Writing a message

Messages lets you write once to a group, by text or email. The church's consent record then decides who actually receives it: anyone who has opted out is left out, children's guardians receive a copy instead of the child, and texts wait until a reasonable hour. You don't have to remember any of the rules; the screen applies them and shows you the result before you send.

When to use this

• A Sunday reminder, a weekly news email, or an invitation to an event.
• News for one ministry, such as kids and families or youth.
• A weather closure or safety notice.

Write and send a message

1. Open Messages. Optionally, start from an example: each one is written from the church's own services, ministries and events.
2. Choose the channel: Text (SMS) or Email.
3. Choose the audience and the topic.
4. Choose when to send.
5. For email, write the subject. Then write the message.
6. Check the Preview and the Will receive panel on the right.
7. Select Send a test text first (or test email) and read it in the outbox.
8. Select Send to ….

Channel: text or email

• Text (SMS) is for short, timely notes: a reminder, a change of plan. Every text ends with the church's name and how to opt out.
• Email is for anything longer, or anything with detail people will want to keep. Every email carries the church's postal address, a link to choose what they hear about, and one-click unsubscribe.

Someone who has opted out of texts may still receive email, and the other way round; consent is separate for each.

Audience

The audience is who you're writing to: everyone, a ministry, a team, or one of your saved lists. The number beside each shows how many people are in it; the Will receive count shows how many can be reached after consent is applied.

Topic

The topic is what the message is about, such as weekly news, events, kids and families, or closures and emergencies. People opt in and out by topic, so choosing the right one means they hear about what they asked for, and nothing else.

Each topic has a type:

Type	What it means
Informational	Church news people expect. The normal choice.
Promotional	Invitations and appeals. Held on Sunday mornings for Texas numbers (see below).
Urgent	Closures and safety only. Ignores quiet hours, but still respects every opt-out.

Use Urgent for real emergencies only. It's the one topic allowed to send at any hour.

Send at and quiet hours

Texts are never sent during quiet hours: before 8 am or after 9 pm in the recipient's own time zone. A text written late at night waits and goes out at 8 am. Promotional texts to Texas numbers also wait until noon on Sunday.

In the sandbox, Send at lets you pretend it's a weekday afternoon, late on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning, so you can see the holds in action. Held messages show Quiet hours or Sunday noon hold with the time they'll go.

Emails aren't held.

Text length and segments

Phone networks send texts in segments of up to 160 characters. Longer texts go as several segments that the phone joins together, and each segment costs the church a little. The counter under the message shows the length (including the opt-out line) and the number of segments.

An emoji or an accented letter switches the whole text to a different encoding that fits only 70 characters a segment. If the counter shows UCS-2, consider removing the emoji.

Send a test first

Send a test text first (or test email) sends one copy of exactly what you've written to the sandbox's own test phone or inbox, never to a person. It shows in the Captured outbox marked as a test. Read it there as a recipient would, then come back and send.

Who receives, and who doesn't

The Will receive panel and the Recipients list explain every decision:

• Direct: the person receives it themselves.
• Guardian copies: a child under 13 never receives messages; each of their guardians receives a copy that says who it's for.
• Not receiving: with the reason, such as Opted out, No consent on record, no number or address for this channel, an archived record, or a student aged 13 to 17 who needs both a guardian's consent and their own to receive texts.

Each address or number receives one copy, even if several people share it. Select a name to see their consent history.

Sender lanes

Messages go out on one of two lanes, each with its own sending number and address: Announcements (the news, invitations and reminders you write here) and Operational (check-in pickup texts, volunteer reminders, receipts, statements and registration confirmations). Keeping them apart means a reply of STOP to church news never blocks a pickup text on a Sunday. See Captured outbox.

Good to know

• Nothing is ever sent from the sandbox. Every message lands in the Captured outbox.
• An opt-out is final until the person reverses it themselves. Staff can't override it; see Consent and opt-outs.
• The cost shown for texts is an illustration, not a quote.
• What you can do depends on your role. Ministry leaders see and write to their own ministries' lists only, and most leaders' messages wait in Approvals before they go. Locked channels and lists say why. See Who can see what.

Top tips

• Always send yourself a test first: read the text on the "phone" before two hundred people do.
• Keep Sunday reminders under 160 characters, including the opt-out line, and leave out emoji; one segment per person is the cheapest and the most reliable.
• Choose the narrowest topic that fits: people who opted in to kids news are much more likely to read kids news.
• Check Not receiving before an important message: a long "No consent on record" list is a reminder to collect consent on connection cards.

Troubleshooting

The Send button is greyed out. Nobody in this audience can receive this message on this channel. Try the other channel, or check the reasons under Not receiving.

Some texts say "Held". They'll go at 8 am recipient time (quiet hours) or at noon on Sunday (promotional hold). That's working as intended.

A parent says they didn't get kids news. Open their consent history from the recipients list: they may have opted out of that topic or of texts.