Sending MessagesCopy Anchor Link

The Messages feature lets you send announcements to your members by email and text message (SMS), and optionally publish them on your website as announcements. You can send a message right away, or schedule it to go out automatically at a future date and time.

There are exactly three places a message can go: email, SMS, and your website. For everything about the website half -- who can see a post, what category it falls under, and what visitors see on the public Announcements pages -- see Website Announcements.

Where to Find MessagesCopy Anchor Link

• Organization-wide: go to /communications/messages to see and manage messages for your whole organization.
• A single group: from that group's dashboard, go to /dashboard/[group]/messages to manage messages for just that group.

Both views work the same way -- the only difference is which group(s) your message can be sent to.

The messages list is organized into up to three sections:

• Draft Messages -- Messages you're still working on. Nothing has been sent yet.
• Scheduled Messages -- Messages that will send automatically at a date and time you chose. (This section only appears if your organization has message scheduling turned on.)
• Published Messages -- Messages that have already been sent. Published messages can no longer be changed.

Creating a MessageCopy Anchor Link

1. From the messages list, click Create Message.
2. Choose a group. You pick the group when you create the message from the organization-wide list; when you open the composer from inside a group's dashboard, the group is already fixed. A recipient preview shows roughly how many people can be reached.
3. Enter a Title. It is used as the email subject line, and as the headline anywhere the message is listed on the website -- the Announcements page, a News-template page, or a Group Homepage template's Announcements section (see Website Announcements). It does not affect the text message in either of the two modes where you write the text yourself; it becomes the text message's own content when you choose A link to the website post (see Writing the Text Message below).
4. Choose the Audience. Which slice of the group's people the message is addressed to -- see Audience below.
5. Choose where it goes. Email, SMS, website, or a combination -- see Where the message goes below.
6. Write the content on the SMS, Email and Website tabs. The tabs are for content only; turning a channel on or off happens in the Delivery card, and website visibility is set on the Website tab. A small green dot on the SMS or Email tab means that channel is turned on. The dot on the Website tab means website visibility is on and there is something to publish -- either custom website content, or, when the post reuses the email body, email content. (A message set to Public that is using custom website content but has an empty website box shows no dot.) The email body supports formatting: bold, links, lists, and so on.
7. Click Create Message to save it as a draft.

AudienceCopy Anchor Link

The Audience select at the top of the Delivery card decides which slice of the group's people the message is addressed to.

Members and their delegates is the default, and a message written before this option existed behaves the same way.

A draft or scheduled message saved with the old Members only audience now goes to members and their delegates.

Where the message goes (Delivery)Copy Anchor Link

Under the Audience select, four tiles cover the common combinations. Clicking one sets every channel at once.

A few things to know about the tiles:

• A tile never overwrites a website visibility you picked yourself. This holds for all four tiles, not just Everywhere: once you have set Website Visibility on the Website tab, clicking any tile leaves that choice alone -- so a tile whose description says "nothing published to the website" will not take the message off the website. The composer shows a notice under the tiles saying it left your visibility as you set it.
• They are presets, not the only options. Once you have turned on at least one channel, any combination the tiles do not cover is labelled Custom. (Nothing is labelled while both Email and SMS are still off.) The narrower website levels -- Organization Members and Group Members Only -- are not tiles at all; they are set on the Website tab, which stays the authoritative control for website visibility.
• Each channel needs its own content. As the form puts it: "Each channel you turn on needs its own content below. Members receive a channel only where they have a confirmed contact method — a confirmed email for Email, a confirmed phone number for SMS."
• See Website Announcements for what each website visibility level means and where the post shows up.

Writing the Text Message (SMS)Copy Anchor Link

Whenever SMS is turned on, the SMS tab asks "How should this text be sent?" and offers three options. The choice decides how long the text may be and how it arrives.

An author who never opens the control gets One text message, which is how every message behaved before this option existed.

