30

Build in-app messages

How it works

An in-app message provides all of your message content, including the text areas you can customize when you create a message in Customer.io.

When you set up an in-app message, you’ll add basic components like text and images. You’ll wrap these items in actions to make them tappable. You’ll wrap items in blocks, lists, and grids to organize the layout of your message. You can wrap items in multiple containers, for example: a button in your message that takes a person to a deep link is an action (deep link), containing a block (defining the shape of the button), containing a text component (button text).

Create a message...	and use it in a campaign

In-App message code

You can use the Show Code option to expose the JSON representation of your message.

Your message is an array of objects, where each object represents a part of your message. Some items, like actions and blocks, contain nested components. You might use the code editor to rearrange your message by moving components in and out of blocks, or moving them up or down in the array.

Each component has a type and a gist object, both are required and set automatically by the editor.

• type determines the type of widget you’re using in the editor—textWidget, imageWidget, actionWidget, etc.
• gist is an object containing a unique id for the widget.

Set up an in-app message

Before you can create your first message, you must have set up your brand styles. When you create a message, you can choose from a template, which has components already laid out for you, or start with a Blank message.

1. Go to the Messages tab under Content > In-App Messages and click New Message.
2. Choose a message template or click Blank to start fresh.
3. Give the message a Name and click Create Message. The name is how you’ll select your in-app message in Customer.io. You might want to make the name descriptive and unique, so it’s easy to select your messages in Customer.io later.
4. Add components to your messages. By default, a component only shows required fields.
   • Use $properties.<var> to add variables to your message that you can supply in Customer.io. For example, $properties.name creates a field called Name in Customer.io
   • Click to reveal additional properties for the component.
   • Click Actions in the upper-right of any component to change the order of components, wrap them in blocks, actions, etc.

As you create and update your message, we’ll show how it will appear in your app or on your website.

Customizing messages with variables

You can customize text in your message by adding $properties.<variableName> a text component’s text field. You can include as many variables as you like, and even simply set a variable name for an entire block if you want to give message creators control over the text that they send in messages. You can use the same variable multiple times if you want to duplicate variable text in your message.

When you create and populate your messages, you can use liquidA syntax that supports variables, letting you personalize messages for your audience. For example, if you want to reference a person’s first name, you might use the variable {{customer.first_name}}. to use your audience’s attributes or event data—like a person’s name or the items they left in their cart. In the example below, we use a variable in an in-app message called $properties.name to add a field called name when you use the message in a campaign or broadcast.

Organizing your message

While Text and Image components make up your message content, you’ll organize these granular items into containers to adjust the layout of your message. You can also wrap components in actions to determine what happens when someone taps a part of your message.

in-app messages are flexible: you can nest some containers inside each other. In this section, we’ll show a few common arrangements that you’ll use to create buttons, carousels, and so on.

Links

A link is an action containing text. The action determines what happens when someone taps the text—whether the link goes to a website, somewhere in your app, a mail application, etc.

Buttons

A button consists of three items, nested in this order—action, block, and text:

1. Action: this determines what happens when someone taps the button.
2. Block: this provides the button shape, defining the tappable area.
3. Text: the text for the button. You could substitute an icon or markdown for button text.

Click to style your block and text. You’ll probably want to add a background to the button and center your button text.

Remember, if you want to personalize the text for your buttons when you create your message, use the syntax $properties.fieldname. When you create your message in Customer.io, you’ll see a fieldname that you can personalize with liquidA syntax that supports variables, letting you personalize messages for your audience. For example, if you want to reference a person’s first name, you might use the variable {{customer.first_name}}. or otherwise change so that it’s relevant to your message!

Arrange items horizontally

You can place buttons next to each other on the same row using a grid or a horizontal list. Here, we’ve wrapped two buttons in a horizontal list that’s centered with Main Alignment set to Space Evenly. This center-aligns buttons for you.

You might do this to create an action button and a button that dismisses your message.

Carousel

A carousel is content that users can swipe without dismissing your message. You might use a carousel to showcase new features, provide a tutorial, etc.

You’ll use a Fixed horizontal scroll widget containing at least two components. You can even wrap items in the carousel in actions, so that each item in your carousel performs a different action.

Message component reference

When you add a component or container, we show required settings by default. Click to show additional options. You can also click Show Code to add or edit components in JSON.

Component properties are largely CSS-based. If you’re familiar with CSS, you should be able to manipulate message components.

Text

A text component represents any text in your message—headings, body, footers, etc. Use $properties.<variableName> to add a customizable variable to your message. when someone uses your message in a campaign or broadcast workflow, they’ll see a field called <variableName> that they can personalize for your audience.

Press to expose options to style your text.

{
	"type": "textWidget",
	"text": "$properties.name",
	"style": "bodyText",
	"color": "black",
	"textAlign": "left",
	"maxLines": 1,
	"overflow": "ellipsis"
}

Image

Upload an image for your message. Click the downarrow to reveal additional properties determining the width of your image, how it should fit the bounds of the message, whether it should fade in, etc.

Press to expose options helping you style your image and fit it to your message.

