Write a notification

What is this?

With Write a notification you send an announcement to all or selected members of your choir. Notifications are the right tool for information that should reach everyone. Unlike a chat, they are not aimed at a single recipient but at the whole group.

Typical reasons for a notification:

• Rehearsal info: short-notice cancellation, room change, extra rehearsal
• Performance info: directions, outfit, sound check, program
• Organizational matters: new rehearsal music, rehearsal schedule, club topics
• Votes: finding a date, choosing pieces, board elections
• Social: birthdays, parties, outings

How to write a notification

1. Open Messages › Notifications in the sidebar.
2. Click "New notification" at the top right. In the app, tap "Notification" at the bottom right.
3. Select the choir under "Recipients", or several if the notification should go to more than one choir.
4. Restrict the visibility if needed: turn on "Only visible to certain people" and select permission groups, functions or chat groups.
5. Enter a meaningful title (up to 100 characters). It appears in the overview and in the push notification.
6. Write the message. Links are detected automatically.
7. Attach files if needed, or link them from the Files area with "Link from files".
8. Optionally turn on "Add a poll" and enter the question and answers.
9. Tick "Send notification to all members" if everyone should get a push notification and an email.
10. Click "Publish notification".

Notification to several choirs

If you lead several choirs, you can tap more than one in the choir selection. All selected choirs then receive one shared notification, not a copy per choir. This has consequences you should know about:

• Comments are shared across choirs. Anyone who comments writes for all involved choirs to see, with their name.
• So are reactions and poll results. Participation is counted across all choirs together.
• Restricted visibility is not possible then. Permission groups, functions and chat groups only exist within one choir. As soon as you select more than one choir, this option is disabled.
• Everyone sees that the notification is shared. The notification shows which choirs it goes to and that everyone sees the others' comments.
• Anyone with the matching permission in one of the involved choirs may edit and delete it. The mobile app can't do this for shared notifications yet; it shows a note instead.
• The choirs can't be changed after publishing.

Requirement: you need permission to write notifications in each selected choir. Choirs where you don't have it don't appear in the selection at all.

What recipients see

After publishing, the notification shows up in the notifications overview right away. If you ticked the notification option, recipients also get a push notification and an email, depending on their settings.

Recipients can comment on your notification, react with an emoji, download attachments and take part in polls. You automatically follow your own notification and are told about new comments.

Permission

You need the Create & edit notifications permission to write a notification. By default the Administrator and Moderator permission groups have it. You manage this under Choirs › Choir › Choir settings › Permission groups.

Tips

• Choose a clear, short title. It is also used as the email subject.
• Put the most important point in the first sentence so it shows in the preview and the push notification.
• Restrict visibility on purpose when only one group is affected, for example the chat group of one voice part. Others then aren't notified needlessly.
• Combine a poll and an attachment, for example for piece suggestions with sample sheet music as a PDF.
• Select several choirs only for topics that really concern everyone, such as a joint concert. For internal matters, one notification per choir remains the better choice, because then nobody from the other choir reads along.

Turn off comments

Not every notification needs a discussion. When creating and editing, you'll find the Allow comments switch. If you turn it off, members can only read the notification; the comment field disappears, on the web and in the app.

This makes sense for pure information where no response is wanted. You can allow comments again at any time: edit the notification, turn the switch on, save. Existing comments are kept and stay visible.