Best Practices for Enabling Chats in Your Event App

To help attendees fully enjoy the benefits of the Chats feature, it's important to guide them through a smooth onboarding process. The following best practices will ensure they update their app, understand interface changes, and are set up for a seamless, engaging messaging experience.

Recommended Best Practices for a Seamless Attendee Experience

To ensure your attendees make the most of the Chats feature, we recommend the following:

1. Send a Push Notification Prompting an App Update

Use the pre-built push notification template to remind attendees to download the latest version of your app from the App Store or Google Play (Fig. 1).  This step is critical, as the Chats feature is only available in the most recent app version (for the Eventscribe app, version 7.6.0 for iOS and 2.8.0 for Android).  Attendees using outdated versions will still see the older direct messaging system.  This system is not compatible with the Chats feature.

2. Include Update Instructions in Email Communications

When sending email invitations to log into the app, include a reminder to update to the latest version.  Encourage attendees to visit the app store before logging in so they can fully access the enhanced Chats experience.

Below is recommended text to include in the email communication to attendees, specifically focusing on encouraging them to update the app and take advantage of the Chats feature:

Before logging in, please take a moment to update your app from the App Store or Google Play.  The Chats experience is only available on the latest version of the app.  If you're using an older version, you'll be limited to the previous direct messaging system, which does not sync with the new Chats.

We’re excited to introduce a new and improved Chats feature.

3. Update the Bottom Menu Icon & Label

Previously, the bottom menu may have included an icon labeled "Messages."  With this update, user messages and push alerts are now accessible from the header. We recommend working with your Project Manager to update this icon with something more useful or to match the new Bell icon and changing the label to "Alerts" for clarity and consistency.

4. Update the App User Profile Icon & Label

To support direct Chats functionality, we also suggest updating the App User Profile icon.  Collaborate with your Project Manager to change the icon to a chat bubble and relabel it as "Chats."  This encourages attendees to use the profile feature as a direct way to start conversations with other users.