Do users expect push notifications to be send after logging off a mobile app?

Question

I'm working on a mobile app in which users can log off themselves manually. However inside our app users can subscribe or unsubscribe for push-notifications. We're discussing internally if users should receive push-notifications in case they log off, even though being subscribed for push-notifications. The logout exists mainly because of IT-security reasons. From a data protection point of view we clarified that sending push notifications are feasible as long as a user is subscribed to it.

Do users expect push notifications to be send after logging off a mobile app? Is there any best practice or research on what mobile users expect from logging off a mobile app in general?

During my research I came across the point of "device sharing", which is an argument for deleting all personal data and not sending personal push notifications after a logout. However I feel this use case might be outdated for mobile apps and might / should be handled a layer above on OS level (comparable to a computer with several personal accounts). Any thoughts are appreciated!

Answer 1

I would expand your research to user research and try to find out what your users are actually expecting from your app. The question is broad and even if you find some general rule of thumb it won't necessarily apply to your domain and your users.

Answer 2

As you mentioned log off is there for security reason and probably you want users to logout before quitting the app, then best way is auto logging out user either after certain inactivity time (user can set inactive time him or herself) or as app goes to background (not in focus), this type of behavior is very common for high security apps like banking app, 2FA etc.

Push notifications only work for subscribed user and is not of any use for not subscribed users anyways.

Logging out notification might becoming very annoying as user performed this action intentionally and it not helping the user in anyway.