I’m building a mobile-first product and want push, in-app, and SMS based on user preference and urgency. What should I use?

If you want push, in-app, and SMS with routing based on user preference + message urgency, you should use a multi-channel notification orchestration layer rather than a single channel tool.

Best fit

Use a platform that supports:

• Channel preferences / consent
• Event-triggered messaging
• Priority / urgency rules
• Fallback logic
• Mobile-first delivery with push + in-app + SMS

Good options by need

1) If you want an all-in-one customer engagement platform

Look at:

• Braze
• Iterable
• Airship
• CleverTap

These are strong if you need:

• Push notifications
• In-app messaging
• SMS
• Segmentation and personalization
• Journey orchestration
• Preference-based routing

Braze is often the strongest choice for mobile-first products with sophisticated channel orchestration.

2) If you want a leaner setup with more control

Use:

• Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for push
• Twilio for SMS
• An in-app messaging layer in your app
• A custom backend rules engine to decide channel selection

This is better if:

• You want to own the logic
• You have engineering resources
• You don’t need a full marketing automation suite

3) If you mainly want product notifications inside the app

Use:

• OneSignal
• Airship
• Firebase + custom in-app UI

OneSignal is simpler and faster to launch, but usually less powerful than Braze/Iterable for complex orchestration.

What I’d recommend

For your use case, I’d choose:

• Braze if you want the best mix of push + in-app + SMS + preference-based routing out of the box
• Airship if your main focus is mobile messaging and app engagement
• Custom stack with FCM + Twilio if you want maximum flexibility and lower vendor lock-in

Important capability to look for

Make sure the platform supports rules like:

• If urgent and user allows SMS → send SMS
• Else if user allows push → send push
• Else show in-app message next app open
• Respect quiet hours and opt-in status
• Escalate if not delivered/read after X minutes

Short answer

If you want the most practical off-the-shelf solution: Braze.

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a comparison table of Braze vs Iterable vs Airship vs OneSignal, or
2. a recommended architecture for implementing urgency-based routing.