On-Premise Notifications: Geofence notifications with only "when in use" permissions

Radar customers often use geofencing to unlock on-premise app experiences. For example, BJ's Wholesale Club and other retailers use Radar to unlock in-store modes. Whataburger and other QSRs use Radar to promote loyalty and mobile ordering features on-premise.

But the average consumer has nearly 100 apps on their smartphone vying for their attention. You've built features like in-store mode or mobile ordering — how do you remind customers to use your app at the right place and right time?

Historically you've had to request background or "always" location permissions to send location-based notifications that remind the user to open the app on-premise. But with background opt-in lower than foreground opt-in, this sometimes means limited reach.

However, a new feature in our iOS SDK lets you display a notification on geofence entry, even with only foreground or "when in use" permissions! This feature leverages local notification triggers on iOS. It's privacy-friendly, and the app won't collect any location data or generate any events in Radar unless the user opens the app.

We're calling this "magic trick" On-Premise Notifications.

To use On-Premise Notifications, simply embed notification text in geofences when you create them by setting the radar:notificationTitle and radar:notificationText metadata keys.

For example, a QSR app might set radar:notificationText to Skip the line with mobile ordering here! on specific geofences with tag = restaurant. Or, a retail app might set Don't forget to use your loyalty card! on specific geofences with tag = store.

When you call Radar.trackOnce() or Radar.startTracking(), the iOS SDK will automatically sync and register nearby notifications with zero additional lines of code required.

And the notifications will display when the app is closed, even if the user has only granted foreground permissions. Yes, seriously.

What's more, assuming you're looking to drive a lift in app opens, loyalty usage, or some other metric with these notifications, you can instrument the impact with Conversions.

This feature is available in iOS SDK 3.7.6 or later. See our docs for more info.

If you're interested in building impactful on-premise app experiences with Radar, please request a demo!