In-App Surveys: A Comprehensive Playbook

Within 30 days of installing an app, roughly 97% of users uninstall it or become inactive.

Instead of trying to guess why users abandon an app, you can ask them directly by conducting surveys inside the app.

This gives them a voice in the moments that matter, so organizations can move beyond assumptions and improve their products based on input straight from their users.

In this post, you'll learn about in-app surveys, their benefits, formats and types, and best practices for implementation. 

What Are In-App Surveys?

The in-app survey is a method to capture user feedback directly within applications during active usage.

The benefits are many:

• They receive more responses than e-mail surveys

• They provide contextual feedback that may be hard to get through traditional methods.

• They can increase app engagement.

• They help target specific user segments based on behaviors or characteristics.

• They allow businesses to connect feedback directly to specific features, screens, or interactions.

How Different Teams Can Use In-App Surveys

Running surveys inside an app can benefit many teams across an organization. Each department should ask questions specific to its needs, and only when relevant.

The following is practical guidance for different teams on what to ask and when.

Product Teams

In-app surveys help product teams make better decisions throughout the product life cycle. In fact, 79% of teams use them as their primary research method for user experience data.

Product teams should use in-app surveys during the following periods:

• Beta testing: Validate ideas during product development and refine and prioritize features before launch.

• Post-launch: Measure satisfaction and uncover usability issues.

• After onboarding: Understand first impressions and feature adoption. 

• At subscription renewal decision points: Learn what's influencing renewal or churn, know if the pricing feels fair, and gather competitive intelligence about alternative solutions.

• Before retiring a feature: Assess ongoing relevance and user reliance.

Product teams can use the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) survey to gather targeted feedback. This helps them assess how well specific features are meeting user needs with questions like:

• "How satisfied were you with this feature?"

• "What could we improve here?"

They can also use a User Research Recruitment survey to find participants for more in-depth interviews or usability tests. This survey type has questions like:

• "What best describes your role?"

• "Would you join a 30-minute feedback call?"

Engineering Teams

Engineering teams often focus on behind-the-scenes performance. However, app user surveys can give them front-line visibility into how users actually experience the product.

Effective periods for these teams to conduct surveys are:

• After errors or failed tasks: Collect real-time context to troubleshoot product issues.

• After integrations or setup steps: Validate backend workflows from the user's perspective.

• During slow interactions: Identify lag or instability across environments and their causes.

To capture these insights, engineering teams can use a Customer Effort Score (CES) survey. These surveys aid in understanding how difficult or not the experience felt. They may include questions like:

• "Was this task easy to complete?"

• "What made it harder than expected?"

• "How can we make this step simpler?"

Marketing and Growth Teams

For marketing and growth teams, running surveys in their app offers direct access to user motivations and discovery paths.

They should send the questions out:

• After onboarding: Understand how users discovered the app, what drew them in, and validate persona assumptions.

• At value delivery moments: Test message clarity and positioning resonance.

• At milestones in the customer journey: Identify promoters for testimonials, reviews, or referral programs.

Marketing teams can use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey to identify brand advocates and loyal users. This allows them to segment promoters, passives, and detractors. Some example NPS questions include:

• "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?"

• "What's the main reason for your score?"

• "What would make you more likely to recommend us?"

Customer Success Teams

Customer success (CS) teams use these surveys to surface friction points early, improve the onboarding experience, and proactively reduce support needs. They may survey customers at the following times:

• After onboarding: Identify confusion and refine the learning experience.

• Following support interactions: Measure resolution quality and satisfaction.

• At usage milestones (30/60/90 days): Reinforce value and spot at-risk users.

CS teams can use the CSAT survey to measure the quality of support experiences or key workflows. When they want to understand effort levels during tasks like onboarding or completing a setup, the CES survey is also valuable.

9 In-App Survey Formats 

There are several formats you can use to ask questions in your app. They all have unique graphic interfaces and data collection methods that make them better suited for certain survey types.

Let's look at the nine most common formats.

Modal Dialogs

Modal surveys appear at the screen's center with a dimmed background overlay. These require users to attend to them before proceeding.

Variations include:

• Centered modals with partial screen coverage and dimmed background (like in the image above).

• Full-screen modals that take over the entire interface.

• Exit-intent modals that appear when users show signs of leaving the application.

Banner Surveys

Banner surveys display horizontally at the top or bottom of screens.

Variations include:

• Sticky header banners that remain visible as users scroll.

• Footer banners that appear at the bottom of the viewport.

