Interesting Reads
Ever wondered how a QR code works?
Warning, there is some extremely nerdy shit here.
When you see a sentence like that right in the first paragraph, you know it's gonna be good!
Don't worry though…this is full of attractive images and beautifully-rendered animations. You'll never look at a QR code the same way again (and you'll finally understand why so many crazy custom designs still seem to scan just fine).
Attribution Modeling? Stop.
Short version: attribution is important, but proving incrementality is even more critical.
Avinash has been beating this drum for years. His latest newsletter issue punched through the noise this week and has been getting more attention than usual.
But if we step down from the ivory tower for a moment, this is complicated. As an accounting metric (you need some way to agree with your ad networks on how much to pay), attribution is not optional. But as a practical, real-world measure of campaign effectiveness, it's basically the worst option marketers have ever had…except for every other way.
Industry Buzz
Apple confirms frequent “allow paste?” prompts in iOS 16 are a bug
Turns out, the new prompt wasn’t supposed to be quite this annoying.
My device wasn't one of those affected by this bug, but it sounds like they basically failed to exempt at least some of the 'positive user interaction' paste triggers from showing the alert.
Tips & Techniques
A Crash Course in Deeplinking
These days, pretty much no one contests the importance of deep linking — as the article itself says, it's "table stakes" now (such a big change over just a few years!)
…but that doesn't mean it's simple to get right (shameless plug: Branch makes it easier).
It's not often that you get a guided tour of how a well-known app like Strava handles the technicalities of such things, so this article is definitely worth your time. Strava's setup is pretty much a reference-quality implementation.
UX
5 Types of UI Notifications
How's your notification strategy? Do you know when to use an email instead of a push notification?
Data
Welcome to SKAdventure 4.0
This is a lovely, interactive simulation of how SKAN reporting should improve after the 4.0 update.
The data shown here is all hypothetical, and some of the functionality details are necessarily still based on conjecture (SKAN 4.0 isn't available for testing yet, and even the documentation hasn't been released), but overall I'd say this represents a good baseline for the minimum we should expect from updated SKAN 4.0 implementations.
Note: make sure you scroll to the very bottom to click through to other app vertical examples (this offers more than just casual gaming)
The Encore
Unique 2-in-1 calculator app adds up to surprise hit for retired engineer in Japan
Not going to lie…I downloaded this app because of the 'aww' factor in the story, but it's a surprisingly intuitive way to extend the traditional pocket calculator.
Podcast
Director of Product, Mobile App for TechStyle Fashion Group: Heather Lind
Driving Business Innovation and Performance Through Mobile App Growth Initiatives.
In this episode of How I Grew This, Heather Lind joins Mada Seghete to discuss what it takes to become a great product manager and leader, how a mobile app impacts business growth, and how to measure the success of your app and features.
Heather is currently the Director of Product, Mobile App at TechStyle Fashion Group, leading the product team for the company’s trendsetting mobile applications. She has been operating in product and technology for eleven years, and her unique career trajectory includes working at every stage of the product life cycle.
Events
Mobile Growth Online Brasil - Fintech
When: Wed, Sep 28, 1:00 PM (GMT-3).
Where: Online.
Panelists: BTG Pactual, Itaú, Digio.
Mobile Growth Online
When: Wed, Oct 5, 12:00 PM (PDT).
Where: Online.
Panelists: Verizon, Slickdeals, Dine Brands & Crumbl Cookies.
Mobile Growth Meetup - Ciudad de México
When: Wed, Oct 19, 6:30 PM (CDT).
Where: WeWork Miguel de Cervantes.
Panelists: Thomas Petit, Alex Bauer.
Mobile Growth Meetup - London
When: Wed, Oct 26, 6:30 PM (BST).
Where: Coqbull SoHo.
Panelists: Angelina Kazarema, News UK.
Who’s Hiring?
- Marco Polo | Growth Product Manager, Monetization — Remote
Do you have a mobile growth role you’d like to share with the community?
Just fill out this form — it’s free!
iOS 16 has been out for almost two weeks, and I've seen a few articles floating around with headlines like this one: iOS 16 Proves More Popular Than iOS 15 Was Last Year.
The data being cited is this report from Mixpanel (here's an equivalent date range for iOS 15).
Yes, 'popular' is probably part of it; some of the new iOS 16 features are arguably more buzzy than last year.
But it's also worth remembering how Apple rolls out iOS updates:
Looking at the adoption curve in this data, my guess is Apple might have started notifying a few users (it took iOS 15 almost twice as long to reach the same adoption rate). But they certainly haven't pushed this button for everyone yet.
Alex Bauer