Messages

What it does — Your shared inbox. There is one thread per customer, and one per driver or service provider on your team, and every admin and staff member at the daycare sees all of them — so a conversation belongs to the business rather than to whoever happened to pick it up, and cover is never a problem. Every message your side sends is signed with the name of the person who wrote it, so the team can always tell who said what. The list shows only threads that actually have messages in them, newest first, and team threads carry a small Team pill so they stand out from customers. Messages arrive live without a refresh, a typing indicator shows when the other side is writing, and "Seen" appears under your last message once it has been read. Unread counts are worked out per person: unread means unread by you, so a colleague opening a thread does not clear your badge and yours does not clear theirs. Whoever you write to gets a push notification straight away, and if the message is still unread in the app ten minutes later, an email follows. Threads you have dealt with can be flagged unread again, or archived out of the list — both of which are yours alone rather than the daycare's.

• One inbox, not personal ones — Every admin and staff member sees every thread. Nothing is trapped in one person's phone, and anyone can pick up a conversation someone else started.
• Every message is signed — Each message from your side shows the name of the person who wrote it — admin, staff member or driver — so anyone picking a thread up can see who said what.
• Your team, too — Each driver and service provider has a thread with the office alongside your customer threads, marked with a Team pill. See Messaging your team.
• Unread is per person — Your badge counts what you have not read. A colleague reading a message does not clear it for you, and yours does not clear it for them.
• Live, with read receipts — Messages arrive without a refresh, a typing indicator shows when the other side is writing, and Seen appears once they have read it.
• Push first, then email — The other side is pushed straight away. If the message is still unread in the app after ten minutes an email follows, so a closed app is not a missed message.
• Separate from your notifications — Chat has its own badge and its own emails. Messages never fill up the notification bell, and you are not told about the same message twice.
• Return key on phones — On a phone or tablet, return starts a new line and only the Send button sends, so a longer message never goes half-written. On a computer, Enter sends and Shift+Enter adds a line.
• Photos, not videos — You can send up to 4 photos in a message, with or without a caption. Only photos can be attached, so videos and other files can't be sent in Messages.
• Where — Messages in the sidebar, the chat icon in the header, the message icon on any row of Owners, or Chat in the bottom bar on a phone. New message → Team for a driver.

What it does — Messages isn't only for customers. Each driver and each service provider on your team has one thread with the office — a direct line for "the gate code has changed", "can you take Teddy last today?" or "can someone get the spa kit out?". Like a customer thread, it belongs to the daycare rather than to one person: every admin and staff member sees it and can reply, and each message is signed with the name of whoever wrote it, so they always know who they are talking to. Unlike a customer thread, it isn't tied to the day. A driver can only reach a customer while that customer is booked in, but their line to the office is open every day — on a rest day, or before the first run — and either side can start it. Service providers can also message the customers booked with them this week — see Service Provider Portal › Messages. Customers never see team threads, and each team member only ever sees their own.

• One thread per person — Each driver and service provider has a single conversation with the office. Everyone on the admin side shares it, so whoever is on shift can answer.
• Open every day — Customer threads are only open to a driver while that customer is booked in. The office thread isn't — it's there on rest days and before the first run.
• Signed messages — Every office message shows the name of the person who wrote it, so a driver knows whether it came from the manager or the front desk.
• Who is listed under Team — The people set up as drivers or with the Service Provider role. Someone who is also an admin, manager or staff member already sees every conversation in the shared inbox, so they aren't listed separately.
• Private to your team — Customers never see team threads, and a driver or provider sees only their own — never anyone else's.
• Where — Messages → New message → Team. Drivers: the top of Messages in the driver portal. Service providers: the top of Messages in the Services portal.

