Summary

Backstage users can use the Notifications module to send information to app users within a workspace.

The module will also contain a history of all created notifications that have either been sent, or are scheduled to be sent.

For app users, the Notifications module will be used to receive the notifications sent from Backstage users, as well as all notifications that are sent automatically from other modules within the workspace. These include meeting invites or updates, connection requests, feed, polling and form notifications, and can be linked to in-app content in order to point the users in the right direction.

To access the Notifications module, go to the Live category in the workspace main menu, and select Notifications.

Notifications in Backstage 

Creating and sending notifications

Up to 100 notifications can be sent from a single workspace.

In the Notifications module, 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:

Sender
For the app users receiving the notification, this corresponds to "who" this notification is sent from. This is an open text field where you can enter the name of an app user, speaker, or the app for example.

Message
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 at
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.
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.

Important: We do not recommend changing the send at time/date for scheduled notifications if the event is already live. For scheduled notifications that are created or edited after the event has started (or after the attendees have activated their app), attendees will need to synchronize their app in order for the edits or newly scheduled notifications to be effective. Otherwise the attendee will not receive a push notification and the notification will go straight to their Notifications module.

Sender photo
This is used to upload a picture representing the sender of the notification.

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.

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.

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 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.

Notifications in the app

For the app users, the Notifications module will contain a history of all notifications that are received.

This includes the notifications sent by Backstage users, as described above, as well as those sent automatically by the modules, in the form of meeting invites or updates, connection requests, feed, polling and form notifications.

When new notifications are received, a red badge will appear on the Notifications icon, and tapping notifications will display the notification:

Technical notes

• Scheduled notifications will be received on-time even if the users's device is offline.
  Please note however that the app will need to have synchronized between the moment the notification was created in Backstage and the notification's scheduled time and date, in order for this to work.
  
  
• If the Send at time is modified in a notification that has already been created and scheduled but not yet sent, the app will always need to synchronize in order for the update to take effect. Otherwise, the recipients will not receive a push notification and the notification will go straight to their notification module.
  
  
• Notifications that are to be sent immediately, or scheduled to be sent at a time based on the users's time-zone, will only be delivered if the users's device is online.
  
  
• Timezone-aware scheduled notifications need to be scheduled one day in advance. Notifications will start to be delivered when the specified time is reached in the first timezone, i.e. at UTC+14, and from then on the notifications will be delivered every hour.
  
  
• Users who do not have a timezone set will receive the notification in the GMT timezone.