Creating and sending notifications

You can create and send notifications from the workspace to your audience.

These notifications can be used as call to actions, to provide reminders, or simply to keep them informed. They can also be sent immediately, scheduled for later, and can be targeted to specific segments of your audience.

Notifications are created and managed via the Interactivity > Notifications module in Backstage.

The app users have a Notifications section in the app, that stores all the notifications that have been received.

Notifications on web app are only visible if the user is displaying the web app, whereas mobile app users will receive push notifications that will be visible even if the app is not open and/or the phone screen is locked. Notifications will only be received if the user has access to internet, including push notifications on mobile devices.

Notification received (in mobile app while app is not open and phone is locked):

Please note that the amount of text present in the push notification that is visible
on a locked screen on mobile will vary from one device to another.

Notification received (in web app):

Notification seen in "Notifications" section in app (list of all received notifications):

Notification open:

Creating and sending notifications in Backstage

In the Notifications module in the workspace, click on the New notification button to create a notification:

This opens the New notification tab where you can create the notification using the below fields:

Title
This is the header of the notification, in bold. It is the first thing that will be visible to the attendee when they receive a notification.

Body
This is the actual text that will be contained in the notification and received by the recipient.
It can be formatted in markdown or HTML style.

Send
This determines when the notification will be sent. The time here is in the event time-zone.
Now: Selecting this option sends the notification immediately to the recipients.
At a specific time: Selecting this option allows Backstage users to schedule the notification to be sent at a later date/time based on the event timezone only.
Later: Select this option if you are still unsure when you would like to send your notification, you'll be able to add the time and date later.

Notification image
This is used to upload a picture that will be associated to the notification. Here you can use the workspace icon (in app icon), or a custom image that you have uploaded.

Link
Link the notification to any existing in-app content. When the user opens the notification, they will be directed to the linked content. Here, we've linked the notification to the session that has a room change.

Targeting
The two last fields in the Create notifications tab are used to determine which users will receive the notification in the workspace, using metadata. More information on this is available in the Targeting article.

Manage metadata fields
This button will display the Metadata Manager page. More information on this is available in the Metadata manager article.

Once the above information has been entered, click on Save to finalize and send/schedule the notification. It will now appear in the Notifications tab.

Listing all notifications

In the Notifications tab, Backstage users can review all notifications that were created in Backstage that either have been sent, or are scheduled to be sent to app users, like in the example below.

Notification seen in the list:

Sent notification opened to see status:

Notification recommendations and character limits

Keep it short and sweet
Keep messages concise to ensure they’re impactful and fit well across devices.
A good rule of thumb is:
Headline/Title: 30-50 characters
Body Text (optional): 100-120 characters

Consider localization/translations
Languages like English are compact, so shorter character counts might suffice.
Languages like German, Russian, or Arabic tend to use longer words and phrases.
Languages like Chinese or Japanese can convey meaning in fewer characters.
Remember to test translations to avoid truncation

Respect device constraints and character limits
For mobile notifications (lock screen): Stay under 40-70 characters, as smaller screens and orientation might truncate the message.
For web notifications: You can use longer messages, but ensure the first 80-100 characters capture the essence of the notification.
If your audience is using a mixture of mobile app and web app, make sure you follow the recommendations for mobile notifications.
Actionable buttons or links: Ensure they’re short and clearly labeled.

Focus on prioritization
Highlight the most critical information in the first few words and avoid overloading.
Notifications shouldn’t feel overwhelming. If more context is needed, provide a link to detailed content.

Notification display template

In the Display template tab, Backstage users can create, edit and save notification templates that can be used when sending out notifications to workspace users.

These templates will determine the structure of the notification when opened by the app user, but only if no link is associated to the notification. If a link is associated, the app user will open the linked content instead of the notification.

To build or edit the template, Backstage users can simply drag and drop the components to be used in the templates, from the left column, into central panel.

Exporting and importing notifications

From the list of notifications, you have the option of exporting the notifications from the workspace and importing notification into a workspace:

When you click on Export XLS, you will download and Excel file that contains all the notifications present in the workspace, as well as all their information. This Excel file can be used to

Make multiple updates to the notifications in your workspace: You can edit the notifications present in the XLS and their information (sender, body, send time, etc.), save your changes, and then re-upload the XLS file to the workspace using the Import XLS button. This will import all the changes you made to the notifications

Add more notifications to the workspace: You can add more notification rows to the XLS file with the necessary information in each column (sender, body, send time, etc.) save your changes, and then re-upload the XLS file to the workspace using the Import XLS button. This will add the new scheduled notifications to the workspace.

You can also export notifications from one workspace and upload then into another workspace.

If you intend to export notifications from one workspace (or a workspace template) and then import then into a new workspace, please be aware that if you keep the same fp_ext_ids for the notifications, then the read count (i.e. the statistic that counts how many time a notification was read after being sent) will be carried over from the old event. If you wish reset the read count for the uploaded notifications, you can simply remove or modify the existing fp_ext_ids for the notifications in the XLS file before uploading them to the new workspace.