How to Create Interactive Content

Interactive content turns passive users into active participants, and that’s where real engagement happens. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create interactive content for mobile apps using stories, quizzes, games, and swipeable formats. We’ll cover what works, how to build it step by step, and what real brands like METRO and Deezer achieved using these formats.

What Is Interactive Content?

Interactive content is any digital format that requires users to do something: tap, swipe, answer, rate, or play. Unlike static screens, interactive content invites users to participate and it is experienced.

Common formats include:

• Quizzes and polls
• Interactive stories with buttons and conditional paths
• Swipe cards and carousels
• Mini-games or reward-based sequences
• Countdown timers and dynamic infographics

These formats help your app feel alive. Users are making decisions, give feedback, and explore.

The best part? Interactive content isn’t limited to entertainment apps. It works in telecom, fintech, food delivery, e-commerce, health tech, and more. Wherever your app has users, you can add interaction to guide behavior.

⚡ Want to learn how brands use this approach strategically? Check our article on interactive content marketing.

Why Create Interactive Content in Mobile Apps?

Mobile users are flooded with passive content. Static banners. Generic push notifications. Endless scrolls. Most of it gets ignored.

Interactive content breaks that pattern. When users can tap, answer, vote, or explore, they’re more likely to stay longer, remember more, and take action. Here’s why it works:

1. It Increases Engagement

Users who interact with content tend to view more screens, stay longer, and return more often. InAppStory data shows:

✔ Deezer: +3.5 stories viewed per session, with an average 40 seconds of engagement per story. 

✔ Tele2: +50% daily active users after launching an interactive game campaign.

2. It Boosts Conversions

When content is dynamic, users feel like they’re part of the experience. This increases click-throughs and promo redemptions.

✔ METRO used daily “Product of the Day” stories resulting in a 37% conversion increase and 34-second longer sessions.

✔ Dodo Pizza saw a 15.9% CTR and millions of story views with their interactive “Love Is” game.

3. It Helps You Learn About Your Users

Each tap or answer is a data point. Interactive formats give you zero-party data — information users provide willingly. You can use it to personalize future content, segment audiences, or optimize offers.

4. It Works Across Industries

Interactive content isn’t limited to games or entertainment apps. It’s already working in:

• Retail: Story-based promotions and bundle offers.
• Telecom: Loyalty games and feature education.
• Food Tech: Holiday challenges, rewards, onboarding.
• Health & Wellness: Interactive tutorials, habit tracking.
• Media & Streaming: Music discovery, artist campaigns.

How to Create Interactive Content (Step-by-Step)

Creating interactive content doesn’t have to be time-consuming or overly technical especially when you’re using the right tools. Here’s how to do it in five focused steps:

✅ Step 1: Pick the Right Format for the Goal

Before you start designing, define what you want to achieve.

📌 Pro tip: InAppStory supports 15+ interactive widgets, including polls, quizzes, countdowns, and dynamic buttons — all embedded inside stories.

✅ Step 2: Align Content with User Behavior

Use your app data to build context-aware content. For example:

• New user? Show a 3-step onboarding story.
• Cart abandoner? Launch a story with a reminder and offer.
• Power user? Offer early access to a feature or campaign.

You can set up tags or custom triggers in InAppStory to launch specific stories based on behavior or segment.

✅ Step 3: Build the Experience in the Console

Once the SDK is integrated, you can build and publish stories without dev help. Inside the console, you can:

• Create from scratch or start with a ready-made template
• Drag and drop slides, text, buttons, and widgets
• Add personalization (e.g., “Hi Alex”) using dynamic variables
• Upload branded visuals and set your fonts/colors
• Set start/end dates, or trigger stories on specific in-app actions

💡 You can preview and test the story in a real app environment before publishing.

✅ Step 4: Launch and Monitor

When your story is ready, hit publish. It will appear instantly in your mobile app, no App Store update needed.

