
Ask HN: Can I email people who use my app? - alacs543
I released an app an app a while ago, that initially suffered from not having a free-trial period.<p>People were downloading it and creating accounts, but failing to purchase premium features.  Based on my analytics, I can see that they poked around, saw that many of the features were unavailable, and never returned to the app.<p>I implemented a default free trial period as a solution, and that has been working very well with new users.  I would love to get the people who signed up before I was giving out free trials, to log back in, so that they can experience a free trial of the premium features.<p>This would require sending them an email.  I feel like this is a breach of privacy, since, I never indicated when they signed up that I would contact them or use their email in any way.  What should I do?  I&#x27;m prepared to consider that bunch of users a loss, but I figured I&#x27;d check and see if I&#x27;m crazy for not emailing them to let them know about the new free-trial period.
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saluki
When I sign up for an use an app I expect they will/could email me about the
app.

If they were interested before, they would probably like to hear about new
features and a free trial.

If you don't have a lot of users now, just add a reply with stop if you would
not like to receive emails from us. Track these manually till you come up with
an opt out email system.

Good luck converting some of the early signups to your app.

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tradersam
Unless you had an options for your users to opt out of that kind of email,
specifically telling you not to email them, giving an email address for a
service assumes the service could email you for reasons pertaining to the
product/service.

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alacs543
hmmm... fair enough. I did not give them an option to opt out of emails. I
never said anything about emailing them though.

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Gustomaximus
Laws vary quite a bit by country, and some industries have specific rules e.g.
telco/finance/pharma will have additional regulation if your app category is
here.

2 general rules that will cover you in most of the world are;

1) Service messages are OK but marketing messages should have opt-in. It can
be a fine line but keeping as a service announcement helps cover permissions.

2) Every email communication should have'unsubscribe'.

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11thEarlOfMar
E-mail them. I've been e-mailed by an app developer in a similar situation. I
used the app and he was not sure he could keep supporting it and wanted to
know if his users would be willing to pay him. It was not an issue for me as
it was a legitimate, app-related communication.

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tnorthcutt
Email them

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alacs543
Thanks for the reply. So, I can safely assume that if you signed up for an
app, you wouldn't be upset or annoyed if they randomly emailed you? Maybe I'm
unique in that way. Hence why this post :)

~~~
AnimalMuppet
I'd say that you can email them, but only _very_ infrequently. Also, your
first (and every) email to them should give them an opt-out mechanism, even if
there wasn't one when they first signed up. (This means that, if you don't
have the opt-out mechanism yet, finish that before you email them.)

