In today’s world of products, notifications play a crucial role in engaging users. They connect users with products even when they are not actively using them, and they guide users towards tasks they can take action on when they return.
Notifications serve a dual purpose – they are the way we interact with products and the method that keeps users connected. Big Tech companies dedicate entire teams to building and maintaining in-house notification infrastructures. These systems increase user engagement and retention, but they require a lot of resources and effort to maintain. Investing so much in a notification infrastructure is not practical, even though it greatly affects user experience. Often, notification features are deprioritized in favor of the main product features. Over time, this leads to a complicated and messy codebase, which can become a technical burden. This is where Novu comes in. Novu provides simple components and APIs for managing all communication channels in one place – all without the need to create and maintain an in-house notifications infrastructure.

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What does Novu do?

Novu acts as a tool to improve how users communicate by sending notifications. It processes inputs from your product, directs them through Novu workflows, and disseminates notifications across in-app and external channels. The inputs are driven by the trigger and identify calls initiated in the Novu API by your development team. These inputs act as the foundation for workflows constructed in Novu by your product and growth teams. Once the necessary API calls are established between your system and Novu, even non-technical users can seamlessly craft and update notification routing and designs within minutes, without relying on engineers. Novu additionally empowers your team with insights into logs and analytics, facilitating rapid optimization toward a notification experience that resonates with your end users. Novu achieves notification delivery across both in-app and external channels. In the case of in-app channels, we offer pre-built components for promptly embedding a fully functional notification feed into your application within minutes. As for external channels, Novu seamlessly integrates with your existing providers – whether email, push, SMS services, or platforms like Slack and Apple Push Notification Service.

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Product vs. Promotional Notifications

Product Notifications
  • Triggered by subscriber events within your product or time-sensitive queries.
  • Notify one or many subscribers.
  • Typically transactional, such as order updates, password resets, or account verifications.
  • Can also be used to provide product updates, such as new features or bug fixes.
Promotional Notifications
  • Disseminated to specific user segments or prospects.
  • Centered on promoting products, services, or events.
  • Can be used to generate leads, increase sales, or drive engagement.
Key Differences
  • Product notifications are triggered by user activity, while promotional notifications are sent at the discretion of the marketer.
  • Product notifications are typically more transactional in nature, while promotional notifications are more marketing-oriented.
  • Product notifications are often sent to all subscribers, while promotional notifications can be targeted to specific audiences.
To ensure our alignment, please familiarize yourself with the terms that you are likely to come across while perusing this documentation or utilizing Novu.
TermDefinition
FeedA list of all In-App messages for a single subscriber.
MessageA content sent to a single subscriber over a single channel.
WorkflowA sequence of steps involved in sending messages, digesting multiple events in one, filtering & delaying.
NotificationA workflow run in the context of a single subscriber. A combination of messages sent to all activated channels.
Trigger EventAn execution of a workflow for a single or multiple subscribers from start to end.

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Novu For Developers

Novu is the first open-source notification infrastructure, built for engineering teams to help them build rich product notification experiences without constantly reinventing the wheel. Novu equips developers with a suite of tools that streamline the process of implementing a notifications engine into your product. We provide:
  • Backend API clients across multiple programming languages, seamlessly integrating Novu’s notifications infrastructure with your product.
  • Prebuilt components for crafting in-app user notification feeds and preference experiences with ease.
  • Integration with delivery providers, allowing you to continue using your preferred ones with Novu.
  • Scalable, reliable infrastructure developed from scratch to meet the demands of high-volume notification delivery and storage.
  • Comprehensive documentation, implementation guides, and illustrative examples.
  • Active and thriving engineering community, you’ll find collaboration, support, insightful discussions, and contributions that drive the ongoing enhancement of Novu’s open-source project.
  • Compliance and Security, Novu is not only open-source but also prioritizes compliance with industry standards and maintains robust security measures to protect your data.

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Novu For Users

Novu provides your users with the notifications experience they expect from the greatest products they use today: tailored, on time, and sent to the right channel with no duplicates. We provide an extensive range of features that continue to evolve with each new use case and innovative idea. Our mission is to simplify meaningful communication between you and your users.

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Novu For Non-Technical Teams

Novu simplifies notification management, granting non-technical team members the autonomy to initiate and refine notifications autonomously. This intuitive dashboard serves as a powerhouse for product and growth teams, enabling seamless enhancements and iterative improvements to the user-centric notification experience. Through this versatile tool, you’ll be able to:
  • Effortlessly craft and modify notifications, including their underlying logic.
  • Seamlessly test and fine-tune notification settings.
  • Attain valuable insights into user engagement with notifications.
  • Streamline the debugging process for notifications sent to users.