They are always popping up – that small window that asks you whether or not you’d like to enable push notifications. They are a minor annoyance when you’re first downloading a mobile application or visiting a random website. However, not all app notifications are created equal. Push notifications can actually be a useful feature when it comes to team messaging applications.

A huge difference between a messaging application as opposed to any other apps is that you know for certain that you aren’t receiving spam. Every notification that shows up on the screen is directly targeted to you. You aren’t receiving completely automated and impersonal notifications like you would be for other apps.

Push notifications are all in real-time, so these alerts help everyone stay in sync and up-to-date. This is essential in a team because having on the go and timely updates at all times can really help efficiency.

The aspects of push notifications including alerts, sounds, and icon badges all work together to keep you informed. They wake up the application and are also meant to wake you up about what’s going on. This way, relevant content is always delivered right to you. According to a study published by the Association for Computing Machinery, “notifications have become a major feature of many smart phone applications, enabling the application to interact with the user when it is not running in the foreground.”

However, notifications aren't just a feature for phone apps anymore. Push notifications also have the ability to stream across different devices. This means that when you’re not on your cellphone, you are still able to see what’s occurring on when you’re on your laptop. You can reliably receive updates at any time when you’re in the office.

When it comes to team messaging applications, these notifications aren’t too pushy. They can be more helpful than you think. What's the takeway? We recommend that when using Team.biz you keep notifications enabled. We believe that even if you didn't find notifications from other apps particularly useful, it is different for a messaging platform and will help you use the app more productively.