Set up push notifications to request reviews

Use the push notification feature to send in-app review requests to your customers’ devices through your iOS or Android app. When your order data is processed and ready, Bazaarvoice sends the push notification on your behalf, following the review request schedule you configure in Step 3b. When a customer selects the notification, the review submission page opens in an in-app browser tab where the customer can complete the review submission; closing the browser tab will return the customer back to your app.

This article is an implementation guide for your Development Team and Portal Administrators. It takes you from an empty Google Cloud project to a published notification template, including BV Garner SDK implementation. For the steps you need to follow in order, refer to the Setup overview.

Note:

• Push notification is different from Review collection webhooks. With webhooks, Bazaarvoice sends event data (JSON payload) to your endpoint, and you send the push notifications yourself.
• With Push notification enabled, Bazaarvoice sends in-app notifications requesting reviews to your customer's devices through your own app. To get started, contact Bazaavoice Support.

Benefits

• Reach customers where they shop: Review requests appear on the devices of customers who have your app installed, which can increase your review volume.
• Keep control of your credentials: You only upload relevant keys in the Portal. Bazaarvoice never needs access to your Firebase, Google Cloud, Google Play Console, or Apple Developer accounts, and you do not invite anyone.
• Protect customer data: The BV Garner SDK hashes email addresses and phone numbers on the device before it sends them. Bazaarvoice never receives them in readable form.
• Control the message: Write the title and body of the push notification for each locale; preview them on the Portal before publishing.

How push notifications for review requests work

1. Connect your Firebase project: In the Bazaarvoice Portal, you create a sender profile for your app and upload a Firebase service-account key. Bazaarvoice uses the key only to send notifications to your app through Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM).
2. Add the BV Garner SDK to your app: On first launch, the SDK registers the device and receives a Device ID. On Android, the SDK also confirms through Google Play Integrity that the app is genuine and installed from Google Play. On iOS, it uses Apple App Attest.
3. Link the signed-in customer: When a customer signs in, your app passes their user ID and email address to the SDK. The SDK sends the email address to Bazaarvoice once, encrypted in transit, at the first sign-in. Bazaarvoice normalizes and hashes it and stores only the hash. The phone keeps only that hash, never the address. Bazaarvoice uses the hash to match review requests to the right device.
4. Set the review collection method: In the Portal, set the review collection method to Push Notification & Email or Push Notification for the Review Request and Review Request Reminder message types.
5. Create a notification template: In Review Channels, write the notification title and body for each locale, and preview them in Live preview.
6. Verify your setup and publish: Send a test notification to a test device and confirm that it arrives. You can publish the template to your site only after the sender profile is verified.
7. Check for a published template: When a review request or review request reminder is ready to send, Bazaarvoice checks whether you have a published template that uses a verified sender profile. If you do, Bazaarvoice sends the push notification. If you don’t, and you’ve configured a review collection webhook, Bazaarvoice sends the review request or reminder JSON payload to your webhook endpoint URL instead.
8. Customers receive review requests: When a review request is ready, Bazaarvoice sends the notification to the customer's linked devices.

Note: 

• Bazaarvoice never needs access to your Google Cloud project, Firebase project, Play Console, or Apple Developer account. You upload keys in the Portal.
• Email addresses and phone numbers are stored as hashes, not in readable form.
• The BV Garner SDK never contains your Portal API key or any server key. ​

Technical requirements

To set up push notifications to request reviews, you need the following.

Each .json file you upload to the Portal must be 16 KB or smaller. Real service-account keys are about 2–3 KB.

Additional requirements you will need:

• Google account: A company Google account at your own domain, not a personal @gmail.com account.
• Firebase project: Use the project that your production app already uses for push notifications, or create a new one under your company's Google Cloud organization.
• Android: Google Play Console access for the app, a way to install test builds from Google Play (for example, an internal testing track), and a real Android phone with Google Play running Android 7.0 (API 24) or later.
• iOS: Access to your company's Apple Developer Program membership. A real iPhone with iOS 15 or later. Use a build from Xcode or TestFlight to do the testing on a real iPhone.

Caution: Always test on a real device.

• In production, every Android device must pass Google Play Integrity before it can register. Emulators, simulators, sideloaded builds, and debug builds installed from Android Studio cannot register. On Android, install test builds from a Google Play internal testing track.
• On iOS, test on a real iPhone with a build from Xcode or TestFlight. You cannot use simulators because attestation does not work in them, and older iOS versions don't support push notifications in simulators.

Required solutions and roles

You must have the following solutions and roles in the Portal to access Sender Profiles and Review channel pages:

Level of effort

The following table shows who usually completes each task.

Setup overview

To set up push notifications for review requests, complete the following steps: