We (Rhode Tour) have a few questions regarding interconnectivity features for our curatescape website and app. They’re both feature questions/requests and functionality inquiries. I’ve detailed them below.
-On several of our tours, we want to link to items/pins on another tour. E.g. “For more information on industrial heritage visit the Gorham Silver pin on…” For now, we make these connections via hyperlink. Is there a way that we can do so with the user remaining in the app? Right now, by using hyperlinks, it takes the user out of the app and to the web-version, when we want to connect content.
-Is there a way that when a user accesses our curatescape website on their mobile device we can prompt them to download the app version? For an example, try using Yelp on your cell. Right at the top there is a button for “open in app.” Social media sites use this strategy as well.
-It would be great to have “customizable” push notifications on the app. This isn’t currently a feature, correct? One thing we’d love to do is ping individuals who have the app downloaded to tell them that there is new content available.
Hi @loganhinderliter, thanks for the notes. It’s always helpful to have concrete requests from existing project teams. See detailed responses below and feel free to follow up.
“Download the app” prompt on website
Currently, when an iPhone user arrives to the website, there is a “smart banner” that asks the user if they would like to download the app. The user can install the app directly if they wish. If they dismiss the banner, it will not appear again, unless they clear their browser cookies.
Android does not offer a native method to do the same thing on that platform and, given the SEO and user experience implications, we do not throw up a “download the app” modal or anything like that. If Android ever adds a native equivalent to smart banners, we will add it to the theme.
The new theme does include prominent links to the apps in the sidebar menu and global footer, so users who want to install the app can easily do so.
Some related issues are covered below.
Internal content links
In order to add internal content links, we’ll need to redevelop the apps to support deep linking. This will allow for both internal links between items in the app and also the extension of the iOS smart banners to add an “open” link to a specific location in the app from a user’s mobile web browser. This is currently under consideration as we begin developing the next version in the coming months.
Push Notifications
This is something we’ll be looking into as we work on the redesign.
In general, we plan to focus our near term attention on fleshing out the visual design, improving the navigation, and adding discovery features that will make it easier to browse/search/separate new, featured, and nearby stories, which should improve user engagement and allow for more effective content promotion. Stay tuned.