Playbook
Optimize Permission Requests: Ask at the Right Time
Move every notification, location, and tracking permission ask to the right step in your onboarding flow — and re-test the timing without an app release.
Place each permission ask exactly where it belongs in your onboarding flow — after the user understands the value — and change the timing without an app release. Asking for notifications, location, or tracking on the first screen is one of the easiest opt-ins to lose. Superwall lets you move the ask to the right moment and re-test it without shipping a build.
Why it matters
Permission opt-ins are a quiet funnel lever. A notification prompt fired before the user knows why your app exists gets a reflexive “no” — and once denied, it’s hard to win back. The same goes for location, camera, and App Tracking Transparency, which feeds attribution.
The problem usually isn’t the ask. It’s the timing. Most apps hard-code the prompt into an early screen, so fixing it means an engineering ticket and a new build. Superwall’s customers consistently ask to treat onboarding as a full-funnel growth surface they can keep optimizing — not a static sequence frozen at ship time. Moving a permission prompt to the right step is exactly that kind of optimization.
What you can do with Superwall
Ask at the right moment, not the first screen. Permission prompts let you request system permissions like notifications, location, and camera at the point in a flow where the user has already seen the value.
Attach the ask to any button. Request Permission is a tap behavior you wire onto a button or tappable component — not a separate element — so the native dialog fires when the user taps.
Cover every system permission you need. Notifications, Location (when in use), Background Location, Read Images, Contacts, Camera, Microphone, and App Tracking Transparency are all supported.
Branch on the answer. Use If Granted / If Denied follow-up actions to advance on grant, or show a “here’s why it helps” page on deny.
Build it inside your onboarding flow. Permission prompts live in the same Flows editor you use for onboarding, surveys, and upsells, alongside multiple choice, input, indicator, and date-picker elements.
Change the timing without an app release. Because the flow is remote-configured, your growth team can move the ask, rewrite the priming copy, and re-test — no engineering queue, no new build.
How it works
Build the priming step. In the Flows editor, add a page that explains the benefit of the permission before you ask for it.
Attach Request Permission to a button. Select the button, set its tap behavior to Request Permission, and choose which permission to request. On iOS, the SDK wires it to the correct system APIs and Info.plist keys for you.
Add If Granted / If Denied branches. Define what happens next for each outcome using follow-up actions.
Test both paths in the editor. When a permission request fires in preview, Superwall shows a simulation toast with Grant and Deny buttons that trigger the matching branch — so you verify the full flow without deploying to a device.
Ship it and measure. Use Flow Journey analytics to see drop-off at each step and compare how different timing variants perform.
The product also reflects the docs’ own best practice: request permissions after providing value, explain the benefit clearly (e.g., “Get notified about exclusive deals”), and consider placing the ask after a key engagement moment.
Use cases
Notification priming: Explain the value, then fire the notification prompt one step later — and re-test where it lands without a build.
ATT at the right moment: Place the App Tracking Transparency ask after the user is invested, to protect attribution signal.
Permission-gated features: Prime camera, photos, or microphone access right before the feature that needs it.
Recover declines: Use an If Denied branch to explain why a permission helps and offer a second chance.
A/B test timing: Run two onboarding variants that ask at different steps and compare opt-in and downstream conversion in Flow Journey.
Get started
Start with the Permission Prompts guide and Getting Started with Flows, then make sure your app is set up via the Superwall quickstart. Create a free account at superwall.com and move your first permission ask to the right moment.