What is an in-app messaging platform and why do you need it?

Capturing audiences to engage with your product is one thing — but to keep that same audience engaged is another thing entirely.

In-app messaging is the hottest new method of customer engagement, with SMS and email engagement campaigns taking a secondary role.

Don’t sleep on this cutting-edge innovation of user engagement! Here are 10 of the best in-app messaging platforms in 2024!

Overview of the best in-app messaging platform in 2024

• In-app messaging is the process of communicating with users who are currently using your product. They prompt users toward desirable actions, provide contextual support, and inform users of product updates.
• In-app messaging platforms are tools that enable you to communicate and engage with your users.
• In-app messages and push notifications are different in two significant ways: firstly, in-app messaging caters to users in the product while push notifications cater to those outside the product; secondly, in-app messages are often used for guidance while push notifications are employed for re-engagement.

Here are the top 10 in-app messaging platforms of our choice:

1. Userpilot is the best in-app messaging solution for SaaS web apps.
2. Airship is the best in-app messaging platform for mobile applications.
3. CleverTap is the best platform for creating basic in-app messages.
4. MoEngage is the best AI-powered in-app messaging platform.
5. UserGuiding is the best in-app messaging solution for small companies.
6. Whatfix is the best for creating in-app messages for employee onboarding.
7. CometChat is the best for sending audio and video in-app messages.
8. Pushwoosh is the best for integrating in-app messages into omnichannel campaigns.
9. Leanplum is the best in-app messaging strategy optimization platform.
10. Intercom is the best chatbot tool for in-app messaging.

• Sign up for a free Userpilot demo today and reap the benefits of in-app messaging today!

What is in-app messaging?

In-app messaging is the process of communicating with users who are currently using your app.

These messages often pop up as users actively engage with your product for a variety of reasons. Examples include: prompting users toward desirable actions, providing contextual support, informing users of an important service update, new features, and other useful cases.

What’s an in-app messaging platform?

In-app messaging platforms take different tools together in a singular platform. These tools come with a variety of key functionalities. These include but aren’t limited to:

• No code builder. In-app messaging platforms come out of the box with codeless, visual builders that lower the barrier of entry without compromising quality and efficacy. No code builders give small teams the capacity to create engagement campaigns without needing coding knowledge.
• Personalization capabilities. By employing user segmentation, in-app messaging platforms can send highly relevant content to customers, effectively personalizing their experience.
• User behavior tracking capabilities. Platforms can use behavioral tracking to understand audience behaviors and adjust messages to create a better app experience. You can also use this data to engage users based on preferences tripped by behavioral triggers.
• Experimentation tools. In-app messaging platforms can take advantage of testing tools like A/B and multivariate experimentation with their in-app messages. Experiment with copies or elements and switch to those that attain goal completion most effectively.
• User feedback collection tools. In-app messaging platforms often come with customer feedback collection tools to ascertain customer sentiment on flows.

In-app messaging solutions vs push notifications services

Tools that enable in-app messaging work differently compared to tools that employ push notifications. There are marked differences between these two tools. For instance:

• In-app messaging engages users who are already interacting with the product, unlike push notifications that engage users who are currently outside the product. Additionally;
• In-app messages are often used to guide users while using the product, whereas push notifications are mainly used to grab the attention of previously engaged users back to the app.

It’s important to note that both have their specific uses, and teams don’t need to opt for one over the other.

10 Best in-app messaging platforms in 2024

In-app messaging platforms come in different shapes and sizes.

To help you narrow your decision, here are 10 of the best in-app messaging platforms in the market this 2024!

1. Userpilot – the best in-app messaging solution for SaaS web apps

Userpilot is a digital adoption platform that enables non-technical teams to create personalized in-app experiences to increase growth metrics at every stage of the user journey.

Key app features

Here’s a brief overview of Userpilot’s in-app messaging features:

• Different in-app messaging formats: Userpilot comes with a variety of in-app message formats you can employ for different use cases. For instance, modals fill the screen for big announcements such as major feature releases. Conversely, tooltips are subtle patterns to guide without disrupting the user. Other formats included are slideouts, checklists, banners, and hotspots.

• Contextual triggers: With in-app event tracking coupled with user segmentation, teams can guarantee the right messages will target the right users and increase the likelihood of engagement.

• AI writing assistant: Userpilot’s AI writing assistant can enhance your product copy by rephrasing, shortening, or making it longer to increase readability and boost user engagement as a result.

• A/B and multivariate testing for in-app messaging campaigns: Userpilot allows the creation of different variants of upsell messages. You can run experiments with small samples of users, and then utilize the variant that resulted in more conversions.

