The Notifications tab of Site Settings sends a message to customers. It is send-only: there is no history list here. It needs the Write permission.
The form
- Audience: one customer, or all portal customers.
- Customer: for one customer, search by name and pick them.
- Channel: web push (the default), in the portal (in-app), or email. Email is available only for one customer.
- Event type: announcement, maintenance or account. These are the only three.
- Title (up to 200 characters) and message (up to 2000).
Send is disabled until the title and message are filled in, and a customer is chosen when the audience is one person.
Sending to one customer
It goes out at once. The customer always gets the message in their portal feed too, whatever channel you chose.
Sending to all customers
A confirmation first says the message cannot be recalled once sent, and shows who would be reached: the portal customers who can sign in (active, with a password or a verified phone), and how many web-push devices and customers have push on. There is no email for a broadcast.
After sending
The result line says how many devices accepted the push, how many were removed because they were dead, how many failed, or that there were no devices. The form then clears.
Limits and traps
- Web push needs the site to be set up for it (push keys on the server). If it is not, the option is disabled; ask whoever runs the server.
- Push only reaches customers who turned it on in their portal profile and allowed it in their browser. Everyone else still gets the portal copy.
- A one-customer email does nothing if no mail server is set up or the customer has no email; the portal copy still exists.
- The text is stored as you typed it, in one language for everyone. A bilingual site should send it in the language its customers use, or send twice.
- Emails use a fixed English layout.
- Nothing limits how often you can send.