You can send notifications to your mobile app users from Messages. Finalsite's dual-platform mobile app comes with the capability to send push messages to your app users, if they sign up for it. Sending a push notification is handled through Messages. This article outlines the different ways you can send notifications to mobile app users from Messages.
This is a Help for School Leaders article helping district and school admins with everything they need to support their communities. Are you a parent or guardian? Check out the article, "Manage your mobile app notifications" instead!
New Product
This article is for our new mobile app offering, which is currently available and in the early adopter phase. Additional information about how current clients can upgrade will be sent soon.
- Browse to find more documentation in the 2024 New Mobile App section.
- To manage existing mobile app configurations, check out our articles in the 2019 Mobile App section.
In this Article
- Understand different message types
- Step 1: Configure settings and permissions
- Step 2: App users can now manage their mobile app notifications
- Step 3: Push a message to mobile app users
Understand different message types
It's important to understand that the way notifications are sent to mobile app users depends upon the message type. Let's review how your users will see these different types:
Promotional pushes to mobile app
Promotional messages are non-urgent, newsletter-type messages. Those receiving notifications on their mobile app will be recipients who are on a List that you choose in Messages when sending your promotional message.
- Recipients may subscribe themselves to your lists on their device. See "Manage your subscriptions" to learn more.
- Recipients can be added in a variety of other ways. See "Add recipients to a List" to learn more.
Important Note
For Promotional messages, only users on the selected list(s) who've subscribed to those lists will receive mobile app push notifications.
Important Announcement pushes to mobile app
Important announcement messages are urgent and emergency messages sent out. They behave a bit differently than promotional messages when it comes to sending push notifications to the mobile app.
- When selecting recipients for an Important Announcement message, recipients are selected from Groups which consist of the data living in Constituent Manager in each person's account profile.
- It's not possible for your mobile app users to toggle off or unsubscribe to Important Announcement message notifications. You can see the toggle next to this category cannot be toggled off or on.
- All mobile app users are automatically subscribed to receive notifications for Important Announcements.
- Mobile app users cannot turn off Important Announcement notifications from coming to their mobile apps. As you can see in the screenshot above, the toggle is unable to be toggled off.
- Selecting only a certain group will not override the fact that all mobile app users will still receive an Important Announcement; however, you can select a location to target when sending out your message.
- For example, a fire drill will take place at your high school campus today. Send out a message as a mobile app notification and Target Location(s) by clicking Select Locations
- For example, a fire drill will take place at your high school campus today. Send out a message as a mobile app notification and Target Location(s) by clicking Select Locations
Important Note
It doesn’t matter which group(s) are selected with regard to sending a notification to mobile app from an Important Announcement message send. All mobile app users will receive Important Announcement message notifications.
Step 1: Configure settings and permissions
Promotional Message settings
Configure List settings for Promotional Messages
How to make your lists available so that mobile app users can subscribe to them:
- Allow App Notifications Checkbox: Navigate to Messages > Lists feature. Open up each list you'd like to make available for your mobile app users to subscribe to and configure List Settings > General tab. Learn more at "Configure List Settings."
- Check the Allow App Notifications checkbox. This checkbox makes the list show up on the Notifications area of the mobile app.
-
Privacy tab > Everyone or Constituents Only: Change to Everyone or Constituents Only, as appropriate. Your list can also be used as a regular email mailing list, simplifying your communications to those who would prefer emails or app notification alerts.
- Success! Once the list has been created with the Allow App Notifications option selected, notifications can be configured by the app user. The Notifications options in the app will only appear when you have have at least one mailing list with Allow App Notifications enabled.
Now, your mobile app users can manage notifications
Once you configure your list settings, your mobile app users can toggle on and off next to lists they'd like to receive notifications for on their mobile apps. The first time they select to receive notifications, they will receive a system message confirming this choice.
When you push out communication from Messages to your Mobile App channel, if the user has selected a certain list in notifications, they will receive a notification when you send to that list.
To learn more about how your mobile app users can manage their notifications and what it looks like on their end, check out the article, "Manage your mobile app notifications."
Important Announcement Message settings
Configure Constituent and/or Group settings for Important Announcement messages
All mobile app users will receive Important Announcement messages regardless of their notification settings.
Messages sending permissions
In order to push messages to mobile app users, admin users must Global Messages permissions set at the Channel Selection level. Here's how:
- Confirm the admin user's level in Messages permissions > Global Level tab.
- Make a selection in the Channel Selection column. Learn more in the article, "Messages permissions" in the Global tab, by expanding out the Channel Selection accordion.
- Click the pencil next to each dropdown to configure the channels each admin user group can select to send messages to.
- Select Mobile App in the Channel Selection View Permission dropdown.
Step 2: App users can now manage their mobile app notifications
Once the list has been created with the Allow App Notifications option selected, notifications can be configured by the app user. The Notifications options in the app will only appear when you have have at least one mailing list with Allow App Notifications enabled.
Mobile app user can configure app notifications
- To configure app notifications, tap on your profile bubble in the top right corner. If not logged in, the user will see a Settings gear where they can configure settings that will be saved, as well.
- In the Preferences section, tap Notifications.
- Toggle off and on depending on which lists you'd like to receive notifications for. The first time users select to receive notifications, they will receive a system message confirming this choice.
Preferences for their selected lists will appear on the Notifications screen.
Step 3: Push a message to mobile app users
Learn how to create a message that you can send out to mobile app users in the article, "Send messages from Messages and Messages XR" by skipping straight to the Include other channels section and clicking on the Mobile Apps accordion to expand out the directions.
Recipients will see the message as a notification on their device, and tapping it will take them to the Notifications section of the Mobile App. A log of messages sent to the list will be available from this screen.
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