On a personal level, I hate push notifications.

Not the concept of them; that has the potential to be useful.

But most developers fire up a push notification prompt as soon as you load up a game for the first time, and then proceed to bombard you with inane requests.

No wonder the majority of people choose not to switch them on.

Still, with the industry desperate for cheap and effective ways of improving retention, if used right, PlayHaven's new move could be hitting at just the right time.

It's announced the private beta of PlayHaven Push Notifications for iOS and Android.

Another piece in the puzzle

Part of its suite of business tools for player acquisition, engagement and monetisation, PlayHaven says it's designed the system to enable developers to create targeted marketing campaigns from one web dashboard.

Notably, the push notifications can be used to direct players to specific in-game locations and are integrated with PlayHaven's rewards and virtual good promotions.

Players can also be segmented in terms of metrics such as location, language, connection, device, game version, number of sessions, last session, time in game and amount spent.

Companies already using the technology include Glu Mobile, FDG Entertainment, Gamelion Studios and Game Circus.

"We built PlayHaven to give every mobile game developer access to flexible, affordable and intelligent tools needed to build a successful business," said Andy Yang, PlayHaven's CEO.

"With the addition of push notifications, PlayHaven is now the first end-to-end solution on the market that gives developers the power to acquire, engage and monetise players whether they are in or out of the game."

You can find out more about the solution at the PlayHaven website.