iOS users? Leverage beacons inside your app Beacon campaigns integrated with brand apps are the best performers. This is because these campaigns are extremely relevant and contextual. Also, the user has absolute control over what notifications she receives — either turn off notifications or uninstall the app if they find it irrelevant. Related: How to run proximity marketing campaigns with your brand app on iOS and Android devices 3. NearBee for iOS and Android users: The best alternative to Google Nearby B initially released on iOS was created to circumvent a two-fold problem. iPhone users had to download different apps for different businesses in order to receive beacon notifications and brands had to create an app that could scan for beacons and deliver notifications, a tedious task requiring significant developer effort. eaconstac’s NearBee app was created to deliver the perfect beacon marketing experience on both Android and iOS. NearBee Why is NearBee superior to Google Nearby? NearBee solves all the problems that Google Nearby Notifications may have posed. It is intuitive, gives the user a rich experience and is contextually relevant. On Google’s Nearby service, all notifications are silent notifications delivered directly to the notification tray. That means a user can potentially miss out on a relevant opportunity because the notifications do not send them any sort of alert. 1. NearBee delivers active notifications However, with NearBee, users are alerted either through a vibration or an audible alert when they receive notifications. This means they will no longer miss relevant notifications or miss out on exciting deals and offers. On Nearby, all a user was able to see was a title and a description which would most likely be cut off because of the character limit and not know what the notification was about until they clicked on it. 2. NearBee delivers a rich user experience unlike Google Nearby Notifications On NearBee, the user is able to see the entirety of the campaign by force-touching the notification which lets them know what is around them without having to open another tab on their smartphone 3. NearBee does not send duplicate notifications Google Nearby notifications may have been a source of annoyance to several consumers because as long as they were in the range of a beacon, they would keep receiving the same notification over and over even if they did not find it useful or relevant. However with NearBee, once a consumer opens a notification, they will not be bothered by that same notification again unless they re-enter the range of the beacon. For instance, if a user is in a cafe all day long, he/she will not receive the same notification once it has been viewed. 4. NearBee delivers notifications to the lock screen Google Nearby notifications were only available in the Nearby section of settings and did not appear on the lock screen. But, with NearBee notifications appear on the lock screen of Android and iOS devices. all Give NearBee a shot now, and tell us what you think we can do better. We look forward to working with all ecosystem players to accelerate proximity marketing around the world. NearBee for Android | NearBee for iOS Talk to us about how you can make the shift from using Google’s Nearby service to NearBee for Android. What are the other proximity marketing options? In our continued mission to enhance proximity marketing for you, we have introduced other proximity marketing technologies such as NFC and QR codes. Unlike beacons, they do not require an app. Learn more about and using Beaconstac. We also have a . NFC marketing QR code marketing 14-day free trial for you to get started Originally published on blog.beaconstac.com .

Google just killed Android Nearby Notifications. What’s next for proximity marketing using beacons?

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