17 - How to send out notifications from Backstage

Notifications can be created in Backstage and sent out to your audience to keep them informed and engaged during your event.

They can be scheduled in advance or sent out immediately, and can be targeted to all or specific segments of your audience.

Your notifications can also point to specific content in the app, using links.

Sending a notification

1. Go to Live > Notifications in the workspace menu in Backstage.
   
   
2. Click on New notification.
   
   
3. Fill in the details for your notification:
   
   

    

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, a speaker, or the event itself.

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.
Now: Selecting this option sends the notification immediately.
At a specific time: Selecting this option allows you to schedule the notification to be sent at a future date/time in the future. You can choose between sending at the time of the events timezone, or that of the app users.
Later: This allows you to create the notification without selecting a time for it to be sent at. You can therefore save the notification and choose the time later. The notification will not be sent until a time is specified.

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

Targeting
This is used to determine which users will receive the notification in the workspace, using participant profile information (metadata). More information on this is available in the Targeting article.

Link
Link the notification to the relevant app content you want participants to visit. When the app user opens the notification, they will be directed to the linked content.

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.

• If you have selected a time or "Send now" for the notification to be sent at, the notification will be sent at that time or immediately.
  
  
• If you have selected "Later", you will be able to go back to the notification and add a time in order for the notification to be sent.
  
  
• For notifications that you have scheduled to be sent out at a specific time, you can edit the notification up until the moment that it is scheduled to be sent out (including changing the time at which it will be sent).

NEXT STEP
For the next step in this Getting started series, find out about the interactivity functionalities you can use in your event.