• Collapsible banners that can be minimized but remain accessible for later interaction.

• Toast-style banners that appear briefly before auto-dismissing if not engaged with.

Slide-Out Surveys

Slide-out surveys animate in from the edge of the screen, usually from the side or corner.

Variations include:

• Side drawer surveys that slide from left or right screen edges.

• Corner peek surveys that emerge partially from a corner, expanding only when engaged.

• Persistent slide-outs that remain visible until explicitly dismissed.

Embedded Feedback Forms

These surveys are integrated into the app's interface, becoming a natural part of the user experience.

Variations include:

• In-line feedback forms built directly into product pages or features.

• Dedicated feedback tabs permanently accessible in navigation menus.

Micro-Surveys

These brief surveys consist of just 1-3 questions designed for rapid completion without much user effort.

Variations include:

• Single or multiple-choice question popups focused on one specific aspect of customer experience.

• Emoji reaction surveys using visual sentiment indicators as quick response options.

• Thumbs up/down binary feedback mechanisms requiring minimal decision-making.

• Star or number rating (like a 1-10 scale) micro-surveys that capture quantitative feedback in seconds.

• Voice micro-surveys allowing brief verbal feedback.

Interactive Widget Surveys

These surveys use interactive elements beyond standard form inputs to gather feedback.

Variations include:

• Pulse surveys using interactive visualization like heartbeats or waves.

• Point-and-click feedback allowing users to select specific elements.

• Drag-and-drop priority surveys for ranking features or issues.

• Heat map surveys where users can click on areas of an interface to provide feedback.

• Annotation surveys allowing markup of screenshots or interface elements.

Progress-Based Surveys

Surveys that appear based on user progress through tasks or product lifecycle.

Variations include:

• Milestone surveys triggered after completing significant actions.

• Onboarding checkpoint surveys at key points in the setup process.

• Gradualized feedback collection that builds a profile over multiple brief interactions.

• Usage threshold surveys triggered after a certain amount of feature usage.

Conversation-Style Surveys

These mimic human conversation and may not follow the usual survey formats.

Variations include:

• Dynamic branching conversations that adapt questions based on previous answers.

• Chatbot surveys using conversational UI and natural language processing capabilities to ask questions sequentially (formatted like instant messaging conversations).

Gamified Survey Formats

These use game mechanics to increase engagement with feedback collection.

Variations include:

• Feedback that offers rewards after completion.

• Progress bar surveys showing completion percentage to encourage finishing.

• Interactive story surveys where feedback is collected through narrative choices.

• Unlock-based surveys where completing feedback unlocks features or content.

Time-Sensitive Survey Formats

These surveys have temporal aspects in their presentation or availability.

Variations include:

• Limited-time survey creating urgency for participation.

• Countdown surveys visible only for a specified duration

• Scheduled feedback sessions that appear at optimal times based on usage patterns.

Survey Best Practices 

If you don't conduct in-app surveys well, they can be ignored or frustrate your users.

Below are some common mistakes teams make and best practices to avoid them.

Asking Complicated or Biased Questions 

Poorly written survey questions can confuse users or steer them toward certain answers. For example, a question like "Why do you love our new dashboard?" assumes the user likes it, which might not be true.

Instead, you should:

• Keep questions neutral. For example, ask, "How helpful was our dashboard in your last session?"

• Don't bundle things like "design and performance" into a single ask. Ask one thing at a time in plain language. For example, in a dating app, you could ask: "Was it easy to complete your profile?"

• Avoid technical terms or jargon that might confuse newer users.

• Skip questions if you already have the answers in analytics, like feature usage stats.

• Test your questions internally first to identify weak spots.

This keeps feedback honest and useful.

Making Surveys Hard To Use 

If your feedback survey design feels clunky, users will drop off. In gaming apps, for instance, if a feedback prompt covers key controls, users will likely dismiss it immediately.

Keep this in mind:

• Design for mobile devices and thumb-friendly interaction: Large buttons, short answers, and clear skip options.

• Show a progress bar if there's more than one question.

• Ensure surveys adapt across screen sizes and devices.

• Use app survey tools like Typeform or Refiner, which help with smooth design and logic.

Not Using Smart Targeting To Reach the Right Users 

Blanketing all users with the same questions can reduce the usefulness of your results.

Follow these best practices:

• Target specific customer segments, like first-time users or long-time subscribers. 

• Use behavior-based triggers, such as "User completed onboarding" or "User explored a new feature."

• Time surveys for weekdays: 78% of responses happen Monday through Friday.

