Push Notifications in Diet Apps: Influencing Engagement Times and Tasks

Abstract

Background: Smartphones have reached levels of popularity and penetration where they are now suitable for use in population health interventions. A key feature of smartphones is push notification or in app messaging service, which can be used to alert users to messages or instructions pertaining to an installed app. Little evidence exists as to the persuasive power of these messages.Method: We conducted a 24 week live user evaluation of a behaviour based mobile app for a meal replacement program, using smartphone push notifications, to understand the role of push notifications in persuading users to engage with self-monitoring tasks.Results: Tasks and Push notifications appear to have affected the times at which users TBCConclusions: Push Notifications and user tasks are appropriate mechanisms to engage users with mobile technology in the short term.