Send a broadcast

A broadcast sends one message to many people in a Contacts book, one at a time, with each person’s own details filled in. It lives at Broadcasts, in the CRM section of the rail beside Contacts and Inbox.

You see the broadcasts you made. A district admin sees every broadcast in the district and can pause or stop any of them.

Create one

To start a broadcast:

1. Open Broadcasts.
2. Press New broadcast.
3. Type a Name and press Create.

The editor has three numbered sections, Who gets it, What it says and How it sends, and each one gets a tick once it’s filled in. Everything saves as you type, and the header reads Saved when it has.

Choose who gets it

Pick Which book first if you keep more than one. Then choose Everyone, One stage or Choose people. One stage asks Which stage, and Choose people gives you a list to tick, with Search this book above it.

Each person shows the number the message will go to. The number comes from a phone column with “WhatsApp” in its name if the book has one, otherwise from the first phone column with something in it.

Anybody who can’t be messaged is shown in amber with the reason:

• the record has no phone number
• the number is too short to reach without a country code
• someone else on the list has the same number
• they asked not to be contacted

An 8-digit Singapore number works without +65.

The list counts who will get it and how many are left out. The people who asked not to be contacted are counted again on a line of their own.

Write the message

Type into Message. The chips under the box put a detail in at the cursor: Name, First name, Stage and Tags, and a last chip opens the rest of your book’s columns. Split here ends one WhatsApp message and starts the next, and Pictures and files takes JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF or PDF under 15MB.

The preview panel shows the message as one real person will read it, and its heading names them. Press a name in the Choose people list to see that person’s copy instead.

A sentence whose details are all blank for someone is dropped from their copy, and a greeting keeps its hello without the name. Someone whose whole message comes out empty is skipped.

Set how it sends

Send from lists every WhatsApp number set up in your district.

Gap between messages offers Steady at 1 a minute, Gentle at 1 every 2 minutes and Trickle at 6 an hour, or a box of seconds from 5 to 3,600. It starts at 45 seconds. The line under it says how long the whole list will take.

Leave Start empty to send as soon as you press send, or pick a date and time to schedule it. Anyone not reached by Finish by isn’t sent to. Only send between holds the run to two times of day in Singapore time, and Any hour clears them.

Test it, then send

To send yourself a copy first:

1. Press Send one to myself first.
2. Type your number under Number.
3. Press Send it.

The test is written as it would go to the person in the preview. Then press the main button, which reads Send to followed by the count, such as Send to 40. It reads Schedule it when the start time is later. Anything stopping it is listed under the button.

A dialog repeats the count, the number and the pace. Press Send it or Schedule it, or Not yet to go back. The WhatsApp number is checked before anything goes out, and one that isn’t connected stops the start with its name and the reason.

Caution

Once a broadcast starts, the list, the message and the number are fixed. Only its name, the pace, the sending hours and the finish time can still change, and a message that has gone can’t be taken back.

Watch it run

The editor becomes the run itself: how many have been sent out of the total, who wrote back, and when the next message leaves. Every person is listed with what happened to them. Buttons above the list narrow it to those who wrote back or those who failed, once there are any. Change the pace sits beside it while the run is sending, scheduled or paused.

Pause holds it and Resume carries on. Stop asks first, then marks everyone not yet messaged as not sent. Once a run isn’t sending, a button such as Try 3 again resends the failures, and only the part of each message that didn’t arrive.

“Wrote back” means the first message that person sent after their copy went out. Replies are collected for 14 days from the day the broadcast started.

If the number itself fails, for instance because it’s logged out, the broadcast pauses itself and shows why in red. Fix the number, then press Resume. If sending is rate-limited, it waits at least 2 minutes and carries on by itself.

Each message sent also lands in Conversations, under the business that uses that number, signed with Broadcast: and the broadcast’s name.

Broadcasts and the district switches

Broadcasts check no district switch. Turning Texting off for the district, or a business’s own switch, doesn’t hold a broadcast back. Pause or Stop is the only way to halt one.

FAQ

Can I send the same broadcast again?

Not that one. Choose Duplicate from the row’s menu for a draft copy with nobody queued yet.

Can I delete a broadcast while it’s sending?

No. Stop it first. Deleting removes the message, the list and the record of who received it, and anything already delivered stays on people’s phones.

Will someone who asked us to stop get it?

No. They’re left out when the list is built, and checked again just before their turn in case they asked during the run.

Why does the button say Send to nobody?

Nobody on the list can be messaged yet. Read the reasons under the button and beside each name.