An announcement is a short message to the attendees of your event. Brella sends it as a push notification and, if you choose, as an email. The app keeps it in the Announcements bubble at the top of the Home screen. You can send it right away or at a set time, to everyone or to selected registrant lists.
Before you start
You need to be an organization admin or an event admin.
Announcements reach only people who have joined the event. To reach registrants who haven't joined, send a custom email to Unused invites. Custom emails work only in invite-only events.
Push notifications reach only attendees who have turned notifications on for the app on at least one device. Everyone in the audience can read the announcement in the app.
Warning: Brella can't recall a push notification or an email after it is sent.
Where to find it
Communications > Announcements in the admin panel.
The page lists announcements by send time, newest first, grouped by date. Each card shows:
the send time in the event's time zone
a Sent or Scheduled tag
an envelope icon when the announcement is also sent as an email
the title, the start of the content, the link and the selected lists
Create an announcement
Open Communications > Announcements and select Create new.
Enter a Title of up to 45 characters. The title appears in the push notification.
Under Who can see this announcement?, choose Anyone or Specific lists. For Specific lists, choose one or more lists under Selected lists.
Under Send this announcement, choose Immediately or Scheduled. For Scheduled, choose the date and the time. Times are in the event's time zone.
To email the announcement too, turn on Also send an email.
Enter the Content.
To add a link, enter it in Link.
Check the Announcement preview at the end of the form.
Select Save.
In the confirmation dialog, select Send now (Send announcement now?) or Schedule (Schedule announcement?). The dialog says whether Brella also sends an email, and to whom.
Brella shows "Announcement created". With Immediately, the announcement is sent after you confirm.
Fields
Setting | What it does | Default |
Title | Shown in the push notification, the email and the app. Up to 45 characters. Required. | Empty |
Who can see this announcement? | Anyone sends to all registrants. Specific lists sends to members of the lists you choose, ticket type lists and custom lists. | Anyone |
Send this announcement | Immediately or Scheduled for a date and time in the event's time zone. | Immediately |
Also send an email | Sends the announcement as an email as well as the push notification. | Off |
Content | The message. Required. The form sets no length limit. | Empty |
Link | One web address. Attendees open it with Visit link. | Empty |
The Link field accepts https://, http:// and sms: links. If you leave out https://, Brella adds it. Brella removes other link types, such as mailto:, when you save. To open a screen inside the app, use a deep link. See Use deep links to open screens in the app.
Scheduling
You can't choose a date in the past. If you choose a time that has already passed today, Brella sends the announcement right after you confirm.
Until the scheduled time, the card shows Scheduled and you can edit or delete the announcement.
Who receives it
The audience is everyone in the lists you chose, or all registrants for Anyone. Each channel reaches part of that audience:
Push notification: attendees in the audience who have joined the event and have notifications turned on for the app. If the event runs in your organization's white-label app, Brella sends it to that app only.
Email (with Also send an email): attendees in the audience who have joined the event, except people who have unsubscribed from Brella emails. The subject is "New announcement in [event name]". It comes from your organization's custom email domain if you have one, otherwise from Brella's address, [email protected]. See Email settings and sender address.
In the app: everyone who is in the audience when they open the app. This includes people who join the event or are added to a list after you sent the announcement. They get no push notification or email for it.
What attendees see
Push notification: the event name as the title, then "[Title]: [Content]". In the mobile app, tapping it opens the event and shows the message. If the announcement has a link, or a web address in its content, the message has Visit link and Dismiss. In the web app, clicking the browser notification opens the event.
Announcements bubble: the first bubble in the stories row on the Home screen, in the mobile app and the web app. It holds every sent announcement the attendee can see. A link appears as a Visit link button.
Spotlight: for 10 minutes after sending, the Home screen shows the announcement under Spotlight with the line "New announcement arrived from the event organizer!". Selecting it opens the announcement. In the web app at 1024 px and wider, it also appears under Spotlight in the right sidebar.
Activity: the announcement appears in Activity only for attendees Brella sent the push notification to.
Email: the event logo (when set), the title, the content and the link.
For the attendee side, see Announcements, stories and Activity.
Read the statistics
Select an announcement in the list. The drawer shows when it was sent (Sent on) or will be sent (Scheduled for). With Also send an email on, it shows Sent as an email, or Sending as an email before sending. After sending, it also shows three numbers:
Sent: the number of attendees who had joined the event and were in the audience when Brella sent the announcement. It includes attendees without notifications turned on. It doesn't change when lists change later.
Opened: the number of attendees who opened the announcement in the app. Opening counts when an attendee taps the push notification, or views the announcement in the Announcements bubble, from Activity or from Spotlight. Each attendee counts once. Opening the email doesn't count.
Open rate: Opened divided by Sent. Attendees who join after sending can open the announcement too, so the rate can be higher than 100%.
Brella doesn't count clicks on the link. To count them, track visits on the page the link opens.
Edit an announcement
Select the announcement in the list.
Select Edit.
Make your changes and select Update.
What you can change depends on the announcement:
Scheduled: every field, including the date and time. You can also switch to Immediately. After Update, confirm the dialog again.
Sent without email: Title, Content and Link. The audience and Also send an email are locked. Brella sends nothing again. The app shows the new text in the Announcements bubble and in Activity. Push notifications already delivered keep the old text.
Sent with email: you can't edit it. Edit is greyed out, and pointing at it shows "You cannot edit already released announcement." Duplicate it instead.
Brella shows "Announcement edited successfully".
Duplicate an announcement
Select the announcement in the list.
Select Duplicate. The New announcement form opens with the title, the audience, Also send an email, the content and the link copied. Send this announcement is set to Immediately.
Change what you need and select Save.
Confirm the dialog.
Delete an announcement
Select the announcement in the list.
Select Delete, then Delete again in the confirmation.
A scheduled announcement is deleted before anyone receives it. Brella cancels the send.
A sent announcement disappears from the Announcements bubble and from Activity. Push notifications and emails already delivered stay with the attendees. Its statistics are deleted.
Warning: You can't undo a delete.
Limits
Title: up to 45 characters.
One link per announcement.
You can't schedule an announcement for a past date.
You can't edit an announcement after it is sent as an email.
You can't change the audience of a sent announcement.
Push notifications and emails go only to attendees who have joined the event.
Troubleshooting
An attendee didn't get the push notification
The attendee hasn't joined the event, isn't in the selected lists, or has notifications turned off on every device. They can read the announcement in the Announcements bubble on the Home screen.
An attendee can't find the announcement in Activity
Activity lists the announcement only for attendees Brella sent the push notification to. In the web app, Brella sends push notifications only to browsers where the attendee allowed notifications. The announcement is in the Announcements bubble for everyone in the audience.
An attendee didn't get the email
Also send an email was off, the attendee hasn't joined the event, or the attendee has unsubscribed from Brella emails.
"Please select lists!"
Specific lists is chosen with no list selected. Choose at least one list, or choose Anyone.
"Title is required!" or "Content is required!"
Enter a title and content. Both are required.
"Please select a valid date and time!"
Scheduled is chosen without a date or time. "Please select a valid date!" and "Please select a valid time!" mean one of the two is missing.
The link is gone after saving
The link wasn't a valid https://, http:// or sms: link. Brella removes other links, such as mailto: links or addresses with spaces. Enter a web address instead.