Scheduled Messages and Polls provide two new ways for brands and users to interact when chatting in apps

Sendbird, the most proven conversations platform for mobile apps, announced two new features designed to spark even more fruitful interactions between in-app chat users and brands. Scheduled messages allow users to choose their messages’ delivery time to maximize impact, and Polls help garner valuable insights directly within a chat conversation. The features enrich the custom chat capabilities of mobile apps with two efficient communication tools that drive engagement, trust, and loyalty.

“After rebuilding Sendbird Chat from the ground up to accelerate feature development, we are excited to now introduce our expanded capabilities for brands and communities to help them enhance user engagement in compelling ways,” said John S. Kim, co-founder, and CEO of Sendbird. “No one delivers a better in-app chat experience – at scale – than Sendbird. We look forward to helping businesses use these features to their advantage as they woo new customers and build loyalty with their existing base.”

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Effective and flexible in-app chat scheduled messages

Scheduled messages enable chat administrators and users to reach others at the most reasonable time. This feature delivers essential flexibility to plan message authoring ahead of delivery time.

Scheduled messages are convenient for sending reminders, operational messages, and trigger actions from perfectly-timed messages. They bring value across industries:

• Workplace/team communication: Companies that employ globally distributed teams have an opportunity to prevent intrusive messages outside of working hours.
• Healthcare: Scheduled messages allow healthcare providers to send appointment reminders to patients to reduce no-shows and ultimately improve health outcomes.
• Marketplace: A vacation rental host can schedule a greeting message to be delivered when guests check in, or provide them with checkout instructions on the day of departure.
• eCommerce: Promotional messages can be scheduled for the best day and time of the week to optimize awareness, drive customer demand, and increase transactions.
• Finance: a wealth management manager can set regular reminders to encourage clients to contribute to their investment accounts, or a fintech company can remind customers about upcoming billing due dates.

Instant Insights from In-App Chat Polls

Sendbird also introduced a new Polls feature for group chat, which allows users, moderators, and administrators to gather preferences from members on specific topics. Polls drive deeper user engagement and effective collaboration. Polls are useful for brands to connect with their customers and show them that they are listening. It’s also an effective way to create thought leadership content that is easily shareable and adds to the engagement flywheel.

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Polls are particularly useful in cases such as:

• Live streaming: A moderator can solicit the audience by asking attendees to predict the outcome of a game, sparking new conversations in the live chat and boosting audience participation.
• Healthcare: Custom polls can help collect better insights about the patients’ experiences, who are more likely to respond via chat than voicemail or email.
• Marketplaces: During a buyer-seller chat, polls can help streamline the conversation by narrowing down the customer preference, leading to faster transactions and better customer satisfaction.
• Education: With online courses, schools and classes persistently look for new ways to engage students and help them learn. Sendbird-powered polls work well to quiz students during class and help them check their understanding of the subject.
• Online communities: Polling can be used in the community chat thread so that organizers garner insights or gather community feedback while driving greater engagement in online community chat threads.