We’ve all been there. You’re in the zone, focused on getting something done, and bam, a huge, irrelevant pop-up hijacks your screen. It’s annoying, it shatters your concentration, and it’s probably the quickest way to make you resent a product.
But it doesn’t have to be like that. When done right, in-app messaging can be one of the best tools for guiding users, announcing new features, and genuinely making their experience better.
This guide will help you get it right. We’ll cover the most important in-app messaging best practices and look at seven top tools that can help you communicate well in 2025, turning those jarring interruptions into helpful interactions.
What is in-app messaging?
In-app messages are the notifications you see while you’re actively using a web or mobile app. Think about those welcome modals, the little tooltips pointing out a new feature, or a quick survey that slides out from the side of the screen.
It’s easy to mix them up with push notifications, but they’re completely different. Push notifications are short alerts sent to your device when the app is closed, trying to bring you back. In-app messages, on the other hand, are all about what’s happening right now. They show up when you’re already engaged, which makes the timing feel relevant.
Here’s a simple way to look at it: in-app messaging is like a helpful store assistant who comes over to help when you look a bit lost. A push notification is the flyer you get in the mail, hoping you’ll visit the store in the first place.
Why you need smart in-app messaging best practices
A good plan for your in-app messages can make a real difference to your key metrics. It’s not just about sending messages; it’s about starting useful conversations at just the right moment. The main benefits usually show up in a few areas:
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Helping new users find their footing: A welcome message or a simple checklist can guide new users to that "aha!" moment much faster, which means they’re less likely to leave after their first session.
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Getting people to use new features: You just launched a brilliant new feature, but no one’s touching it. A subtle tooltip pointing to the new button can be all it takes.
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Collecting feedback without being annoying: A slideout survey that appears right after someone finishes a task is way more likely to get a response than an email you send two days later.
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Nudging users toward upgrades: A banner that lets a user on a free plan know they’re getting close to a usage limit is a gentle, timely prompt to consider upgrading.
The latest tools are also moving way beyond simple pop-ups. The best platforms now use AI to create intelligent conversations that feel like they belong in the product, giving people personalized help exactly when they need it.
Our criteria for the best in-app messaging tools
To help you sort through all the options, we looked at dozens of platforms to find the best of the bunch. To keep things fair, we judged each tool on the same five things:
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Ease of use: How fast can your non-technical teams get a message created and launched? Do you have to call a developer for every small tweak?
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Targeting & personalization: How specific can you get with segmenting your users? Can you tailor the content enough to make it feel like it was written just for them?
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Analytics & reporting: Does the tool give you useful information on how your messages are doing, or just numbers that look good but don’t mean much?
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Integrations: How well does it play with the tools you already use, like your helpdesk, CRM, or knowledge bases?
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Value for money: Is the price fair for the features you get, and is the pricing model easy to understand?
Comparison of the top in-app messaging tools in 2025
Here’s a quick rundown of how our top picks compare.
| Tool | Best For | Key Feature | Starting Price (Annual) |
|---|---|---|---|
| eesel AI | AI-powered support & onboarding | Learns from past tickets | $239/mo |
| Userpilot | User onboarding flows | No-code journey builder | $249/mo |
| Appcues | Feature adoption & announcements | Personalized flows & modals | $249/mo |
| Customer.io | Omnichannel campaigns | Advanced segmentation & logic | $100/mo |
| Pendo | Product analytics & feedback | In-depth usage insights | Custom |
| Alchemer | Mobile feedback & surveys | Two-way conversations | Custom |
| UserGuiding | Simple, no-code guides | Interactive product tours | $82/mo |
The 7 best tools for in-app messaging in 2025
Now, let’s get into the details of what makes each of these tools a good choice and where they might not be the right fit.
1. eesel AI
eesel AI is more than just a messaging tool. It’s an AI platform that connects to all your company knowledge to deliver smart, automated in-app communication. It plugs into your helpdesk, wiki, and internal docs to give super-relevant answers and guidance through its AI Chatbot and other features. It’s built for teams that want to offer proactive, contextual help without a ton of manual work.
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Pros:
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Go live in minutes: It’s completely self-serve. You can connect your knowledge sources with one click and get going without needing to talk to a sales rep.
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Learns from your data: The AI automatically trains on your past support tickets from services like Zendesk or Jira Service Management, articles from Confluence, and even internal Google Docs. This means its messages are smart and context-aware from day one.
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Total control: You can easily tweak the AI’s personality, tell it what to do (like triage tickets), and limit its knowledge base to make sure it only answers what it should.
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Cons:
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It’s mainly focused on support, onboarding, and knowledge-based interactions. If you’re looking for a tool for purely marketing-focused campaigns, it might not be the best fit.
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Pricing: Starts at $239/month (with annual billing) for up to 1,000 AI interactions. The pricing is predictable, with no surprise fees per resolution.
2. Userpilot
Userpilot is a well-rounded product growth platform known for its powerful user onboarding features. It lets non-technical teams build interactive product tours, checklists, and surveys with a no-code editor, which has made it a favorite for SaaS companies trying to get users activated quickly.
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Pros: It’s great for creating multi-step onboarding flows and has detailed segmentation options to target different user groups.
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Cons: For smaller teams or those with simpler needs, the price can feel a little high compared to others out there.
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Pricing: Starts at $249/month.
3. Appcues
As one of the first in the no-code user experience game, Appcues is fantastic at helping teams create beautiful modals, slideouts, and tooltips. It’s a very user-friendly tool, especially for marketers who want to quickly launch campaigns for feature announcements and user feedback.
