This page helps you post one announcement in many customer channels at once, and check that it arrived.
A broadcast suits release notes, maintenance windows and incident updates. Each customer sees it in their own shared channel, posted by Thorpe. Only admins can send broadcasts. Everyone on your team can see the list and where each one was delivered.
Send a broadcast
- In the web app, open Broadcasts and choose New broadcast.
- Write the Message. Slack formatting works: bold, italic, code and links. The Preview in Slack shows the message as Thorpe will post it, without the formatting applied.
- Pick the Audience: All customer channels, By tier to choose Enterprise, Growth or Standard, or Pick channels to tick them one by one.
- Under When, keep Send now, or choose Schedule and set Send at, in your own time zone.
- Check the line under the preview. It says how many customer channels will get the message and names them. Disconnected channels are left out, and the line says how many.
- Choose Review and send, then confirm with Post in and the number of channels, or Schedule for and the time.
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Audience | All customer channels |
| By tier | Enterprise |
| When | Send now |
| Review before sending: another admin approves it first | Off |
By tier includes only customer channels mapped to an account with that tier. A channel with no account is left out.
Ask another admin to approve it
Tick Review before sending: another admin approves it first, then choose Submit for review. The broadcast waits as Pending review. Another admin, not the author, chooses Approve on it in the list, and it posts right away, or at its scheduled time.
Follow the send log
Each broadcast in the list shows its status, Pending review, Scheduled, Sending, Done or Canceled, and how many channels it reached. Open one to see its Send log, with a row for each channel:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Sent | Posted. The row links to the message in Slack. |
| Queued | Waiting its turn. |
| Thorpe was removed from this channel | Invite Thorpe back, then retry. |
| The channel is archived | Slack won't take new messages there. |
| Slack kept rate limiting the post | Slack refused three times. Retry later. |
| May have posted: Slack didn't confirm it | Check the channel before you retry. |
| The channel no longer exists | The channel was deleted or Thorpe can no longer see it. |
| Not sent: the channel was disconnected | The channel stopped being shared after the broadcast was created, so Thorpe skipped it. |
| Not sent: Thorpe was unavailable | Nothing was posted. Send it again. |
| Slack refused the post | Slack turned it down for another reason. |
Thorpe posts about one channel a second, so a large audience takes a few minutes.
Retry or cancel
- Retry failed posts again in the failed channels only. If some show May have posted, Thorpe warns that those customers could see it twice.
- Cancel stops a broadcast that is pending review, scheduled or sending. Channels that already have it keep the message.
When customers reply
The broadcast itself never opens a request. If a customer replies in its thread, that reply opens a request, the same as any new customer message, and a card appears in your triage channel.
What's next
- Channels and stakeholders explains which channels count as customer channels.
- SLAs and business hours shows how accounts get their tier.