Hi everyone!
As you know, we’re always working towards awesome new features for the Xinja app. At the moment, we’re trying to put our finger on just how many notifications is too many.
What do you think? Are you an everytime-you-spend type of person, or a once-in-a-bluemoon fan?
Help us craft the least annoying experience possible! Let us know when you would expect a notification below:
I love customisable notifications, like the Bankwest ‘Easy Alerts’ that I can set to tell me what information I want to know. The one that would be most useful for the Xinja card currently probably is a low balance alert… but i am a once-in-a-bluemoon kind of gal.
I get lots and lots of notifications from Raiz (that tell me super condescending things like “you’ve spent $303.65 less on disposable purchases compared to last week”, but that’s another issue) and I find it annoying… any more than 3-4 a day and I start wanting to delete the app.
Love it 
Thanks Kazarooni !!
Necessary notifications are good, especially if they’re relevant. For instance I’m happy to receive a few a day in case specific conditions are met so i don’t spend all my money cos i only like to receive less then 3 in a day or period.
Also there should be some notifications that can need a subsequent action from the customer, if not there should be what im calling an action notifications that when a threshold is reach or a condition is meet acording to the customer, maybe the notification can alert that your daily spend is about to be reach and when that happen it could restrict withdrawal for instance
Great!
That last part has me intrigued, would you be ok with a banking app restricting your withdrawals?
I have felt a similar way in the past, but I can’t imagine how I’d react if I went to take money out for something I needed; forgot I had a limit in place, and was left high and dry.
Do you use Pocketbook or Raize or anything at the moment?
One more question, how would you feel about notifications that included something a little different? Or tried to surprise you in some way?
I’ve always thought a good deterant for gambling would be to have little pop-ups on pokermachines that show you the things you could buy with your money. “Oh you just won $100? You could be a Nokia N3 smartphone for $89” or whatever it is, just to show people that digital money has real value.
Conversely with a banking app, I was thinking it could be cool to show you all the different ways your money could be working for you. Like “Hey congrats! That $500 you’ve saved could be making +$123 per year in a blah-blah savings account, would you like to transfer it over?” and all I have to do is click “go” to make it happen.
Notifications that don’t just tell you stuff but actively invite you to improve other stuff. (Or is that already what companies like Raiz do?)
I do love the idea of the surprise and delight technique- and the first few times I got the Raiz notifications I was super impressed, my feelings changed after a while though because it became almost commentary on my behaviour, and to your point, not helping me improve my spending behaviour in anyway. Your example of how much you could earn in interest on that money would be awesome - but the click through function would be what makes it so much more likely for me to actually save or invest that money, rather than just think “cool I’ve got $300 to hit up Myer with”.
Edit: just saw your other question … I don’t think a banking app restricting my withdrawals would work for me… I like the idea of something like the CommBank spend tracker for example, something that shows how I’m tracking but doesn’t stop me spending more if I need to.
I use PictureWealth and Raiz, the tracking functions in Raiz I haven’t played around with too much, but I like the notifications. Picture Wealth has a really good budgeting/spend tracking function that works for me, but no notifications on how I’m tracking - so it’s up to me to be proactive.
One more question, how would you feel about notifications that included something a little different? Or tried to surprise you in some way?
I think its less about “how many” and more about if they are valuable or not.
I don’t need to know about every purchase but I do want answers to some important questions like “How am I tracking against budget?” “Is this purchase one that I’ve authorised?” “Could I avoid making this payment or get a better deal on it?”
So I like your idea about “that $500 you saved …” but less as a “surprise” but more because it is valuable advice that helps users move towards their medium and long term financial (and life!) goals. Good surprises can contribute to delight in the short term but its their ability to enable goals that is the real benefit.
Hope this makes sense.
Please only show super happy time fun notifications!
aka - tell me when i’m winning. don’t notify me when i’m losing 
but in all seriousness. I hate notifications. I especially hate when you can only have them “on” or “off”, so if you’re going to have them, please can you ensure I can have the ones on that I want to and ignore the rest.
I think everyone is going to have a different opinion on this, so being able to customise notifications is really important. For me personally, I would find it annoying if every time I made a purchase, I also got a notification. It would be handy, however, to be notified when there has been a deposit or a direct debit had been taken out. Will the app. be able to differentiate between a purchase made at an eftpos terminal vs. a debit being taken out via the card number?
Yeah, customisation is the key. A few examples I’ve seen or wanted to see are:
@SocialXinja, I like your poker-machine comparison, especially if the ‘reward’ aligns with a personal goal - eg. saving for a holiday. “Congrats, you can now include scuba diving in your trip!”
Keep up the good work.
I often do merciless cullings of my notifications. I like apps that recognise that notifications aren’t working, and turn off themselves (Duolingo turns off daily notifications if you end up ignoring them).
I like the notifications that Apple Pay gives. I won’t always check the transaction, but it’s good to see it went through correctly at the right price.
I have Raiz notifications off, so I only see the spending/carbon footprint messages when I open the app, which I’m fine with.
I’d say the more customisation the better. Being able to customise the notifications to suit your preferences as much as possible would be really great.
Great question, the app will definitely be able to differentiate between cash taken out and cash being spent, retailers will appear as retail purchases moving forward into categorisation!
That would be so sick, all of a sudden some kind of scuba diving animation plays on the screen, then a jetski does a backflip, maybe a para-sail for good measure, before words pop up saying “you just saved enough for mad activities on your holiday” then you unlock the mad-activities achievement.
I’d love it if this was connected to a real world element somehow. Rationalising digital money to real things.
Definite customisation, I think there’s a balance to be had between telling you what you want and helping you with stuff you don’t realise. “Hey Max, you’re $52 ahead this month, want to pop it into your high interest savings account? Swipe right!”
100% - that’s what we’re trying to avoid. We also realise you can “think” you want constant notifications, then realise you don’t, but instead of trying to fix it you delete the whole app for annoying you. This is my curse
I’d like notifications when I spend money on my card to see that it has gone through. I usually check the app straight after I buy something but it would be cool the moment I tap my card to pay I also get a notification. I’d also like a notification to let me know an item has been processed and categorised.
In the case we can receive money from someone (the proposed xinja.me), a notification we have received money would also be good.
I wouldn’t mind a daily summary notification or balance notification as well.
Offer an on/off selection along with an “advanced” option to drill down to turning on/off all different types of notifications.
In general, I want to know when money is withdrawn/deposited and when I drop under a certain balance. Everything else needs to shut up when I’m busy.
Also, apps that offer a “snooze notifications” option are ace as well.
This is everyone’s curse.
I like the idea of “i’m ok to be bugged with notifications at the moment” but then "i’m not ok to be bugged right now. sleep idea is good. rather than having to do it all through a menu.