Contents

Introduction

As a ChMeetings Owner, Admin, or Group Leader, you can send text, SMS, MMS, and voice messages, as well as push notifications to people in your congregation right from within your account.

There are three options you can use to send text, SMS, or MMS messages via ChMeetings:

Purchase a credit package. Using the ChMeetings mobile app, you can send messages using your phone plan. Push notifications are free.
Directly from your mobile phone: You can use our mobile app to get someone’s phone number and messages them using your own phone number and SMS plan. You can use this option to text approximately 20-30 people, depending on carrier restrictions.
Using our integrations to send bulk messages. This is a free service, though you will be billed by the third-party service you integrate. You can integrate these services via Settings > Integrations > Bulk text/voice service.

Messaging Options

Message an individual person

You can message an individual person by going to the People module, accessing their profile, and clicking on the message icon underneath their profile picture. It is possible to message people from anywhere you can access their profiles, not just the People module (e.g., Contributions, Users & Roles - both accessible to Owners & Admins).

Message one or more people in one go

To send a message to one or more people in one go, follow these steps:

Go to the People module,
Select Text to send a text, SMS, MMS, voice message or Notification to send a push notification to everyone on your list. To send to specific people, use the checkbox next to their profile picture to select them.

Message the people in a group

You can send messages to everyone or part of the people in a group by following these steps:

Go to the Groups module,
Select the Group you require,
Select Text to send a text, SMS, MMS, voice message or Notification to send a push notification to everyone in the group. To send to specific people, use the checkbox next to their profile picture to select them.

Message event participants

You can message the people who have registered for an event by following the steps below:

Go to the Events module,
Select the required Event, If you are working with a recurring event, please also select the occurrence.
Click on People,
Select all people or just those you want to message,
Click More Actions,
Select Text to send a text, SMS, MMS, voice message or Notification to send a push notification to all participants. To send to specific people, use the checkbox next to their profile picture to select them.

Message people from the Follow Up module

You can message someone (or more than one person) you need to follow up with right from within your list of Follow-ups.

Go to the Follow-Up module,
Select all follow-ups or just those you need,
Click Bulk Actions,
Select Text People to send a text, SMS, MMS, voice message or Send Notification to send a push notification.

Send a Text/SMS or MMS Message

You can send a text, SMS, MMS, or voice message from any area mentioned above. When accessing the Text People section, you will be shown an editor window where you can configure and compose your message.

Please note that MMS messages can only be sent using ChMeetings Credits and within the United States or Canada.

To send text or MMS messages, configure the following:

Choose the message Type as Text Message or MMS Message.
Choose whether to communicate with everyone or just with children or parents. This option only displays when texting multiple people and if they are part of both categories.
Search for and select the people to send the message to.
Choose whether to send the message using credits or your phone plan. The Send from Mobile option can only be selected if you send the message from the mobile app. This option is only available for text messages. MMS can only be sent using Credits.
Add Merge Fields to your message from under Add to Message.
Edit the Message Body.
Buy Credits if you need to. This takes you to Payments and Credit, where you can complete the purchase.
Schedule the message for later. You can cancel scheduled and unsent texts by going to Reports > Text History Report.
Click Send when you are ready to send your message.

Send Voice Messages

You can send a voice message from any area mentioned above. When accessing the Text People section, select Voice Message as the message Type to configure the following:

Please ensure that your microphone is correctly installed and connected and is not being blocked. When prompted, please allow ChMeetings to use your device microphone.

Once ChMeetings has access to your microphone, you can record your message and then choose to schedule it or send it immediately. You can cancel scheduled and unsent texts by going to Reports > Text History Report.

Message Billing

Please see the dedicated Message Billing guide to learn more.

Send Push Notifications

You can send push notifications from any areas mentioned above (People, Groups, Events, Follow-Ups). The steps the reach the feature are the same as for text/voice messages, but you need to select Send Notification from the Bulk Actions menu.

Push notifications are free to send and receive.

Notifications can only be sent to people who have installed the mobile app and are logged into it.

In the Send Notifications window, you can configure the following:

Choose whether to communicate with everyone or just with children or parents. This option only displays when texting multiple people and if they are part of both categories.
Search for and select the people to send the message to.
Add Merge Fields to your message from under Add to Message.
Edit the Notification Body.
Attach files to the notification. You can attach multiple files of a maximum of 2MB in size.
Schedule the message for later if needed. You can cancel scheduled and unsent notifications by going to Reports > Notification History Report.
Click Send when you are ready to send your message.

You can edit and delete scheduled notifications under Reports > Notification History Report.