In-app Messaging

Our In-App Messenger is a secure, fast & intuitive collaboration tool that allows you and your team to engage in two-way communication in real time using the Scheduling+ application (web & mobile), without ever having to exchange your personal contact information. Managers can further customize it to create company and store-wide announcement groups for sharing important organizational updates and choose who gets to post in that group by managing their employee permissions. 

In this guide, you will learn:

• How employees can view & access their conversations in their messenger
• How employees can create & send a direct message to one of their teammates
• How employees can create a group chat to send a message to all members of that group
• How employees can delete a direct chat from their messenger
• How managers can create & send company and store-wide announcements
• How managers can customize their employees' messaging permissions 

You can always reach out to our Support team in case you require more information. 

View & Access Your Team Conversations

Using the new S+ In-app Messenger, all employees will be able to receive and read the direct and group messages sent by their teammates from both their web and mobile applications. 

Using the Web Messenger to Access your Chats

First you need to log into your Scheduling+ web account at: https://app.schedulingplus.com/.

Now navigate to the Messenger screen by clicking on the 'Messages' Icon from the top navigation bar. 

This will open your Messenger from where you can access all your private & group conversations as well as the company/store-wide announcements posted by your manager all at one place. 
 
Whenever you receive a new message, a red dot will appear on the top navigation bar 'Messages' icon , to notify you of the update. Additionally, on opening the messenger, you can see the total count of new/unread messages against each chat. 

Your Web Messenger is divided into the following two parts:

• Chats Panel: 
  
  The left side of the screen called the Chats Panel displays a list of all the conversations you are a      part of along with their brief details. You can scroll through this list and click on any of them to open and read the full conversation.
  
  

• Chat Window: 
  
  The right side of the screen called the Chat Window shows you an expanded view of all your conversations, and from there you can read and reply to your messages. The Chat Window is also used to create new chats. 
  
  

Using the Mobile Messenger to Access your Chats

First you need to log into your Scheduling+ Employee App for Mobile 

Now navigate to the Messenger screen by clicking on the 'Messages' Icon from the top navigation bar.

                                                           

This will open the Messages screen from where you can access all your private & group conversations as well as the company/store-wide announcements posted by your manager all at one place. 
 
Whenever you receive a new message, a green dot will appear on the top navigation bar 'Messages' icon, to notify you of the update. Additionally, on opening the Messages tab, you can see the total count of new/unread messages against each chat. 

                                                           

You can scroll through this list of all your chats and click on any of them to open its Chat Window to read the full conversation and reply to it.

                                                         

Create & Send a Direct Chat/Message

When the employee wants to have a one-on-one chat with a specific member of his team, he can create a 'Direct Chat' with him from his S+ messenger (web & mobile).

Direct Chats in Web Messenger

To create & send a direct message to one of your teammates, open the Messenger screen by clicking on the 'Messages' Icon from the top navigation bar.

Now click on the 'Pencil' icon to the top right corner of the Chats Panel. 

This will open a new view in the Chat Window. 

From here, click on the 'Recipient' field located on top of the Chat window to view a drop down list of all your contacts, or simply enter the employee name you want to chat with in the input field to filter the contacts list results accordingly. 

After you have selected and added an employee to the Recipients field, you can start typing your message in the input box at the bottom of the chat window, and click on the 'Send' button or simply press the 'Enter' key from your keyboard to send it. 

On hitting the enter button, a new direct chat will be created and start appearing on the left side Chats Panel for you and your teammate and he will be notified of your message right away. You can always come back to this conversation to send more messages.  

Direct Chats in Mobile Messenger

To create & send a direct message to one of your teammates, open the Messenger screen by clicking on the 'Messages' Icon from the top navigation bar.

                                                   

Now click on the 'three dot' icon to the top right corner of the Messages screen.

                                                   

This will bring up a drop-down menu on the screen. Now click on the 'New Chat' option. 