{
	"type": "imageWidget",
	"image": "$properties.imageUrl",
	"fit": "cover",
	"height": 50,
	"width": 50,
	"cornerRadius": 25,
	"fadeInDuration": 200
}

Icon

The Icon widget displays an icon from an icon font. You must load fonts in the assets section of your app configuration to show icon fonts.

{
	"type": "IconWidget",
	"color": "black",
	"font": "IconFont-One",
	"size": 18,
	"value": "\e012"
}

Action

An Action determines what happens when someone taps one or more components in your message. You might use an action to send someone to a link in your app, an external link, etc. When you add an action, you’ll determine the action and then add components inside the action.

We support the following actions:

• iOS/Android deep link: Sends a person to a deep link in your app. You’ll need to know the deep link format and screen you want to send a person to.
• Close message: Dismisses the in-app message.
• Link to web page: Sends the message recipient to a web page in their default browser.
• Link to web page (new tab) or mobile app (deep link): Sends a person to a deep link in your app or a webpage (if you use Universal Links). You’ll need to know the deep link format and screen you want to send a person to.
• Show another message: Change the content of your message when someone interacts with it.
• Custom action: Set up an action handled directly by your app. See the section below for more information.

If you use the Show Code option, the action is the link. You can set a behavior key determining how to handle the action. See the schema below for available values.

{
	"type": "actionWidget",
	"action": "myApp://homepage",
	"behaviour": "push",
	"component": {}
}

Custom actions

Unlike other actions, which do something predefined by our SDKs, you can also set up “Custom Actions”—this is custom code that you want to execute when someone interacts with your message. For example, if you send an in-app message requesting that your audience opts-into push notifications, you might execute custom code to trigger the operating system’s native opt-in prompt. Custom actions give you the flexibility to handle your audience’s responses to messages in ways that fit your app uniquely.

Our SDKs expose an in-app event listener called messageActionTaken. You’ll set up your app to listen for this event and the custom actionName or actionValue that you set. When it occurs, you’ll execute custom code in your app. See the in-app pages for our SDKs to learn more about in-app event listeners and set up your first custom action.

Dismissing messages with custom actions

All of our SDKs expose methods to listen for the actions people take when they interact with your messages and methods to dismiss the message. If you use custom actions, you’ll need to make sure that your app or website does the following things to execute custom actions and dismiss messages appropriately:

1. Listen for the custom action (either by event.actionName or event.actionValue).
2. Perform your custom action—this is your own code.
3. Use the dismissMessage method to stop showing the message to your audience. See relevant documentation for our SDKs for more information about event listeners and dismissing messages.

Block

A block is a group of components that you apply a design to. You might group components to set a background image, apply rounded corners, etc. The only required property is the list of components you want to nest inside the block.

{
	"type": "blockWidget",
	"safeInsets": false,
	"padding": ["m","m","m",""],
	"backgroundColor": "white",
	"borderColor": "black",
	"borderWidth": 1,
	"borderRadius": 10,
	"height": 150,
	"backgroundImage": "$properties.backgroundImage",
	"flex": 1,
	"components": []
}

The Flex property

The flex property is an integer that defines the proportion of two or more blocks in a horizontal list. Using the advanced banner example from our Template Library, we can show the same banner with three different pairs of flex values.

1:1

3:1

9:1

Vertical List

While elements in your message are typically displayed top-to-bottom, a vertical list helps you align these items. You can set up vertical lists to control the vertical layout of your message.

{
	"type": "fixedListWidget",
	"mainAxisAlignment": "start",
	"crossAxisAlignment": "center",
	"components": [{},{}]
}

Horizontal List

A horizontal list lays out components horizontally, letting you set the alignment of the items in the list.

{
	"type": "fixedHorizontalListWidget",
	"mainAxisAlignment": "start",
	"crossAxisAlignment": "center",
	"components": [{},{}]
}

Horizontal Scroll List (Carousel)

A horizontal scroll list is essentially a carousel. It displays one component at a time, and users can swipe items in the horizontal list to see different components. The horizontal scroll list takes up the entire width of the parent list, block, or grid.

{
	"type": "fixedHorizontalListScrollWidget",
	"height": 150,
	"components": [{},{}]
}

Horizontal Grid

A grid is like a horizontal list, except that you can control the padding between elements and the aspect ratio of items in the grid. This allows you to customize your layout with tall, skinny grids or short, long grids. By default, A grid’s aspect ratio is 1.0 making it similar to a horizontal list, though you can control the padding between elements.

{
	"type": "fixedGridWidget",
	"itemPadding": "xs",
	"columns": 2,
	"childAspectRatio": 1.5,
	"components": [{},{}]
}

Conditional

Use a conditional to show or hide parts of your message based on a true/false condition.

There are three fields to complete when using a conditional component:

• Condition: The function that you want to evaluate as “true” or “false”. The condition field supports: >, <, == & in. If you don’t specify an operator, the condition will check if the property is null.
• If True: The components that you want to display when the condition is true.
• If False: The the components that you want to display when the condition is false.

When building your message, entering 1 == 1 is an easy way to force the condition to true and 1 == 0 will force it to false. When you’re set with the design, replace the condition with $properties.condition_field == MATCH-VALUE. This adds a field called Condition Field to your in-app messages which you can then configure with static or dynamic values from the campaign or broadcast. If the value matches, the True section will show to the recipient. Otherwise, the False section will show.