Pricing

Here’s an overview of Userpilot’s pricing plans:

• Starter: The entry-level Starter plan starts at $249/month and includes features like segmentation, product analytics, reporting, user engagement, NPS feedback, and customization.
• Growth: The Growth plan starts at $749/month and includes features like resource centers, advanced event-based triggers, unlimited feature tagging, AI-powered content localization, EU hosting options, and a dedicated customer success manager.
• Enterprise: The Enterprise plan uses custom pricing and includes all the features from Starter + Growth plus custom roles/permissions, access to premium integrations, priority support, custom contract, SLA, SAML SSO, activity logs, security audit, and compliance (SOC 2/GDPR).

2. Airship – best in-app messaging platform for mobile applications

Airship is a full lifecycle marketing platform built specifically for mobile applications.

Key Features

Here’s a summary of Airship’s in-app messaging features:

• In-app guidance. Scenes are Airship’s no-code in-app guidance tool, enabling teams to create in-app guides without requiring extensive coding knowledge. Create different guides for users based on need, from onboarding guides for new users to adoption guides for users looking into new features.
• Stories. Airship’s stories feature are like mobile carousels similar to Meta’s Facebook or Instagram stories. Teams can use GIFs or include CTA links on their carousel. With segmentation and targeting, Teams can tailor carousels with relevant messages targeted at specific customers at just the right time.
• Live activities. Instead of bombarding users with different push notifications, the live activities feature updates users from their mobile’s lock screen. Users can witness real-time updates for whatever case: orders, travel time, scoreboards, or whichever.

Pricing

Airship’s AXP Enterprise is a paid plan that is available upon request. A lite version, AXP Essentials, is available for free.

3. CleverTap – best platform for creating basic in-app messages

CleverTap is a customer engagement and lifecycle management software with in-app messaging capabilities for mobile marketing.

Key Features

Here’s a rundown of CleverTap’s in-app messaging features:

• Drag and drop editor. Build in-app messages with ease using CleverTap’s drag-and-drop editor. You can also use message templates to create in-app messages to customize wherever you see fit.
• Personalized messages. CleverTap can assist teams’ personalization efforts by using a user’s profile, location, or special events.

Pricing

CleverTap offers three paid plans. Its most basic plan, Essentials, starts at $75/month for up to 5,000 monthly active users (MAUs). The price for the plan increases with more MAUs. CleverTap’s other two plans, Advanced and Cutting Edge, are available upon request.

CleverTap also offers a 30-day free trial for apps with less than 100,000 MAUs.

4. MoEngage – best AI-powered in-app messaging platform

MoEngage is a powerful AI-driven platform with tools to maximize user engagement.

It empowers marketers with AI-driven insights to create omnichannel customer interactions.

Key Features

Here’s a brief overview of MoEngage’s in-app messaging features:

• AI-powered dynamic product messaging. Dynamic product messaging based on past campaign interactions strengthened by AI insights and user segmentation allows teams to generate and personalize campaigns in real time, leading to meaningful customer conversations.
• Customer journey orchestration. Flows, MoEngage’s customer journey orchestration tool, allows teams to craft an optimized customer experience for all customers, loyal or otherwise. Build the perfect message with drag-and-drop blocks, and send it to multiple channels wherever users are.
• Personalized messaging. By taking user behavior or attributes into account, teams can send personalized automated messages with relevant content that can increase engagement and encourage retention and conversion.

Pricing

MoEngage offers two paid plans (Growth, and Enterprise) calculated based on your monthly tracked users (MTUs). They also offer a free Starter plan that’s capped at 10,000 MTUs. You can book a demo for its paid plans by contacting their sales team.

5. UserGuiding – best in-app messaging solution for small companies

UserGuiding is a product walkthrough and user onboarding software perfect for SMEs.

Key Features

Here’s a summary of UserGuiding’s in-app messages features:

• Onboarding checklists. The onboarding checklists feature will guide customers in-app across their entire customer journey. Provide every new user with a detailed walkthrough of the onboarding process, leading to quicker conversions and fewer customer frustrations.
• Product tours. UserGuiding’s product tours tool is an extension of their in-app messaging feature that tours users around the product, highlighting new app features or key tools. Ensure users can navigate your product without confusion.
• In-app surveys. UserGuiding allows teams to create in-app surveys to discover, for example, how many users are satisfied with their experience with the product. Teams can set up microsurveys answerable in a few minutes to gain insights straight from users.

Pricing

UserGuiding offers three paid plans (starting with Basic’s $89/month billed annually up to Corporate’s $689+/month billed annually) and a 14-day free trial for its first two tiers. UserGuiding also offers a free demo for its highest tier, Corporate.

6. Whatfix – best for creating in-app messages for employee onboarding

Whatfix is a digital adoption and engagement platform with product analytics, personalization, and automation among its main features.