Use built-in analytics to track:

• Views
• Completion rate
• Clicks on specific elements
• Drop-off points

This lets you iterate quickly and adjust what doesn’t work.

✅ Step 5: Reuse and Scale

The best teams don’t start from zero each time. They build reusable templates and logic paths:

• Weekly offers with only visual changes
• Holiday countdowns with new themes
• Recurring polls for NPS or satisfaction check-ins

InAppStory lets you duplicate, localize, and A/B test up to 5 versions of a single story.

What Makes Interactive Content Actually Work?

Not all interactive content performs well. Adding a quiz or a swipe mechanic doesn’t guarantee results. The real value comes from how it’s structured and who sees it. Here are the factors that separate high-performing content from forgettable gimmicks:

1. Purpose Before Format

Start with intent, not features. Ask:

• What do I want the user to think, feel, or do?
• Is this story for discovery, conversion, or feedback?
• What comes next in the journey?

Users can feel the difference between content with a point and content created just to fill a slot.

2. Simple, Sequential Flow

Each slide should do one thing: inform, engage, or invite action.

Avoid overcrowding. Avoid 10-slide lectures. Instead, break complex ideas into a lightweight, tappable flow. Example:

1. “Something new is here 👀”
2. “Now in your profile: [new feature]”
3. “Want to try it now?” → CTA button

3. Reward Early, Reward Often

Users drop off fast if the value isn’t immediate. The first 3 slides matter most.

• Start with a surprise
• Use countdowns or scratch-to-reveal moments
• Let users unlock content after just one tap

💡 “Spin to win” stories work because users get feedback instantly.

4. Personalization That’s Subtle (But Powerful)

It’s not just about adding a name. Real personalization connects with:

• User location or language
• Purchase history or session frequency
• Interests collected from previous story interactions

Example: “Hey Maria, we picked these for your winter mornings.”

With InAppStory, you can insert these variables dynamically and control story visibility based on tags.

5. Constant Testing, Not Just Publishing

Even great content can flop if timing or format is off. Use A/B testing and analytics to compare:

• Completion rates
• CTA clicks
• Story version performance by segment

InAppStory lets you run up to 5 versions of a story and track their results side by side.

Real Examples from InAppStory Clients

These companies added interactive content to solve real problems. From increasing conversions to reactivating users, here’s what happened when teams put interactive stories into action.

Welltory — Educating Without Losing Users

Use case: Interactive onboarding and retention

• Launched tutorial stories to guide smartwatch users
• Used stories to explain subscription benefits and track health goals

Result:

1. 700,000 monthly story opens
2. 70% story engagement rate
3. 12.5% conversion to in-story offers

Dodo Pizza — Engaging with Emotion

Use case: User engagement via storytelling and games

• Ran a campaign with a memory game and postcard creator inside a story format
• Tied to Valentine’s Day and “Love Is” brand theme

Result:

1. 2.5 million unique story views
2. 320,000+ custom postcards generated
3. 15.9% click-through rate (CTR)

These brands succeeded because they didn’t just “add content.” They made it interactive, useful, and native to their app flow.

Conclusion

When people can tap, swipe, vote, or explore inside your app, they’re not just consuming—they’re connecting. With InAppStory, teams can create and publish interactive stories in minutes. No dev support needed. No extra code. Just real engagement delivered through real interaction.

Whether you’re onboarding users, promoting seasonal campaigns, collecting feedback, or increasing LTV — interactive stories work.

The best part? You don’t have to guess. You can test, track, and scale what works. If your app feels flat or your engagement metrics have stalled, it might be time to stop pushing static content and start building experiences your users can feel.

To sum up:

• Interactive content turns passive users into active participants
• Works best in mobile apps across industries: retail, telecom, food, health, and media
• Most effective formats: stories, quizzes, polls, reward mechanics
• InAppStory makes it possible to launch and manage interactive content without devs
• Real examples show 15–50% boosts in engagement, CTR, or conversions
• Key: keep it simple, goal-focused, and personalized.