Mobile Engagement is not ON or OFF (What Marketers Get Wrong About Attention)

When you sit down with the SVP of Product at Major League Baseball, you expect to learn a lot. But what surprised us was which idea stuck, and how far beyond the ballpark it applied.

We’re used to talking about our attention spans as if it’s something to capture, win, or steal. And we get it, competition sometimes demands a more aggressive approach. But competition also raises the cost of getting it wrong.

Users don’t just give attention and take it away. They arrive with varying shades of attention, shaped by their context, their mood, or what they ate for lunch.

Sometimes they’re deeply focused. Sometimes they’re half-aware. Often, they’re just glancing. It’s a bit of an elusive state, isn’t it?

And most engagement strategies weren’t built for it.

The inverted pyramid of attention

For the MLB, Live Activities were the key mechanism for spanning attention levels. They built experiences that worked whether someone was glued to the game… or sneaking a glance at their phone between meetings. The way that they visualized their fans’ layers of attention was through an inverted pyramid. You can see it in all its glory here.

But this idea can be translated to any brand who is trying to earn trust in a world of constant distraction.

Most apps design customer engagement from the top down. They start with moments of full focus (launches, promotions, conversions) and work backward. These are moments that are easy to justify and measure. The logic feels strong, right? But, over time, too many engagement strategies end up being defined by what’s easiest to prove worked, not by how attention actually fluctuates in real life.

A more accurate model is actually the opposite.

Do all your juiciest conversion opportunities appear at the bottom? Most likely. But most user moments live at the top. That gap between how brands ask for attention and how users actually have it, is where longer-term retention tends to break down.

When every message assumes full focus, users learn to tune everything out.

*This is not a funnel!

Users drift between these states constantly. Your job is not to push them downward. It’s to recognize where they are and respond appropriately.

This is where retention strategies either shine or collapse. Multiple channels aren’t about volume, but rather about flexibility across these layers. The ability to whisper, speak normally, or ask for focus when it’s earned.

The cost of asking for too much

Modern teams are under real pressure to prove impact. Clicks, opens, and conversions are easy to measure, easy to defend, and easy to optimize for. But not every valuable interaction is meant to drive an immediate action.

MLB understands this intuitively. A live score update doesn’t demand a tap. A pitching change doesn’t require a response. These moments keep fans connected without asking them to do anything. The relationship deepens even when no one clicks. Don't miss this distinction.

A push notification doesn’t need a click to be successful. An in-app message doesn’t always need to convert.

Sometimes the win is simply presence, not so much the performance of a particular alert.

If every one of your messages are asking for something, your users will learn to ignore everything.

How to design engagement by attention level

Glance moments: Designing for peripheral awareness

User mindset: “I noticed you — but I’m not stopping.”

These are the most frequent moments and the easiest to underestimate.

Best channels

• Lock screen pushes
  
• Live Activities
  
• Badges
  
• Lightweight alerts
  

Design principles

• Zero friction
  
• No required action
  
• Familiar, predictable patterns
  

Example use cases

• Score updates
  
• Order status changes
  
• Market movements
  
• Ongoing background narratives
  

This attention layer determines whether your brand feels familiar or forgettable over time. When designed well, glance-level engagement keeps your product mentally “warm” without asking users to do anything in return.

You can’t expect to hop in a car that hasn’t been started for a week and start driving right away. And unfortunately, they don’t make jumper cables for churned users. We checked.

🤔 Can an update just… update you?

Design non-urgent narrative threads that unfold passively over time. Instead of treating each lock screen update as a standalone message, think of it as a chapter in an ongoing story: progress, movement, or change. This could be an order inching forward, a balance fluctuating, a streak building, or a system quietly working on the user’s behalf. When users can predict what they’ll see at a glance, they stop evaluating whether to engage and simply absorb the update.

Receptive moments: Staying relevant without interrupting

User mindset: “I’m aware, but busy.”

This is where a lot of everyday engagement lives, and where restraint matters most.

Best channels

• Standard push notifications
  
• Message inboxes
  
• Subtle in-app banners
  
• Live Activities and real-time surfaces
  

Design principles

• Context over persuasion
  
• Brevity over cleverness
  
• Information density without pressure
  

Example use cases

• Status updates
  
• Progress tracking
  
• Time-sensitive awareness
  
• “You might want to know this”
  

Ready for the tight-rope walk? Receptive moments are where brands either earn credibility or burn it. This is the layer users spend the most time in—and the one most vulnerable to overreach. Treating these moments with restraint signals that you respect your users’ time and context, which directly impacts opt-in longevity and message tolerance.

🤔 Reassurance goes a long, long way

Replace “calls to action” with calls to orientation. Instead of pushing users to click, frame messages around helping them understand where they are right now. A simple shift—from “Check this out” to “Here’s where things stand”—changes the psychological contract. Use these moments to answer quiet questions users may not even realize they’re asking: Is everything on track? Did anything change? Do I need to care right now?

When messages reliably answer those questions without pressure, users become more willing to engage when something truly does require attention.

Active moments: When full attention is earned

User mindset: “I’m here for this.”

These moments are rare and valuable. They’re when a user has intentionally leaned in.

Best channels

• In-app messages
  
• Full-screen modals
  
• Deep-link push notifications
  
• Email (when intent already exists)
  

Design principles

• Clear value exchange
  
• A strong narrative or payoff
  
• Fewer messages, higher stakes
  

Example use cases

• Account or policy changes
  
• Feature launches
  
• Live events
  
• High-intent lifecycle moments

Active attention is scarce, and increasingly protected by users. These moments carry the highest potential impact, but only if they’re treated as earned, not assumed. Overusing high-friction messaging trains users to resist it; using it sparingly makes it meaningful.

🤔 A fair trade for attention

Treat active moments like a clear value exchange. Before deploying an in-app modal or deep-linked message, ask: What does the user get immediately in return for their focus? Then make that payoff explicit and singular. One message, one idea, and one outcome. Resist bundling updates or stacking asks. When users learn that full-attention moments are focused and worthwhile, they stop bracing against them—and start engaging with intent.

Winning the long game with your users starts here.

We know engagement is not something to force or manufacture.

The job of modern messaging isn’t to pull users back at every opportunity. It’s to engage without demanding more focus than the moment can afford: with updates that make sense at a glance, context that helps them stay oriented, and moments of deeper engagement only when focus is genuinely earned.

It’s no coincidence that patience, restraint, and intention are key ingredients for how durable relationships are built outside our smartphones. You’d be surprised how much the same tenets apply through the screen.

If you’re rethinking how you engage the users you already have, OneSignal is built to help you design those moments with a little more intention (and a lot more long-term consistency.)