Sending messages to families
Who an announcement really reaches, how the system picks WhatsApp or email, what one message costs your plan, and what cannot be taken back.
Written for school owners and admins
Every message the school sends leaves through one service: the automatic reminders, a receipt, a class group link, the announcement you type yourself. One page holds both halves — the composer at the top, the log of what actually went out below it.
Who an announcement reaches
Announcements go to parent accounts, and only to those carrying an email address or a phone number. “All parents” means every parent on the books, whether or not their child is in a class this season. “A class's parents”, “By skill level” and “By payment status” work through the children and then collect their parents, so a parent of two matching children is messaged once, each in their own language. A child with a guardian's number on file but no linked parent account is in no segment at all: the send is addressed to accounts, never to contact details on a student.
WhatsApp or email
The channel is decided per person, not per message. A parent record can pin one, but no screen in the product writes that choice, so the rule is simple: a family we hold a number for gets WhatsApp, and email is what is left when there is none. Filling in or clearing “Phone” moves a family between the two. If a send fails the other channel is tried once, in both directions — a bad address falls through to WhatsApp, a WhatsApp failure to “Email”.
Sending an announcement
- Write “Headline” and then “Message”.
- Choose “Send to”. For a class, a level or a payment band, pick the “Which one” beside it; the button stays disabled until you do.
- Press “Send announcement” and answer “Send this announcement?”.
- Read the count that comes back: how many were accepted, out of how many were tried. The rest sit in the log with their reason.
The log, and what it costs
“Sent” means the provider accepted the message, not that anyone read it. A second line appears underneath later, when the provider reports back: “Delivered”, “Bounced”, “Blocked” — and a failure keeps its reason. The page lists the most recent 100 messages with no way back further, and the payment link or verification code a message carried is stripped before its row is written.
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