Short answers to the questions we hear most, and a checklist for the cases when a survey does not behave as expected.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a developer?
Once, to add the SDK to the app and to send it events. After that, creating surveys, targeting them and switching them on and off happens in Responsly. See Install the Responsly Mobile SDK in your app.
Which platforms are supported?
iOS, Android, React Native (including Expo development builds), Flutter and Unity.
How do I get the SDK?
The feature is switched on per team and the packages are provided on request. Write to contact@responsly.com with the name of your team and the platforms you build for.
Do I have to release a new app version to change a survey?
No. Questions, logic, design, targeting and frequency are set in Responsly. Apps pick up changes within about 10 minutes. A release is needed only to install or update the SDK, or to send a new event, screen name or user attribute.
Which question types work in the app?
All of them. The survey in the app is the same form that opens from a link, with its logic, translations and theme.
Does it work offline?
No. The app needs a connection when the survey is shown. Without one the survey is skipped, and the user sees nothing.
Will a user see the same survey on two devices?
They can. The history of shown surveys is kept on each device, so a survey set to Once can appear once on a phone and once on a tablet.
Can a survey open from a button?
Yes. A form with the Mobile app channel on can be opened from the app’s own code with its Survey ID, for example from a “Give feedback” button. Developers: Show a survey manually.
Can the app stop a survey at a bad moment?
Yes. The app can pause surveys during a checkout or a call, and decide at the last moment whether a survey may appear. Developers: Control when surveys appear.
What data does the SDK collect?
It decides on the device who sees a survey, so events and attributes are not uploaded for targeting. Responsly receives anonymous counts of surveys shown, closed and completed, and the responses themselves. The SDK uses no advertising identifier and no location. See Identify app users and pass data to responses.
The survey does not appear
Go through the list from the top. Most cases end at one of the first four points.
- The channel is on and saved. On Share → Mobile app, the switch Show this form in the mobile app is on and there is no Unsaved changes note next to Save.
- Ten minutes have passed. Apps refresh their settings about every 10 minutes. On a test phone, reinstall the test build to get them at once.
- The trigger name matches. Event and screen names are compared exactly, including upper and lower case. Ask your developer which names the app sends.
- It was not shown before. With the frequency Once, a survey appears one time on a device, also when it was closed without an answer. While testing, use Every time.
- The occurrence number is reached. With From occurrence no. set to 3, the first two events do nothing.
- The user is in the audience. Check platforms, the Users list, attribute conditions, languages and app IDs. A test build often has a different app ID than the store version.
- The share of users is 100 while you test. With a lower value, your test phone may be outside the sample, and it stays outside.
- The dates are right. Show from is in the past and Show until is in the future, or both are empty.
- The pause between surveys is over. Hours between any two forms blocks every survey after another one was shown.
- The phone is online.
If all of this is right, the cause is in the app. The SDK writes the reason a survey was not shown to its debug log. Send your developer the link: Testing & debugging.
Tip: A quick way to split the problem in two: ask your developer to open the survey from code with the force option. If it appears, the SDK, the key and the network are fine, and the cause is one of the rules above.
The survey appeared once and never again
That is what the frequency Once does. To bring a survey back, choose Until completed, Repeatedly or Every time in the How often card. See Set how often a mobile survey appears.
With a repeating mode, check Days between displays, Maximum displays and Hours between any two forms.
The survey is in the wrong language
The app shows the translation that matches the device language and falls back to the form’s own language. Add the missing translation to the form: Multilingual Surveys. If your app has its own language setting, the developer has to pass it to the SDK: Language.
Responses have no user ID or attributes
| Check | Fix |
|---|---|
| The form has no hidden field with that name. | Add a hidden field named user_id, and one for each attribute, named exactly like the attribute. |
| Anonymous responses is on. | Turn it off in the Appearance card if you want to know who answered. |
| The app identifies the user too late. | The developer should identify the user as soon as they log in, before a survey can appear. |
See Identify app users and pass data to responses.
The Activity card stays at zero
- Counts are sent in small batches. Put the test app in the background, wait a moment and reload the tab.
- Only surveys that actually appeared are counted. Check the list above first.
- The app may have switched the SDK off for this user, for example because they declined tracking.
The survey appears at a bad moment
Add a Delay, or use a trigger that happens after the user has finished what they were doing, such as an order confirmation instead of the payment screen. For moments only the app knows about, see Can the app stop a survey at a bad moment?
Still stuck?
Write to us with the platform, the SDK version, the Survey ID and, if your developer can get them, the lines of the SDK’s debug log. More cases, including build errors, are in the developer documentation: Troubleshooting.
