Send a message
What is a chat?
A chat is a two-way communication channel between an administrator and one, or more, user(s). When a chat is created an invitation message will be sent via email (and SMS if selected). All recipients with an app installed will also receive a push notification and can reply to the chat request inside the app.
What is a one-way message?
One-way messages are used to send messages where the administrators do not expect any replies from the recipients. The user interface contains similar features to the chat interface. For example, the recipient list, as well as the template system, works the same way.
1. Click on 'Communication' and new chat or new one-way message in the web portal menu
Manual import
Add recipients
Method A: Add recipients through Quick Add
The easiest way to add recipients is to search and add people using the “Quick add recipient” function where any kind of recipient (App User, Traveller, Facility, Group, Dynamic Filter) can be added through free text search.
Method B: Add recipients through Advanced Filtering
Another way to add recipients is through Advanced Filtering which lets you target certain people or groups through shared parameters offered in the list of filter options below. You can add one or several Advanced Filters at once.
When a filter is set, it is possible to either add the result as a dynamic filter or to simply start messaging those users.
See the guide of how to add recipients with Advanced Filtering here.
Add a title
Add a title to the message you would like to send.
Type a message
Enter the message you wish to send in the message box at the bottom of the page.
Set your sending options
Method A: Sending options for chat
Include as SMS: Enables you to send the message via SMS in addition to email.
High Quality SMS: If this is enabled, the advanced SMS routing engine will be used, meaning that if the system detects problems during sending, alternative routes and up to 50 send re-tries will be done to achieve the highest deliverability as possible*
Include “Are you OK” request: Enabling this will provide the chat recipient with an option to mark if they are OK.
Allow users to see each other’s messages: Enabling this will make the chat fully transparent for all participants and everyone will see all communication. Disabling this and only the administrator will see any communication from the recipients.
Send message to facility managers only: This option is only displayed if one or more Facility is included in the recipient list. If enabled the message will not be sent to all Contacts connected to the Facility, but only the ones that are marked as “In Management” for each facility.
Depending on your agreement, this option might incur an extra cost per SMS sent. If this is disabled, the system will choose a less advanced SMS route, and there will be no send retries upon failed deliveries.
Method B: Sending options for one-way message
See explanations mentioned above in step 4a.
5. Optional: Use previously stored templates or save your settings as a template
If you wish, you can save your message content, recipient filters, and sending options as a template for quick access at a later point in time when you need to reach the same people quickly.
Templates can be used to store parameters for either one-way messages or chats. Chat templates supports the following:
Chat title
List of recipients, including Dynamic filters
Initial message content
Any sending options
One-way messages support the following:
List of recipients, including Dynamic filters
Message content
Any sending options
Note: Templates are separate instances between Chats and One-way Messages, meaning that you cannot access a Chat Template when sending a new One-way Message and vice versa.
In the search bar below the templates heading, you can search for a previously saved template to use for your communication.
6. Send your message
Click the green button labeled “Send” to deliver your chat invitation or one-way message.
Note! When a chat is created an invitation message will be sent via email (and SMS if selected) containing a pre-defined message. The URL is unique per recipient and can be used to reply and mark “I am OK”.
7. Access an ongoing chat
Click “Chats” in the web portal menu to access an onging chat with a user.
In the submenu Chats, you find all chats – both ongoing and archived ones. From here it is possible to see an overview of the dialog and also how many users that have responded that they are OK.
Administrators can choose to add more recipients, who then will receive individual invitation messages.
It is also possible to start a new chat and only include the users that has not responded to previous chats. This way administrators can quickly focus on the users that might need help after an initial round of replies from some users.
When archiving a chat, the Users will no longer have access to the chat and cannot reply. The chat will be moved from the active list of chats to the Archive. It is possible to un-archive a chat.
