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Social invites

Help your app to go viral by enabling users to send SMS invitations to friends — with direct links to the app store: grow your business with viral adoption.
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Stylized illustration of two figures in front of enlarged mobile phones. The front phone screen shows applications while the back phone shows a pop up of a SMS message.

Trusted recommendations

Individuals are more likely to try an unknown app if it is recommended by a trusted friend.

Cost management

On a per-click basis, SMS-based invitations are far less expensive than Facebook ads and other channels.

Engagement

With an engagement rate of ~95%, users read SMS messages more quickly and consistently than from any other channel — including email or push notifications.

Reach

SMS knows virtually no bounds, so users can share your app with friends no matter where they are in the world or what social networks they use.

How social invites works

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1. Enable your users to share

Your users invite their friends to try your app by entering their friends’ phone numbers (directly or via their contacts app).
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2. An invitation arrives

Your application sends a personalised invitation to your user’s friends via SMS. The message includes a direct link to your app on the iOS or Android app store.
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3. The friend downloads and installs the app

One tap on the link takes the friend to your app’s page in the Apple or Android app store. The friend can easily install your app and then invite others.
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4. Track user uptake

You can track who sent invitations to whom as well as which invitees installed the app.

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Why choose Vonage APIs for social invites?

Optimal deliverability

Vonage APIs direct-to-carrier model and adaptive routing engine reduce message latency and guarantee consistent high deliverability — regardless of the destination.

Validate the phone number

By incorporating Vonage APIs Number Insight into your Social Invites workflow, you can validate a recipient’s number automatically before the invitation goes out. This enables you to avoid sending messages to out-of-service numbers or landlines.

Track your invitations

Using Vonage APIs dashboard or Management API, you can track the delivery and click-through of each app invitation you send. If you embed trackable links in the messages, you can determine who initiated each invitation, who clicked through and who installed your app. You can use this information to send a message — or even a gift — to thank users for sharing your app.

Analytics for delivery optimisation

You can optimise app promotion campaigns with insights available on Vonage APIs dashboard or through the Management API.

Single code base

Different destinations have different requirements, but Vonage APIs regulation engine transparently achieves message compliance worldwide so you don’t have to write separate code for invitations sent to different countries. For example, Vonage's SMS API transforms outbound messages automatically to guarantee proper encoding, sender ID, message length and more.

Verify app installations

When an invitee installs your app, you can verify the legitimacy of their installation by using the Verify API or SDK. You can also check whether the URL used to download your app is the same URL that was sent to the phone, enabling you to verify the user automatically.

Related solutions

Simple IVR Add a simple Interactive Voice Response (IVR) script to your existing applications.
Private SMS Communication Connect your users via text message privately.
Call Tracking Track call metadata for lead generation and marketing campaigns.

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