Smarter targeting can improve response rates.

Getting Bogged Down by Limited Tech Resources 

Teams sometimes delay survey launches because they think developer help is always needed or because integration with the product feels too complex. That's not always true.

Do this:

• Use lightweight survey tools that don't require coding.

• Start with simple surveys (like a quick thumbs-up/thumbs-down) and expand later.

You don't always need a big buildout to get started. Even if basic, early feedback is better than none.

Collecting Qualitative Data Without Knowing How To Analyze It 

Open-ended responses give valuable insights but can be overwhelming at scale. Many teams struggle to sort and make sense of them.

You can do this:

• Group responses by themes (for example, "confusing sign-up" or "slow performance"). Look for trends, not one-off comments.

• Connect survey results with user behavior, such as users who gave low scores dropping off at the same point.

• Use basic sentiment analysis or spreadsheet filters if you don't have a full data team.

Ignoring Linguistic and Cultural Differences

If your user base is global, language and culture matter.

A question that feels polite in English might come across as intrusive elsewhere. In regions with limited digital fluency, even basic wording can feel intimidating.

Keep this in mind:

• Translate surveys into the languages your target audience prefers.

• Check phrasing for cultural sensitivity, not just grammar.

• Avoid idioms like "hit the ground running" or "in a pinch" that don't translate well.

This shows respect and improves response quality.

Not Following Up After a User Gives Feedback

If you don't close the loop, users may feel ignored and may not participate the next time they receive a survey.

Don't forget to:

• Thank users after each survey. Let them know their input matters, even if a change isn't immediate.

• Share updates like: "Thanks for your valuable feedback. We simplified the sign-up flow."

Key Use Cases for In-App Surveys 

Conducting surveys in an app is a powerful way to learn directly from users while they're using your product. When done well, they help teams understand what is and isn't working and improve the product experience in a variety of use cases.

Here are the most common app types and situations where you may run surveys in your app.

Educational Platforms

Educational apps can use these surveys to understand learners' feelings about course content.

They can also use them to:

• Ask students to rate the effectiveness of their instructor.

• Check if users found a new study tool easy to use.

• Take a post-interaction survey to learn if a lesson felt too hard or too easy to fine-tune learning paths.

Healthcare Applications

Telehealth apps can use surveys to improve virtual consultations. For example, after a video appointment, ask if the patient got the support they needed.

They could also:

• Gather opinions on how easy it was to schedule or cancel visits.

• Ask if daily medication reminders are showing up at the right time.

Social Networks

Social platforms benefit from asking users about the relevance of content and ease of use.

For example, after showing a recommended post, ask if it felt interesting or off-topic.

Other ideas include:

• Asking whether the app's layout feels simple to navigate.

• Getting feedback on the usefulness of profile suggestions.

• Checking if community guidelines feel clear and fair.

Collaboration Tools

Team productivity platforms can use these surveys to improve teamwork and workflows.

For example, after a new team member completes onboarding, ask if the setup instructions were clear and helpful.

They can also consider:

• Asking users if their favorite integrations (like calendars or task boards) work as expected.

• Checking if the app helps them stay aligned with their team goals.

• Collecting feature requests that would improve teamwork.

Financial Apps

Finance apps can check whether users feel confident and secure when managing money digitally.

In addition, they can:

• Ask whether users clearly understood fee breakdowns after a transaction.

• Collect feedback on how easy it is to edit or cancel recurring payments.

• Survey users after trying budgeting tools to see if they helped reduce spending stress.

• Find out if users think certain premium features are worth the cost.

• Ask whether users find it easy to use security features like two-factor authentication.

Marketplace Apps

Apps in commerce can use these surveys to improve trust and satisfaction during the user journey.

For example, after receiving an item, ask if the product matched expectations and if the delivery felt timely.

Other smart use cases:

• Check whether users think prices or service fees are reasonable.

• Survey buyers on how easy it was to find and filter relevant products.

Gaming Applications

Gaming apps often rely on feedback to balance difficulty and boost player satisfaction.

For example, after a tutorial, ask if the controls and objectives were clear.

They can also:

• Let players rate whether levels were too hard or too easy.

• Ask how they feel about value for money in in-game purchases.

Conclusion 

Now that we've covered what in-app surveys are and how they work, we hope it's clearer how useful they can be. They're a quick way to gather qualitative feedback without interrupting the user experience.

Whether you're testing a new feature or measuring NPS, in-app surveys give you insight into where it matters most: Inside the product.