                                                     

This will bring you to the 'Select Contact' screen that will display a list of all your contacts, or simply enter the employee name you want to chat with in the Search field to filter the contacts list results accordingly.                                          

                                                                                        

Now click on the employee name you want to chat with. 

                                                       

This will open a new Chat Window titled by that employee's name. You can type your message in the input box at the bottom of the chat window, and click on the 'Send' button. 

                                                   

On hitting the 'Send' button, a new direct chat will be created and also start appearing on the Main Messages Screen for you and your teammate and he will be notified of your message right away. You can always come back to this conversation to send more messages.  

                             

Please Note: 

By default, all employees will only be allowed to send messages to their assigned store(s)' employee only. However, if you want to be able to communicate with an employee who does not belong to your store(s), you can ask your Account Admin/Manager to update your Messaging Permissions from the web app. 

Create & Send a Group Chat/Message

When the employee wants to communicate with more than one of his teammates simultaneously, he can create a group chat to send messages. A group chat will be accessible to all participants of that group to read & reply. 

Group Chats in Web Messenger

To create & send a group message to two or more members of your team, open the Messenger screen by clicking on the 'Messages' Icon from the top navigation bar.

Now click on the 'Pencil' icon to the top right corner of the Chats Panel. 

This will open a new view in the Chat Window.

From here, click on the 'Recipient' field located on top of the Chat window to view a drop down list of all your contacts, or simply enter the employee name you want to chat with in the input field to filter the contacts list results accordingly. 

Select and add an employee to the Recipients field and continue to add more repeating the same. There is no limit on the number of participants when creating a group chat. 

Once done, you can start typing your message in the input box at the bottom of the chat window, and click on the 'Send' button or simply press the 'Enter' key from your keyboard to send it. 

On hitting the enter button, a new group chat will be created and start appearing on the left side Chats Panel for you and all participants of that chat and they will be notified of your message right away, so they can respond to it. You can always come back to this conversation to send more messages.

  

Group Chats in Mobile Messenger

To create & send a group message to two or more members of your team, open the Messenger screen by clicking on the 'Messages' Icon from the top navigation bar.

                                                 

Now click on the 'three dot' icon to the top right corner of the Messages screen.

                                                   

This will bring up a drop-down menu on the screen. Now click on the 'New Group Chat' option. 

                                                   

This will bring you to the 'Select Contacts' screen that will display a list of all your contacts, you can also enter the employee name you want to chat with in the Search field to filter the contacts list results accordingly. 

                                                                                 

Now click to select the employees you want to create a group chat with. Once you have selected two or more of your teammates from this list, you will see the 'Create Group Chat' button. 

                                                     

After you are done selecting the teammates you want to send the group message, click on the 'Create Group Chat' button. This will open a new Chat Window. You can start typing in your message in input box at the bottom of the chat window and press the 'Send' button when done. 

                                                         

On hitting the 'Send' button, a new group chat will be created and also start appearing on the Main Messages Screen for you and all participants of that group and they will be notified of your message right away. You can always come back to this conversation to send more messages.  

                           

Please Note: 

By default, all employees will only be allowed to create group chats with only their assigned store(s)' employees. However, if you want to be able to communicate with an employee who does not belong to your store(s), you can ask your Account Admin/Manager to update your Messaging Permissions. 

Delete Your Team Conversations

The Employee will be able to permanently delete any of his direct chats for himself from his messenger, however the conversation will still be available for the other participant. 

Delete a Direct Chat from Web Messenger

To delete any of your direct chats from your messenger, open that conversation first and you will see a “Trash icon“ located at the top right corner of the Chat Window.

Clicking on the Trash icon would bring up a confirmation message on the screen. You can then choose to 'Delete' or 'Cancel' from the pop up.  

 

Delete a Direct Chat from Mobile Messenger

To delete any of your direct chats from your messenger, open that conversation first from the main Messages screen and you will see a “Trash icon“ located at the top right corner of the Chat Window.