• Emoji and special characters shrink every limit. If the text contains an emoji or any other character outside the standard GSM character set, one text holds 70 characters instead of 160, and each part of a longer text holds 67 instead of 153 -- for the whole message, not just for the emoji. The composer says so explicitly when it happens.
• A live counter under the box reads something like 1 SMS segment (GSM-7) · 42 of 160 characters left in this segment. In One text message mode the counter is replaced by the over-length notice once the text no longer fits; in the several-parts mode it keeps counting, because more than one part is exactly what you asked for.
• The several-parts mode shows you where the breaks land. Under the box, a How this arrives on a phone preview lists each part exactly as a phone will receive it, flags any part that cuts off mid-word, and repeats that the parts can arrive out of order. It is a preview of the real break points, not an approximation.
• Going over the limit is blocked, not silently trimmed. The composer shows an over-length notice as you type, and publishing or scheduling is refused with a similar explanation -- over 160 characters (or 70) in One text message mode, over 10 parts in the several-parts mode. Both tell you how much of the available room the text uses. In One text message mode the suggestion is to shorten it, send it as a longer text in several parts instead, or (in the composer only, once the website channel is off) turn the website on and text a short summary; in the several-parts mode, past 10 parts the only suggestions are to shorten it or send a link to the website post instead. The publish and schedule refusals always offer the website alternative, even when the website channel is already on -- only the composer's own live notice adjusts its wording for that case.
• A draft can still be saved over the limit. Only publishing and scheduling are refused. Saving an over-length draft succeeds with a warning that the message cannot be published yet, so you can come back and finish it.
• The link option needs a website post to point at. It is selectable only when the message is also going on the website; otherwise it is greyed out with a note saying so. The generated text is built from the Title and cannot be edited, and the link itself is created when you publish. See Website Announcements.

Who Actually Receives ItCopy Anchor Link

• A message reaches exactly one group -- not its sub-groups. Only the group you chose when creating the message is addressed. This is different from the calendar, which does roll sub-groups in. If you need the people in a sub-group, address the message to that sub-group directly.
• Only active members count. A roster entry that is pending, rejected, or inactive is not a recipient.
• A member receives a channel only if they have a confirmed address or phone number for it. A confirmed email for Email; a confirmed phone number for SMS.
• Some roster members are reached through their delegates rather than directly. A member is contacted directly only if their own record allows it; otherwise the people authorized to receive notifications about them are contacted instead. This is why the recipient preview can be well below the group's total roster size -- and it is exactly what the Audience selector narrows further.
• Each member controls their own delivery preferences for your organization. A member can opt a channel off for your organization specifically, or pin delivery to particular addresses of theirs -- so a member with a perfectly good confirmed email may still receive nothing. This is their setting, not yours, and it is not visible or changeable per message.

Editing a DraftCopy Anchor Link

Draft messages can be edited at any time before they're sent:

1. From the messages list, click on the draft message, or use its Edit action.
2. Make your changes.
3. Click Update Message to save.

Note: Once a message is published (sent), it becomes permanent and can no longer be edited.

Viewing a MessageCopy Anchor Link

Every row in the messages list has a View button, which opens the message's own page at /dashboard/[group]/messages/{id} (or /communications/messages/{id} from the organization-wide list). It shows:

• A Status & Settings card with four values: Publication Status (Draft, Scheduled or Published), Website Visibility (one of the four levels -- see Website Announcements), Destination (the group, written Parent → Group when it is a sub-group), and Delivery (a summary reading Email + SMS, Email, SMS or None).
• A Message Content card with the Subject, the SMS content (or "No SMS content"), and the email content (or "No email content").
• For a published message, a table of the recipients it went to, each row showing the channel and a delivery status: Delivered, Pending, Processing, Failed or Cancelled. For failures across your whole organization, or if delivery has been blocked, see Audit Logs and Delivery Status.
• For a published message whose SMS text was the generated link to the website post, a count of link clicks. This is the only case that produces a tracked link: a link you typed into the email or SMS body yourself is not tracked. The feature must also be enabled for your organization; if link tracking is off, or the message did not use a generated link, the card does not appear at all.
• An Edit Message button. When the message is scheduled or already published the button is disabled and renamed -- Cannot Edit (Scheduled) or Cannot Edit (Published) -- with the reason and, for a scheduled message, the recovery step spelled out beneath it.

Sending a Message ImmediatelyCopy Anchor Link

1. From the messages list, find your draft and select Publish.
2. Confirm that you want to send it.

The confirmation window shows the exact text message that will go out, the email preview, and who it is going to. When the text will arrive in several parts it says how many; when it is over the limit for its mode it says so instead, and the Yes, Publish Message button is disabled until you go back and shorten it.

Once published, the message is sent right away to all eligible recipients and cannot be undone or edited.

