• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 22, 2021

Everyone in digital is pushing something. For mobile marketers, one important goal is that consumers spend more time on their mobile apps. Is that a good kind of push?

Two years ago an Asurion survey said Americans check their phones 96 times a day, once every 10 minutes. EMarketer now says our total digital time per person -- which of course includes mobile -- will exceed eight hours a day in 2022.

There's more. Mobile app audiences grew by 31% year over year in 2020, according to eMarketer -- this during a pandemic period where we weren’t moving around that much, except in our homes.

Social media and other digital activity -- largely on mobile devices -- is up as well. Average time on social media was 64 minutes a day among the U.S. population, again according to an eMarketer survey.

Sure, we like our mobile devices. Yet I wonder if someone is doing a bit more pushing than usual, like with push notifications. Then I found out the average U.S. smartphone user receives 46 app push notifications per day, according to the Business of Apps.

Many would believe consumers are open to receiving lots of content on their mobile devices -- video, text, and otherwise. Growing opt-in data backs this up. That’s where notifications come in -- stuff that can be based on history, cookies, and identify graphs that, in theory, are optimized to particular needs and wants.

Some consumers don’t mind brand marketers sending them stuff. Purveyors of push notifications will tell you that. Still, 31% of users find push notifications aren’t helpful at all; only 18% always find them useful, again according to the Business of Apps.

Then again, if your bank sends a message to your home screen, you might be more open to that. It could important. When it comes to choosing a bank, the value of mobile banking has now exceeded that of brick-and mortar branch usage for consumers, according to research.

Still, being pushed by your mobile? To the tune of 46 notifications a day? Maybe shove back a little.