Best time to display ATT pop-ups is the first 30 seconds, study suggests

For over two years now, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework has been requiring developers to get user consent to track their data for advertising purposes. However, many developers are still not sure about when is the best time to send push notifications to ask for their permission.

In order to answer this question, mobile game analytics company GameRefinery conducted a new study and examined the ATT tracking pop-up data of the top-grossing 200 iOS games in the United States.

The company found that 88% of these games sent ATT pop-ups within the first 25 minutes of gameplay, the period it calls the ‘’first session’’. However, 72% of them displayed the pop-ups within the first 30 seconds.

In addition, 23% of the top 200 and 27% of the top 100 games were found to use personalized pre-ATT prompts before sending the main notifications. 

Furthermore, 13% of the top 200 and 17% of the top 100 titles included additional prompts for user information, such as email, phone number, age, gender, etc.

‘’After analyzing the ATT frequency and the time notifications appear amongst the top-200 grossing iOS games, our data suggests that the first 30 seconds of gameplay is the sweet spot for displaying ATT pop-ups,’’ the company said in the report, adding that sending them too early could also lead to unwanted results.