When Publishing Is RefusedCopy Anchor Link

Publishing stops with an explanation, and nothing is sent, when:

• Neither Email nor SMS is turned on with content. A channel that is turned on but empty sends nothing, and content typed into a channel that is turned off is not sent -- so a message needs at least one channel that is both on and filled in. (A website-only post is not a thing you can publish on its own.)
• The text message is over the limit for the mode it is being sent in. In One text message mode that is longer than one text (160 characters, or 70 with an emoji); in A longer text, sent in several parts it is more than 10 parts. The generated A link to the website post text is always one text, so it is never refused for length. See Writing the Text Message above.
• A channel you turned on has nobody to send to. You'll see "No recipients found with confirmed email addresses" or "No recipients found with confirmed phone numbers". This is checked per channel, and it blocks the whole publish: turning on SMS for a group where nobody has confirmed a phone number stops the message even though the email would have gone out fine.
• The message is scheduled. Cancel the schedule first, then publish.

One thing that does not block publishing: if the SMS is set to A link to the website post and generating that link fails, the message still publishes and, when email is also on with content, the email still goes out -- the text message is simply skipped. That is the reason a successful publish can occasionally reach fewer people by SMS than you expected. (On an SMS-only message there is nothing left to send, so it is refused by the first rule above instead.)

Scheduling a Message for LaterCopy Anchor Link

Instead of sending a message right away, you can schedule it to go out automatically at a future date and time.

This feature must be enabled for your organization. If you don't see a Schedule option, ask your administrator to turn on message scheduling.

1. From the messages list, find your draft message and click Schedule.
2. In the Schedule Message window, choose a Date and a Time. Times are shown in your organization's timezone, and can only be set on the hour or in 15-minute steps (for example, 9:00, 9:15, 9:30, 9:45).
3. The window shows an estimate of how many members will receive the message. This is just an estimate -- the actual recipient list is determined when the message actually sends, so it may differ slightly if group membership changes in the meantime.
4. Click Schedule Message to confirm.

Your message now appears in the Scheduled Messages section of the list, showing the date and time it will go out.

Scheduling enforces the same channel and text-length rules publishing does, so a message with no channel turned on and filled in, or with a text message over the limit for its mode, is refused up front. The confirmation dialog shows the text that will go out and, when it is over the limit, says so and will not let you schedule it. It does not check recipients -- that happens when the message actually sends, so a channel with nobody to send to surfaces then, not now.

Changing Your MindCopy Anchor Link

• To edit a scheduled message, first select Cancel schedule on it in the messages list and confirm. The message reverts to a draft, you make your changes, and then you schedule it again. Scheduled messages can't be edited in place -- freezing them is what guarantees the message that goes out is the one you scheduled.
• To cancel a scheduled send, select Cancel schedule on the message and confirm. The message reverts to a draft -- it will not send, and you can edit, reschedule, or delete it freely.
• To send it right away instead of waiting, first cancel the schedule, then use Publish as described above. A scheduled message can't be published directly -- you'll need to cancel the schedule first.

Heads up: In the brief window while a scheduled message is actively being sent, even Cancel schedule and Delete are temporarily unavailable. This only lasts a few minutes and prevents changes from being made while it's mid-delivery. (Edit is unavailable the whole time a message is scheduled, not just during that window -- cancel the schedule to get it back.)

Good to KnowCopy Anchor Link

• Scheduled times must be in the future and must fall on the hour or a quarter-hour mark (:00, :15, :30, :45).
• There's no limit on how far in advance you can schedule a message.
• Delivery happens automatically in the background -- you don't need to keep the page open or be signed in when the scheduled time arrives.
• If something prevents a scheduled message from sending (for example, if your organization's scheduling feature is turned off after the message was scheduled), it will revert to a draft and show a Schedule failed notice explaining why, so you can review and resend it manually.

Reusing a Published Message (Clone)Copy Anchor Link

Published messages can't be edited, but they can be copied. On a published message's row, Clone appears where Edit would be on a draft.

Clone creates a new draft in the same group and opens it in the editor. It copies the title, the email content, the website content and its category, the website visibility, the audience selection, and the channel choices.

What it does not copy: the published state and the send history -- and, when the original used the generated A link to the website post text, the SMS text, because that link points at the original announcement. A fresh link is generated when you publish the clone.

Deleting a MessageCopy Anchor Link

1. From the messages list, find the message and select Delete.
2. Confirm the deletion.

Note: Only draft and scheduled messages can be deleted. Published messages are permanent and cannot be removed. Deletion cannot be undone.