Using Push Notifications

Push Notifications are useful to direct your user's attention where you want it within the Safer Schools NI App, or notify users of updates in real time.

Push Notifications can be sent to your App users to help direct their attention when you want it! Maybe you've made a change to the school calendar, want your staff to complete a digital test, or your parents to see a resource you want share about Social Media Safety Settings.

They appear just like a notification you might receive from any app on your phone like Instagram or Whatsapp. But how do you make them, and how do you use them? Remember, they're not a text message, but a gentle nudge to users to prompt a desired action.

Push Notifications are created, viewed and sent from your Safer Schools NI Web Management Portal. Users can find any notifications they've missed or want to revisit by clicking the notification bell icon at the top of their screen throughout the App.

Creating a Push Notification

STEP 1 Once logged into your App Portal, select 'Push Notifications' on the menu, then select 'Create Push Notifications.'

STEP 2 At the top of this page, you're able to select which audience you'd like to send your notification to. You can send to 'Selected Audience' by ticking which roles in the App you'd like to see your notification. Remember to consider the content of the Push Notification if choosing to send to pupils.

STEP 3 Next, give your Notification a Title and a Body. The title should draw attention, whilst the body should offer a little more information. The title has a character limit of 40, and the body 200, so keep them brief and to-the-point!

STEP 4 Scroll down and chose where you want to direct the user within the Safer Schools NI App. You'll notice these all lead to difference sections of your App. In some cases, you'll have the option to paste a link, in others it will be as simple as heading to the assigned section.

Sending Your Notification

Once you've added all of the above details, it's time to send your Push notifications. This is done at the bottom of the Create Push Notification page where it says Schedule. You have two options here:

NOW: This will send your notification to your App users immediately. Once the NOW option is selected, click Send at the bottom.

LATER: This will allow you to queue your notification for a later time in the day or even on another date. This allows you to queue all of your notifications for the week on the Monday for example. Once you've selected the date and time, click Schedule at the bottom.

Viewing your Notifications

Once they're sent/scheduled, you're able to view past and pending Push Notifications by clicking View Push Notifications under Push notifications in the left hand sidebar on the portal.

You have a number of filter options too. This is at the top of your View Push Notifications screen. You're able to filter your notifications by date, contents (such as title, or body of the notification), sender, type or exact date. Here, you're also able to View or Delete previous notifications.