Migrating from another push provider

The short answer: you keep the readers who come back, and they never see a new prompt.

You can't export a subscriber list from one push tool and import it into another. But you don't need to: every reader who already allowed your notifications is moved to SharePush automatically, the next time they open any page of your site.

#How it works

The permission belongs to your website, not to your push tool. When a reader clicks Allow, the browser remembers that answer for your domain, whichever tool asked the question.
The subscription belongs to the tool. Each push tool signs its subscriptions with its own keys, so another tool can't send to them. That's why a list can't be exported.
SharePush bridges the two on the next visit. When a reader who already allowed notifications opens your site, the SDK sees that permission is already granted, clears the old tool's subscription and creates a SharePush one. There's no prompt and nothing to click. From that visit on, they are a SharePush subscriber.

#Step by step

Remove the old tool's code from every page. Take out its script tag, plugin or tag-manager tag. Two push SDKs on the same page compete for the same service worker.
Install SharePush. Add the script to your pages and put sharepush-sw.js at your domain root, as described in Overview & Quick Start.
Turn on migration mode. In your dashboard, open Prompt Designer → Basics → Advanced switches and tick Legacy migration mode. If you configure the SDK in code, set legacyMigrationMode: true in Sharepush.init().
Publish, then watch readers arrive. In Prompt Performance, open your prompt configuration: the Moved from another provider box counts the readers who were moved over without seeing a prompt.

 1<script src="https://api.sharepush.io/api/v1/sdk.js"></script>
 2<script>
 3Sharepush.init({
 4  apiUrl: 'https://api.sharepush.io',
 5  apiKey: 'YOUR_SITE_TOKEN',
 6  serviceWorkerPath: '/sharepush-sw.js',
 7  legacyMigrationMode: true, // only while you switch
 8});
 9</script>

#Your old tool during the switch

You can keep sending from your old tool while readers move over. When SharePush moves a reader, it also cancels the old tool's subscription in that reader's browser, so the old tool can't reach them anymore and nobody gets the same story twice. Readers who haven't come back yet keep getting your old tool's notifications until they do.

This works wherever your old tool installed its service worker. SharePush only cancels the old tool's push subscription and leaves the worker itself in place, so anything else it does on your site (an offline page, for example) keeps working.

#When to turn migration mode off

Migration mode is what moves readers over and cancels their old subscription, so the order matters:

Stop sending from your old tool once its list has stopped shrinking.
Then turn migration mode off. With it off, a reader who comes back later is no longer moved over cleanly, and could get notifications from both tools if the old one is still sending.

The Moved from another provider count tells you when you're there: once it stops rising, most of your returning readers have moved.

#What can't be moved

Readers who never come back to your site. The move happens on a visit, so they stay on the old tool's list.
Readers who blocked notifications, or turned them off in their browser settings.
Subscribers collected on another address. Permission is remembered per address: example.com and www.example.com count as two different sites, and so does a subdomain your old tool hosted for you.

#FAQ

Will my readers see the opt-in prompt again? No. If they already allowed notifications on this site, SharePush moves them over silently.

Will my subscriber count drop? Your SharePush count starts from zero and grows as readers come back. Your most loyal readers come back first, so the readers you lose are mostly those who had already stopped visiting.

Can I import my subscribers from a CSV or an export? No. Browsers don't allow it: a subscription only works with the keys of the tool that created it. That's why the move happens on the reader's next visit instead.

Will readers get notifications from both tools during the switch? No. The moment a reader is moved to SharePush, the old tool's subscription in their browser is cancelled. Keep migration mode on for as long as the old tool is still sending.

Does this work with any provider? Yes. It doesn't depend on the old tool, only on the permission your readers gave your site. OneSignal, PushEngage and the rest all work the same way.