                                                         

Clicking on the 'Trash' icon would bring up a confirmation message on the screen. You can then choose to 'Delete' or 'Cancel' from the pop up.  

                                                           

Create & Send Announcements

The managers (or other users with similar access) can create store-wide & company-wide announcement channels as a quick way to post important workforce updates with an entire team across locations.

The employees can only read the announcements and won’t be able to comment or reply. 

Please note that the ability to create announcement channels & posting messages in it is only available for the web messenger. However, users of the S+ employee app will still be able to view & read the store-wide and company-wide announcements posted for them in their mobile messenger. 

Announcements in Web Messenger

To be able to create and share announcements, the manager must first have any one or both of the following messaging permissions assigned to his role/position:

These messaging permissions can be assigned to anyone by your Account Admin/Company Manager from the Permissions screen, and their access to the 'Announcements' feature will be based on that. 

• Company-wide Announcements
  

To be able to create a company-wide announcement and share it with their entire time, you must first have the following messaging permission assigned to their role/position:




If you have the above-mentioned messaging permission, you will be able to see a 'Speaker' icon to the top right corner of the Chats Panel in your web messenger. 

Clicking on the 'Speaker' icon will open up a new view in the Chat Window 

From here, click on the 'Recipient' field located on top of the Chat window to view a drop down list of all the locations you have the access to create an announcement for.

Now select the 'Company-wide' option. 

Then, start typing your announcement or message in the input box at the bottom of the Chat Window. 

You can also choose to send this announcement as an Email and/or an SMS to your team before pressing the 'enter' button. 

Once done, click on the 'Send' button or simply press the 'Enter' key from your keyboard to share it with all your team.

 

On hitting the enter button, a new Company-wide Announcement Channel will be created for your company and start appearing on the left side Chats Panel for you and all your team and they will be notified of this message right away.

Company-wide announcement channel only needs to be created once for a company, after that you and other managers (with access to create company-wide announcements) can simply reuse the same channel to post more announcements for your staff to read. 

However, your staff will not be able to reply to the announcements you post in that channel. Unless you update their messaging permissions. 

• Store-wide Announcements
  

Store-wide announcements can be created the same way as the company-wide announcement.

If you have the permission to create company-wide announcements, you will by default be assigned with the permission to create store-wide announcements for all stores/locations that exist for your company.

However, if you only have the following permission, then you can only create announcements for the store(s) you belong to. 




To create a store-wide announcement, click on the 'Speaker' icon to the top right corner of the Chats Panel in your web messenger. 

This will open up a new view in the Chat Window 

From here, click on the 'Recipient' field located on top of the Chat window to view a drop down list of all the stores/locations you have the access to create an announcement for.

Now select the store/location you want to create this announcement for

Then, start typing your announcement or message in the input box at the bottom of the Chat Window. 

You can also choose to send this announcement as an Email and/or an SMS to your team before pressing the 'enter' button. 

Once done, click on the 'Send' button or simply press the 'Enter' key from your keyboard to share it with all team members in that store/location.

 

On hitting the enter button, a new Store-wide Announcement Channel will be created for the store you chose and start appearing on the left side Chats Panel for you and staff of that store and they will be notified of this message right away.

Please Note:

• Company-wide & store-wide announcement channels only need to be created once for a company, after that you and other managers (with similar access) can simply reuse the same channels to post more announcements for your staff to read. 

• Your employees will not be able to reply to the announcements you post in that channel. Unless you update their messaging permissions. 

       

• The employees who have recently been made part of a company or any store/location inside that company would first need to Join all the existing announcement channels to be able to read what his managers are posting in it. 
  
  

 

Messaging Permissions

The Account Admin (or other managers with access to update their employees' permissions) can customize their employees' access level to the in-app messaging feature with the help of the following three Message Permissions we have added on the Permissions screen.