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Pros: It has a great library of templates and lets you customize the UI extensively, making it easy to create messages that match your brand.
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Cons: While it’s great for creating the messages, its analytics aren’t as deep as platforms like Pendo, so it can be harder to measure the real impact on user behavior.
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Pricing: Starts at $249/month.
4. Customer.io
Customer.io is an omnichannel platform that does more than just in-app messages. It brings email, SMS, and push notifications into a single workflow builder, letting you create some pretty complex, multi-channel campaigns based on what your users are doing.
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Pros: Its automation and segmentation tools are incredibly powerful, making it a solid choice for detailed marketing campaigns that cover multiple touchpoints.
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Cons: There’s a bit of a learning curve, and it feels more like a general marketing automation tool than something designed specifically for in-product experiences.
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Pricing: Starts around $100/month but goes up based on how many contacts you have and messages you send.
5. Pendo
Pendo is all about product analytics, but it also offers in-app guidance features. It’s the top choice for data-focused product teams who want to understand exactly how users are behaving and then use that data to trigger targeted messages and guides.
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Pros: It offers best-in-class analytics, combining hard usage data with feedback tools like surveys.
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Cons: It’s built for enterprise customers, so its pricing can be out of reach for startups. The design tools for creating guides are also a bit less flexible than some competitors.
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Pricing: Custom pricing, which usually means you have to get on a call with sales and sign a lengthy contract.
6. Alchemer (formerly Apptentive)
Alchemer is completely focused on the mobile app world. It’s designed to help you get rich customer feedback through highly targeted in-app surveys, rating prompts, and a two-way message center where you can chat directly with your users.
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Pros: It has deep mobile-specific features and is excellent for checking customer sentiment and heading off negative app store reviews.
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Cons: It isn’t built for web applications and doesn’t have the user onboarding features of other platforms.
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Pricing: Custom pricing.
7. UserGuiding
UserGuiding is a budget-friendly and refreshingly simple tool for creating no-code product tours, tooltips, and onboarding checklists. It’s a great starting point for early-stage companies or teams just starting to experiment with in-app guidance.
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Pros: It’s one of the most affordable options out there and is incredibly easy to set up and use.
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Cons: It doesn’t have the advanced analytics, deep integrations, or sophisticated targeting you’ll find in the more mature (and expensive) platforms.
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Pricing: Starts at $82/month.
In-app messaging best practices: How to make your messages work
Picking the right tool is only half the job. For your messages to be effective, you need to stick to a few ground rules. Here are some key in-app messaging best practices to guide your strategy.
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Segment ruthlessly: The quickest way to get your messages ignored is to send the same thing to everybody. Group your users based on their behavior (like new vs. power user), what plan they’re on, or where they are in their journey.
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Timing is everything: Don’t just show a message after a certain amount of time. Base your triggers on user actions (or a lack of action). A tooltip is most useful the first time a user sees a new feature, not five minutes after they log in.
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Personalize your content: Go beyond just using their first name. Use data from their account, like their company name or recent activity, to make the message feel like it was written just for them.
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Keep it short and clear: People scan, they don’t read. Write tight copy that gets straight to the point and has a single, obvious call-to-action (CTA).
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Match the format to the goal: Use a big, intrusive modal for a critical alert that requires an action. For optional guidance or a gentle nudge, a subtle tooltip or a small banner is a much better choice.
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Keep your knowledge consistent: Nothing is more confusing than an in-app message that says one thing while your help center says another. This is where a tool like eesel AI is a huge help. By pulling answers directly from all your existing knowledge sources, it makes sure every message is consistent and accurate without any extra work.
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Test, measure, and adjust: Use A/B testing to see what kind of messaging works best. And don’t just look at clicks. See how your messages affect important things like feature adoption, user retention, and how many support tickets you get.
In-app messaging made simple to streamline customer communication.
Applying in-app messaging best practices to start a conversation
Good in-app messaging isn’t about blasting users with pop-ups. It’s about delivering helpful, personalized information that feels like a natural part of the product. It should be a conversation, not an interruption.
Modern AI tools are making this easier than ever by automating the creation and delivery of smart messages that can anticipate what a user needs. They connect to the knowledge you already have, learn from past conversations, and provide help at the exact moment it’s needed.
If you’re tired of manually writing every single message and want to put your company’s collective knowledge to work, try eesel AI for free or book a 30 minutes demo. You can get it up and running in minutes and see for yourself how an AI-powered approach can change how you talk to your users.
Frequently asked questions
The biggest mistake is sending generic, untargeted messages to every user. Effective messaging relies on ruthless segmentation and triggering messages based on user behavior, not just showing a pop-up to everyone who logs in.
Look beyond click rates and analyze the impact on key business metrics. A good strategy will lead to higher feature adoption, better user retention rates, and a measurable reduction in routine support tickets.
Yes, the context is key. Mobile messages must be even more concise and less intrusive due to smaller screens and a lower tolerance for interruption. Web apps allow for more complex guides like multi-step product tours that might feel overwhelming on mobile.
For a new feature, use a subtle tooltip to point it out the very first time a relevant user segment sees it. For returning users who haven’t engaged, you could show a small, dismissible banner. Finally, trigger a brief survey after they successfully use the feature to gather feedback.
Start with user onboarding. A simple welcome message and a checklist or short product tour for new users can dramatically improve activation and retention. These initial interactions have the highest impact for the lowest effort.
AI automates personalization and ensures consistency at scale. Instead of manually writing rules, an AI tool like eesel can pull answers from your existing knowledge base to provide contextual, accurate help right when the user needs it.
