We are launching a new notifications system

25.06.2019

I hardly know where to begin. This is one of the big ones. Let me start with the most important: We are now launching Push messages for Android and iPhone. Read more about what that means here.

We have been truly excited about this update and we have worked hard to turn it into reality. We are introducing push messages but we are also increasing the personal control of which notifications you want to receive.

But what does that mean? What has been changed?

A brand new notifications system

So far our current notifications system has consisted of emails and text messages. A lot of emails. We send more than 130.000 emails from Smartplan each month to barely 1000 customers. That is more than 4000 emails each day.

Additionally, we send barely 20.000 text messages each month. Text messages cost money and increases the cost for our customers. Furthermore, they do not give the user experience we wish to offer at Smartplan.

Emails and text messages have served Smartplan well until now. But they do not anymore. Emails drown in our customers inboxes and they might resemble spam rather than necessary and useful information. Text messages are expensive and disturbs without the opportunity to limit the disturbances.

That is why we are now introducing Push notifications at Smartplan. The year is 2019 and it is about time. It has been for some years.

In relation to introducing notifications, we are also changing how our notifications are send out and handled.

What has changed?

Previously, an administrator could decide which actions in the system should trigger respectively emails and text messages. That meant that the employees could not control which emails and text messages their inboxes and mobiles were filled with.

It has always felt a bit wrong. And now we are changing it. The individual should be able to choose how they wish to receive notifications about activities in Smartplan.

This mens that all users in Smartplan now have their own notifications settings, which look like this:

The settings can be changed both from a mobile, tablet or PC.

Administrators have a few more settings, because they can also choose whether there are specific positions they do not want notifications about. For an administrator who is only responsible for shift swaps amongst the waiters, it might look like this:

A brand new notification

We are also launching a brand new notification, namely “A new shift is available”. It will be send out to the employees as soon as a brand new available shift is created in a published rota, or if a colleague wish to sell a shift.

There has been a huge demand about this notification and we are sure it will make it easier to swap shifts and staff new available shifts.

First a push notification, then an email

If you activate push notifications through our Smartplan App on your mobile we will begin sending notifications instead of emails. First, we try to send a push to your phone. If it for some reason is not delivered we will send an email after 30 minutes. This means that you will not miss out on information even though your phone is turned off or in fly-mode.

You can also choose to turn off push notifications in a period and then we will send emails instead if you have chosen this. This means that you decide where, when and what you wish to receive notifications about.

A new activity centre

When you begin to receive notifications as push messages, you can subsequently find them in your new activity centre through the app on your phone.

You will get an extra menu item in the app where you can always find the latest activities which concern you. You do not have to open your mailprogram and filter through all of your emails to find the information. Open the Smartplan App, click on Activities and click on the activity you want to know more about. It is easy and fast.

What about the text messages?

The text messages will not disappear completely. Text messages are a great technology but not for everything. The great thing about a text is that it is always delivered. It is extremely rare that texts are not delivered to the recipient. Therefore, text messages are a good thing if you want to make sure that a recipient gets the message.

We do not think text messages are the correct technology to communicate about all the actions taking place in Smartplan. For this purpose, push messages are better.

However, there are some functions we wish to keep the text messages for. As an administrator you can still choose the following when it comes to text messages:

• Remind your employees the day before their shift.
• Make it possible for administrators to send out messages through text.
• Make it possible for employees to send out messages through text.

It looks like this:

How do I receive Push messages?

To gain access to the new functionality you have to download the update for Smartplans App from Google Play Store or App Store. But before you rush over to app store, keep reading. When you read this it is not sure that the update has been approved by Apple yet. This means that even though we have published the update to our servers, the app is not ready yet.

Now you might ask, why we have not prepared it better, and the answer is that it is a bit like the chicken or the egg situation. Because of pretty advanced technological reasons we have not been able to release the app to Apple before our servers have the update. So now that our servers have been updated, Apple can do their thing. We are eagerly awaiting their approval. Right now it is not in our hands.

Can I still log in with the app I have now?

If you have the newest app, not the one we are waiting to have approved, then yes. Without you noticing it, it has been improved to be able to run this new update. However, without the new functionality. We have only made sure that you can still log in and use the app.

Do you have any questions?

If you are feeling unsure about anything, feel free to contact our support. They are ready to answer any questions you might have.