Key Features

Here’s a rundown of Whatfix’s in-app messages features:

• In-app messaging. Whatfix’s in-app messaging tool lets teams make announcements, gather feedback from users, and offer tips and tricks across multiple channels, strengthening customer relationships.
• Interactive walkthroughs. The interactive walkthrough tool helps users navigate the product, offering contextual knowledge via slideouts, tooltips, and other in-app messages. This is perfect for employee training and management.
• Nudges. Nudges is a specific in-app message from Whatfix that nudges users towards feature adoption. Push users toward a desired direction by introducing underused features they will find useful.

Pricing

Whatfix offers three paid plans (Standard, Premium, and Enterprise) calculated depending on whether Whatfix would be used internally (among employees) or externally (among customers). Whatfix also offers a free trial by requesting a trial from their sales team.

7. CometChat – best for sending audio and video in-app messages

CometChat is an in-app chat software development kit for calls and messages.

Key Features

Here’s a brief overview of CometChat’s in-app messages features:

• Many-to-many chats. CometChat enables users to communicate beyond product managers and customer representatives — bringing other users into the conversation. The many-to-many chats feature lets users chat with up to a thousand different users, whether public or private.
• Voice and video messages. CometChat’s standout feature, live chats can now go beyond words with voice and video messaging functionality. Send video and audio messages in your in-app messages, from private chats to public groups. Take advantage of the feature to start webinars on your product that can increase customer engagement and feature adoption.
• AI-powered moderation. Ensure that your live chats and in-app messages are safe spaces for everyone with AI moderation. AI will filter unwanted content like hate speech, spam, and profanities among other things. AI can also protect PIIs from leaking out with data masking.

Pricing

CometChat offers two paid plans. The lower-tiered plan, Growth, starts at $119/month billed annually for up to 500 MAUs, with prices increasing for every 5,000 MAUs. For businesses with more than 50,000 MAUs, custom pricing applies. The higher-tiered plan, Scale, is available upon request.

CometChat lets you test out its Scale plan for free up to 25 users.

8. Pushwoosh – best for integrating in-app messages into omnichannel campaigns

Pushwoosh is an omnichannel customer engagement and in-app messages platform best known for push notifications to drive engagement.

Key Features

Here’s a summary of Pushwoosh’s in-app messages features:

• In-app messaging. Pushwoosh’s in-app messaging tool comes with a no-code editor that gives teams superb flexibility even without the engineering know-how. Incorporate your in-app messages in the campaign builder to plan out when and why users will receive in-app messages.
• Omnichannel marketing. Pushwoosh’s omnichannel marketing tool gives teams with multiple marketing channels to engage customers. Use push notifications, in-app messaging, SMS, and email marketing to create a marketing strategy that covers all your bases.
• Campaign builder. The campaign builder tool allows teams to map out customer behavior and prepare a response to bring them back into the loop. The drag-and-drop visual builder can set trigger messages based on user actions and inactions, reducing drop-offs in the process.

Pricing

Pushwoosh offers a subscription plan priced at $49/month as well as a custom plan that is available upon request.

9. Leanplum – best in-app messaging strategy optimization platform

Leanplum is an in-app messaging strategy and optimization platform owned by CleverTap with campaign orchestration and data management tools.

Key Features

Here’s a rundown of Leanplum’s in-app messaging tools:

• Personalized content creation. Leanplum’s content creation tool employs a drag-and-drop visual builder with message previews to spot mistakes. Personalization is built-in with processes like localization gleaned from third-party sources like Google Analytics.
• Campaign orchestration. With Leanplum’s campaign orchestration tool, the daunting task of planning campaigns to scale and for all marketing channels becomes effortless. Intuitive workflows guide teams for any errors and multi-step audience journeys track impressions to ensure drop-offs are minimized.
• Campaign audience management. The campaign audience management tool tracks user behavior and response to campaigns and progressively builds an audience profile to optimize future campaigns. Audiences can also be imported from a third-party app to further nuance profiles.

Pricing

Leanplum’s pricing plans are all available upon request.

10. Intercom – best chatbot tool for in-app messaging

Intercom is a customer engagement tool and customer service solution that heavily utilizes AI for its features.

Key Features

Here’s a brief overview of Intercom’s in-app messaging tools:

• AI chatbot. Intercom’s flagship feature, Fin AI, utilizes conversational communication to handle users’ live chat queries.
• Multilingual support. Intercom offers multilingual support for 45 languages right out of the box. Intercom’s Fin AI will communicate in any of the available languages, increasing your customer reach.

Pricing

Intercom offers three paid plans (starting at Essential’s $39/month per user, up to Expert’s $139/month per user), and a 14-day free trial.

Conclusion

In-app messaging platforms provide businesses with cutting-edge tools to maintain, increase, and optimize user engagement.

Don’t miss out on increasing your current customer engagement! Book a Userpilot demo today to get started.

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