Gartner 2018 report: Mobile notifications record strong growth

Notifications are the number one global gateway to news platforms as publishers harness the potential of AI.

The Gartner Digital News Report 2018 reaffirms that Mobile notifications continue to gain in importance. However, some users complain they are being overwhelmed with too many notifications. This appears to be partly because of the growth of alerts from aggregators.

The fastest growing gateway to news over the last three years has been mobile news alerts. These resonate with younger users who frequently start their day with the lock screen. Picking up on this opportunity, publishers have been sending more alerts on a wider range of subjects. They are also starting to use artificial intelligence (AI) to make them more relevant. In the last year we have seen strong growth in Latin America, Spain, and most of Asia. Access has been stable in the US, UK, and much of Europe after two strong years of growth.

Credit: Gartner Digital News 2018 Report

One key question for news companies is whether consumers are receiving too many alerts from too many different providers. Data from Gartner’s report show that for those receiving alerts the average number of organisations sending alerts is highest in Hong Kong (5.6) and lowest in the UK (3.1), with an average of 4.2 across all markets.

One reason for these relatively high numbers is that aggregators like Apple News and Upday are now sending alerts automatically in addition to individual news providers. This has increased the number of alerts but also the number of duplicate alerts – and also let to some confusion about where alerts may come from.

“I don’t know the name of the app. I have an app on my phone, it was already there from the beginning, and breaking news notifications pop up there like when I get a message.”

(Female, 20-29, Germany)

Across all markets twice as many people say they get too many news alerts (21%) as too few (10%, though the majority (65%) still feel they are getting the right amount.

Only in the UK do more people say they would like to get more alerts than fewer. This is likely to be partly because the BBC News app, which sends alerts to around 5m people, is relatively restrained.

Around four in ten of those not using alerts (37%) say that nothing would persuade them to sign up. But there are opportunities amongst other smartphone users who are interested in news but so far have been reluctant to sign up. The main barriers are the fear of being bombarded with notifications (18%), and concern about receiving the same alert multiple times (16%).

Read the rest of Gartner's findings in the 2018 report: http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/