Tell residents about events, even before they register

Community notifications reach residents whose address is inside your neighborhood's boundary, including people who have never registered for anything. Whether they go out at all is the neighborhood's decision; what each resident receives is theirs, since they can opt out of announcements or reminders, or mute a series or a tag. In Settings → Neighborhood, open Community notifications and tick Enable community notifications. It's the master switch: nothing sends while it's off.

Two kinds of notice sit under the master switch. New-event announcements go out when an event publishes. Event reminders go to residents who aren't registered, at each event's own reminder times. Remind residents who aren't registered about then sets how far that reaches: Events with no RSVP only (nothing to sign up for, so this is the only reminder anyone gets), plus encouraged-RSVP events with unlimited capacity, plus capped events while spots remain, or Every event.

Channels is Push only, Email only, or Push + email; push reaches residents who use the NeighborlyEvents app, email reaches everyone with an address on file. Announcement timing is Right when an event publishes, or One daily roundup that gathers the day's new events into a single notice. Pick the roundup if you publish several events at once and don't want to ping people several times in a day.

Community notifications only go out for tagged events, because tags are what residents mute. Add tags from the Tags line near the top of the event's page (Family, Food & Drink, Outdoors, and so on). If an event is set to notify residents but can't, the page says Community notifications are on for this event but won't send, and gives the reason, such as a missing tag or the master switch being off.

On the event's edit page, the Community notifications section holds this event's choices. Announce to residents when this event publishes needs at least one tag at publish time. When the event falls inside your reminder scope, Reminders for residents who aren't registered offers timings relative to the start (each session's start for pick-your-sessions and no-RSVP events), with Add your own timing for hours of your choice. Day of means 8 AM in the event's time zone, and it's skipped when another reminder lands within two hours of it. If the event has no tags yet, a note at the top of the section says so, with a link to add them. When reminders are out of scope for this event, such as an RSVP event under Events with no RSVP only, the section shows that reason instead of the timings.

Publishing never announces silently. When an event can announce, publishing opens a page that says how many residents would hear about it and how many of them use the app, then asks you to choose Publish and announce to residents or Publish without announcing, and which channel to Send it by. Published quietly? The event page offers Announce it now. Already announced and the date or place changed? It offers Send another announcement, which goes out right away, once.

Platform administrators can require approval for a community's mass email, mass push, or both, and each channel is reviewed separately: an announcement sent by push and email is two requests. While a send waits, the event page shows Awaiting platform-admin approval with what's held and by which channel, and nothing goes out until an administrator approves it. A reminder whose moment passes while it waits is declined rather than sent late. If a send is held longer than you expect, or you'd like the review changed, email [email protected].