What it does — Two ways to keep the inbox honest once you have opened a thread. Mark as unread puts the dot back on a conversation you have read but are not finished with, so glancing at something on a busy morning does not quietly file it as dealt with. Archive takes an old thread out of the list altogether. Both are yours alone: they sit on the same per-person read marker the unread badge already uses, so archiving never hides a thread from a colleague, and a colleague tidying up never empties your inbox. Nothing is deleted either — an archived conversation keeps its full history behind the Archived tab, and comes back on its own the moment that customer writes again, so putting a thread away is never a way to miss the next message.

• Yours, not the daycare's — Both flags ride your own read marker. Archiving clears a thread from your inbox and nobody else's, and a colleague tidying theirs leaves yours alone.
• Nothing is deleted — An archived conversation keeps its full history behind the Archived tab. Archive is a filter on your own view, not a delete.
• A reply brings it back — The archive only holds while it is newer than the last message, so the moment that customer writes again the thread is back in your inbox.
• Seen stays honest — Flagging a thread unread does not rewind what the customer sees. They were told you read it, because you did.
• Search spans both — The search box looks in the archive as well as the inbox and marks the archived results, so filing a thread never loses it.
• Where — The menu button on any row of Messages, or the Mark as unread and Archive buttons in the conversation header on a computer.

What it does — One message to many customers at once — a closure, a reminder, a change of hours. Choose who it goes to — everyone, recent customers, today's or this week's bookings, or the owners of the dogs on particular transport routes — write it once, and send. It does not land in the customer's private thread: each customer has a separate, read-only Announcements channel and the broadcast goes there, which keeps one-to-many notices out of your two-way conversation. If a customer wants to respond, their reply comes back privately in their own thread where you can deal with it individually — nobody sees anyone else's reply. Broadcasts notify exactly as an ordinary message does, with push and the ten-minute email fallback, and the email can be switched off for an announcement that does not warrant landing in an inbox.

• Announcements, not the private thread — A broadcast goes to a separate read-only channel per customer, so a one-to-many notice is never mixed into your two-way conversation.
• Replies stay private — A customer replying to a broadcast replies in their own thread. Nobody sees anyone else's response, and you answer each one individually.
• Five audiences — All customers, recently active, today's bookings, the next seven days, or by route — with a live count of how many that is before you send.
• By route — Message the owners of the dogs on one or more transport routes, either on today's run or by their default route. Handy for a van running late, or a change to a route's pickup times.
• Email is optional — Push always goes out. The email fallback can be switched off per broadcast when the message does not warrant landing in an inbox.
• Where — Messages → Broadcast, or the megaphone icon in the list header on a phone.

What it does — Every broadcast you have sent, newest first, with what it said, who it went to and how it landed. Each entry records the audience it used, who sent it and when, how many customers it was delivered to, and how many of those have actually opened it — so you know whether a closure notice got through before you start phoning people.

• Delivered and read — Not just what you sent, but how many people have opened it. The read count keeps rising as customers catch up.
• What the audience was — Each entry records whether it went to everyone, to recent customers, to that day's bookings, to the next seven days, or to particular routes — named as they were when you sent it, and whether it was today's run or the default route — so a small delivery count still makes sense months later.
• Where — Messages → History.

What it does — The same chat from the customer's side. Customers get a Messages page in their own portal — one thread with you, plus their Announcements channel if you have broadcast to them — and they can start the conversation themselves without waiting to be messaged first. What drivers see is covered in Driver Portal › Messages.

• Customers can start it — A customer does not have to wait for you to message first. Their thread with you exists from the moment they open the page.
• Announcements are read-only — Customers can read a broadcast but not reply in that channel. Their reply goes to their private thread with you instead.
• Both sides are preference-gated — Settings → Notifications controls the fallback emails: New chat message for customers, New message for your staff.
• Return adds a line, Send sends — On phones and tablets the return key never sends, which is what most messaging apps do. Customers less used to apps were sending half-written messages when return sent straight away.
• Photos both ways — Customers can send you photos as well as receive them, so a picture of a sore paw or a new collar can go straight into their thread with you.
• Where — The customer's own portal → Messages, or Chat on the bottom bar on a phone or tablet.