Messaging the group

Message Group is the megaphone: one message to everyone, to a few people you pick, or to one party, delivered as a push notification and kept in each inbox. No group text to assemble, no numbers to collect, and receipts that tell you exactly who to go find.

Sending a message

1. From the guide home screen, tap Message Group.
2. Type a short title — that is the line guests see first, and on a locked phone it may be the only line they see. The details field below it is optional; a one-liner like "Bus leaves at 2:00" is the normal case.
3. Under Who should get it?, leave Everyone selected, or pick Some travelers or A party (next section).
4. Tap the send button. Its label says who it goes to: Send to the whole group, Send to Alice Anders, Send to 3 travelers, or Send to the Okafor party.

Who should get it?

Every message goes to Everyone unless you say otherwise. Two more choices sit right there on the compose screen:

• Some travelers — tap each person who should get it. Only they receive it; nobody else on the trip sees it, and the receipts list only them.
• A party — tap a party, and everyone carrying that party label on the roster right now gets the message. Someone the office adds to the party later does not get it. If nobody on the roster has a party label yet, this choice says so and points you back to picking people or sending to everyone; the office sets those.

A message to nobody is refused rather than sent, so a party with no one in it, or an empty pick, cannot go out by mistake. Guests are never told who else received a message — each traveler's inbox shows only the messages addressed to them. That is the Inbox. If the office has turned on the departure's group, everything written there is read by everyone in it, and nobody gets a receipt — see Running the group.

Tap-to-fill starters

Above the fields are starters for the messages every guide sends daily: "Bus leaves at ___", "Meet in the lobby at ___", "Dinner is at ___", and "We are running late". Tap one and the text lands in the fields ready to edit — replace the ___ with the real time or place, then send.

Normal or urgent

Every message goes out as Normal unless you switch it to Urgent. Urgent messages are shown in red on every guest's phone, with an URGENT label, and stay prominent even after being read. The app's own advice is right: use it sparingly — an urgent tone that cries wolf stops working the day you need it.

Sending with no signal

Write the message anyway. If your phone is offline when you press send, the message is queued and shown at the top of your sent list marked "WAITING FOR INTERNET — WILL SEND BY ITSELF." The moment your phone is back online, it goes out — you do not have to resend or even reopen the screen.

Who has seen it

Every sent message shows who it went to under its title and its count in the list — "Seen by 9 of 12," or "Everyone has seen it." Tap a message to open Who has seen it: a "To:" line ("To: Everyone", "To: the Okafor party — 3 people"), then the exception list — only the people it was sent to — names first, sorted by what you should do about them:

• "Phone offline — tell them in person" — their phone has not received the message at all. These names are the ones to act on.
• "On their phone — not opened yet" — delivered, just not read. Usually resolves itself.
• Seen — counted and done.

The receipts screen shows when it last checked, and pulling down refreshes it. The point is not analytics — it is knowing exactly which two people to go and speak to before the coach leaves.

Good practice from the road

• Lead with the fact: "Bus leaves at 2:00," not "Update regarding departure."
• Send changes as soon as you know them — guests' phones need a moment of signal to receive.
• Check the receipts before you leave a stop. Two minutes of reading beats twenty of searching.