Urban Airship originally used its mobile marketing platform to transmit notifications strictly to mobile users. It now has the capability of expanding its reach to transmit messages to platforms beyond the mobile market, including internet connected televisions, smart appliances, intelligent agents such as Google’s Home, and many more. In addition, the messages that are transmitted will not only display information on the device, but it also allows the message to generate actions.
This new service that Urban Airship is introducing is called Open Channels. By using an API, a message is generated and sent to the destination channel. The platform of the destination will then handle displaying the content. Initially, this will start with a redesigned Apple News app. When a user of the Apple News app sees a notification, it will link the user to a news story that is about a topic the user follows.
The capability of sending messages of this functionality to any device opens the doors to unlimited possibilities. One use of this new service would include the capability of a store that is using the Urban Airship platform, to send a receipt via its POS register, to the customer’s device of choice, whether that be an internet connected printer or a smartphone. Another use of this service would be to have a notification appear on your mobile device, or connected TV, that your front door is unlocked.
