After surveying nearly 600 developers, product professionals, and notification consumers, we’ve uncovered valuable insights into how teams approach notifications today. While some results confirmed what we already suspected, a few standout revelations have major implications for how notifications are built and managed. This post will dive into the high-level themes, development challenges, and product teams’ critical role in effectively managing notifications.

High-level themes: what we learned

The survey data revealed some overarching trends, including a few “wow” findings. Here are the key takeaways.

1. Engineers are spending too much time dealing with notifications.
   • 37% of developers admitted they are “winging it” when it comes to managing notification systems. They do no research before building notifications. The rest rely largely on news aggregators like dev.to, various open source communities, help sites, and social media.
   • Developers spend significantly more time on notifications development and maintenance, and comparatively very little tome on steps like requirements gathering and testing.
2. Product and development teams align on some challenges but differ significantly on others.
   • 43% of developers vs. 24% of product teams worry about customization, reflecting the technical complexity of notifications.
   • Surprisingly**, 40% of developers** vs. only 3% of product teams prioritize a consistent user experience.
3. Javascript and React dominate the notification landscape.
   • 87% of developers are using or want to use JavaScript frameworks for notifications.
   • 72% of developers are already working or want to work with React.
4. User control is critical.
   • Both developers and product teams agree: users should have significant control over their notification preferences.
   • 93% of respondents believe notifications need to be more context-aware. Customization is king, which is a bit of a contradiction, given product teams downplayed content customization, while development teams prioritized it.

Notification development challenges: developers under pressure

Developers are feeling the strain when it comes to building and maintaining notification systems. Here are the specific challenges they face.

Excessive time spent on notifications

Developers are not only building notifications but also maintaining them over time. Many teams lack the infrastructure or processes to make this more efficient, resulting in developers spending too much time on tasks that could be automated or managed elsewhere.

Key data:

• 71% of developers are involved in ongoing maintenance and content updates for notifications.
• 37% admitted to “winging it” without a clear strategy or process for managing notifications.

Tool confusion

• Many teams are unsure which tools to use for notification delivery. Respondents frequently cited different platforms such as Novu, SNS, and FCM, but it’s clear that there is no consensus on which solution is best for managing notifications efficiently.
• Tools mentioned include Novu, SNS, and FCM, showing a fragmented landscape where teams struggle to compare capabilities effectively.

Developer involvement required for content

• Despite content updates traditionally being a product or marketing role, developers often find themselves responsible for updating notification content. This cross-functional dependency is not ideal and highlights the need for clearer content management processes.
• 71% of product teams need to work directly with developers to update notification content.

The customization imperative

• Developers are strong advocates of user-driven customization. They believe that users should have control over how and when they receive notifications, as well as the ability to choose channels.
• 43% of developers prioritize customization as a major challenge, compared to only 24% of product teams.

The role of product teams: strategy and personalization

While developers face the technical challenges of notifications, product teams focus on compliance, user experience, and strategy. Here’s how product teams view notifications:

Less concerned with customization mechanics

• Product teams are less worried about the technical aspects of customization, such as content hydration or platform consistency, but they still acknowledge the importance of significant personalization to create effective notifications.
• Only 3% of product teams prioritize consistency across platforms compared to 40% of developers.

Reliance on development for content updates

• Product teams frequently have to rely on developers to update notification content. This reliance on the dev team not only slows down the process but also adds to the workload for engineers.

• 71% of product teams report needing developer support to update notifications, despite advances in automation.

Focus on personalization and compliance

• Product teams see personalization and user experience as key to building successful notification systems, and they also emphasize the need for compliance with industry regulations.
• Significant personalization is seen as a critical factor by both developers and product teams, with a particular focus on user engagement and compliance.

Emerging trends: what’s next for notifications?

Notifications are evolving rapidly, and both developers and product teams are looking toward the future with a clear vision of what’s next. Here are the most important trends:

Hyper-personalization

• Customization at an individual level, driven by AI and machine learning, will allow notifications to become more relevant and engaging.

Context awareness

• 93% of respondents believe notifications should be more context-aware, ensuring users receive relevant messages at the right time and place.

Interactivity and user control

• Notifications are moving beyond static alerts. Increasing interactivity and giving users control over how they receive messages are key to keeping users engaged and satisfied.

Advanced customization through analytics

• Developers and product teams agree that the best use of analytics is to drive advanced customization and personalization.
• 93% of respondents say notifications need to be more context-aware.
• AI and Machine Learning are highly desired for predictive notifications and a more user-centric experience.

Conclusion: bridging the gap between development and product teams

The survey results reveal a notification ecosystem that is still maturing. Developers are spending too much time on notification maintenance, while product teams depend heavily on their technical counterparts to manage content updates. However, both groups agree on the critical importance of user control, personalization, and context awareness.

Businesses that need notifications capabilities should focus on:

• Reducing the time developers spend on notifications through better tools and automation.
• Empowering product teams to manage content independently without needing constant developer involvement.
• Embracing the latest trends, such as AI-driven notifications, to create a user-centric, personalized experience.

The future of notifications is bright, but teams need to align on strategy, tools, and user experience to truly succeed.

Coming up next…

We’re cranking through the data and will publish the full report in a few weeks. Additionally, we’ll write a end consumer-focused piece.

Here’s a consumer survey result teaser

• Rumors of email’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
• Fully 80% of respondents placed email in their top three of most useful notification types.
• 75% of notification consumers indicated that widgets were their least preferred notification type.

A note about our methodology

We posed an 85-question survey comprised of five sections:

• Demographics (Geography, company size., role, experience, etc.)
• Development team questions
• Product team questions
• Notification consumer questions
• Contest entry

While this is not a fully scientific survey, we did our best to ensure the results were not heavily skewed based on a vendor relationship. Survey fills were solicited through a variety of social media and community platforms including LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Reddit, and Discord. Users were not informed of any survey completeness requirement for contest entry or consideration.

We’ll make additional improvements for the 2025 edition.