Understanding in-app forms

You will learn

Learn about in-app forms and how you can use them to share important messaging with your  mobile app users.

This guide provides an overview of in-app forms, including how they work and customization options in the form editor. To learn how to create a new in-app form, please refer to our guide on How to create an in-app form.

What are in-app forms? 

Mobile in-app forms are messages that appear to users inside your mobile app, similar to how a sign-up form would appear on a website. They are designed to capture the attention of users at opportune moments when they open the app.

In-app forms created in Klaviyo will be visible to all users who open your app, making them an effective tool for engaging users while they're actively using your app and more likely to take action. 

Any account with a mobile app can use in-app forms; however, they’re only supported to display on iOS and Android devices. Your mobile app must be using version 4.2.0 of the iOS SDK or version 3.2.0 of the Android SDK or newer to publish in-app forms.

In-app forms vs. mobile push notifications

Both in-app forms and mobile push notifications serve to communicate with your app users, but they function quite differently. Understanding these differences is crucial for building these communication strategies.

Feature	Display location	Purpose	User details
In-app forms	Within the mobile app, on an app screen	Update users on news and/or prompt specific actions within the app	Users do not need to enable notification settings to see in-app forms
Mobile push notifications	On lock screens or within the notification center	Drive users into the mobile app	Users must have enabled app notifications to receive push notifications

In short, mobile push notifications and in-app forms are different but complementary: push notifications drive app opens, where in-app forms provide visual content integrated into the app experience.

How are in-app forms used?

In-app forms allow you to communicate with all users via the mobile app, including those who have disabled push notifications, ensuring broad reach for your messaging.

Unlike web forms, in-app forms cannot be used to gather consent or profile data and, therefore, do not need to be connected to a list.

In-app forms are ideal for:

• Informing users about important updates such as promotions, product launches, or live events.
• Encouraging users to take specific actions that can increase engagement and conversion rates.

Building an in-app form

The form editor allows you to create popup forms for your mobile app. You can modify the appearance, content, and behavior with the various customization options in Klaviyo's form editor. Pre-built templates for in-app forms will be available in the form library soon.

As you build, use the undo and redo buttons (rounded arrows) in the menu bar as needed. The editor automatically saves your work as you make changes, even if you leave and return later. Note that you must publish changes to see them live on your in-app form.

Add content to in-app forms

You can customize the content in your in-app forms to fit your needs. In-app forms are single step only as they’re focused on effective message delivery, making them ideal for announcement style messages. They do not include a success step or support consent collection for email or phone number input fields.

From the Add blocks tab, you can drag and drop the following content blocks into your form preview:

• Text
  • Add custom text to provide instructions, context, or other relevant information to guide the user's experience with the form.
• Button
  • Include interactive buttons to direct users to other pages within your app or prompt specific actions. 
  • If you add a button, you can configure it to deep link to a specific page in your app (like a featured collection). Note that this functionality requires that deep-linking be set up for your app. For more information on deep links, talk to your developer, or refer to our article on Using deep links in push notifications.
• Image
  • Incorporate visual elements to enhance the form's appearance and engage users.

Once added to the form preview, click on any block to access its styling and customization options (e.g., font style, size, and color, etc.).

Style an in-app form

Use the Styles tab in the form editor to modify your form's design, including:

• Height
  • Adjust the form's size and how much space it occupies on the screen.
• Background color
  • Choose the background color of the form.
• Background image (optional)
  • Include a background image and adjust its settings.
• Overlay color
  • Select a color to display behind your form. A semi-transparent overlay will highlight the form and dim the app’s content.

These are some of the key design elements, but there are additional styling options available, which you can learn more about in our guide on How to style a sign-up form. 

Configure your form’s behavior

In-app forms created in Klaviyo will always appear on the first screen of your mobile app (dependent upon your app’s configuration)

Note that in-app forms cannot be scheduled to go live or be reverted to draft status. This action must be performed manually.

The Targeting & behavior tab of the form editor contains the Display frequency setting, which allows you to choose when a form will reappear after a user closes it. The default setting is 5 days, but adjust this timing as needed. Read more about setting targeting & behavior for your in-app forms in the How to create an in-app form guide.

We also recommend enabling the Don’t show again if a Go to app screen button is clicked setting to prevent the form from reappearing after a user has engaged with it.

Analytics for in-app forms

After you create an in-app form draft, you can find it in the forms list view within your Klaviyo account, under the Sign-up forms tab. In-app forms are marked with an "In-app" badge to differentiate them from your website forms.

Once published, you can view the analytics for an in-app form by clicking the additional actions menu (3 dots), then Analytics. The analytics page shows metrics for:

• Views
• Submits
• Submit rate

When a user interacts with your form and clicks a “Go to app screen” button, Klaviyo will track both a view and submit for the form, and you can analyze these aggregate counts for the form in the Form Overview report.

Refer to our guide on Understanding form analytics for more information on these metrics and how to evaluate your in-app form's performance.

Additional resources

• How to create an in-app form
• Introduction to mobile push notifications
• Getting started with sign-up forms