notifications-admin/app/templates/views/using-notify.html

{% extends "withoutnav_template.html" %}

{% block per_page_title %}
  Using GOV.UK Notify
{% endblock %}

{% block maincolumn_content %}

<div class="grid-row">
  <div class="column-two-thirds">

    <h1 class="heading-large">Using GOV.UK Notify</h1>

    <ul class="list">
      <li><a href="#trial-mode">Trial mode</a></li>
      <li><a href="#message-sending-flow">Email and text message sending flow</a></li>
      <li><a href="#receiving-messages">Receiving messages</a></li>
      <li><a href="#messagedeliveryandfailure">Delivery and failure</a></li>
    </ul>

    <h2 id="trial-mode" class="heading-medium">Trial mode</h2>

    <p>
      All new accounts on Notify start off in trial mode.
    </p>
    <p>
      This means:
    </p>
    <ul class="list list-bullet">
      <li>
        you can only send text messages and emails to yourself
      </li>
      <li>
        you can add people to
        {% if current_service %}
          <a href="{{ url_for('main.manage_users', service_id=current_service.id) }}">your team</a>,
        {% else %}
          your team,
        {% endif %}
        then you can send text messages and emails to them too
      </li>
      <li>
        you can only send 50 text messages or emails per day
      </li>
      <li>
        you can’t send any letters
      </li>
    </ul>

    <p>
      When you’re ready we can
      {% if current_service %}
        <a href="{{ url_for('main.service_request_to_go_live', service_id=current_service.id) }}">remove these restrictions</a>.
      {% else %}
        remove these restrictions.
      {% endif %}

    </p>

    <h2 id="message-sending-flow" class="heading-medium">Email and text message sending flow</h2>

    <img
          src="/static/images/message-sending-flow.svg"
          alt="A picture of the sending flow of messages in Notify, showing the three states of Sending, Delivered, And Failed. Also shows the next
               steps when messages fail, deleting data and trying a new channel for permanent failures, and trying again or trying a new channel for
               temporary failures"
          style="width: 100%;"
    >
        
    <h3 class="heading-small">Resending failed messages</h3>

    <p>If a message fails because the inbox or phone ‘isn’t accepting messages right now’ then it’s up to you to decide if you want to send the message again or not.</p>

    <p>Notify attempts to send messages for up to 72 hours before it returns that status.</p>

    <h3 class="heading-small">Using multiple channels</h3>

    <p>If your user has provided you with multiple contact channels, you should send messages to the channel they’ve chosen as their preference. However there are some scenarios where you might want to send messages to more than one channel:</p>

    <ul class="list list-bullet">
      <li>If a message fails to be delivered, you could try a different channel</li>
      <li>If a message is delivered but the recipient hasn’t taken the action they need, you could try a different channel</li>
      <li>If you need to urgently contact someone, you could email them and send them a text message at the same time</li>
    </ul>

    <p>If you’re using the Notify API these scenarios could be automated.</p>

    <h2 id="receiving-messages" class="heading-medium">Receiving messages</h2>

    <p>Replies to emails that you’ve sent will go directly to the reply-to address that you have set up for your service.</p>

    <p>If you’re set up to receive text messages then your users can reply to messages you’ve sent, or can start an interaction by sending you a text message.</p>

    <p>Receiving inbound text messages can allow your service users to:</p>

    <ul class="list list-bullet">
      <li>confirm, cancel or change an appointment</li>
      <li>register for a simple service</li>
      <li>provide follow-up information for an application</li>
      <li>report something</li>
      <li>provide feedback</li>
    </ul>

    <p>You’ve then got the option to automate the processing of the messages you receive, or to view them in Notify.</p>

    <p>If you automate the processing of text messages you receive, then you should have a manual process in place to deal with messages that can’t be automatically processed.</p>

    <p>If you’d like your service to receive text messages, then <a href="{{ url_for('main.support') }}">let us know</a>.</p>

    <h2 id="messagedeliveryandfailure" class="heading-medium">Delivery and failure</h2>

    <p>Our delivery states are:</p>

    <ul class="list list-bullet">
      <li><a href="#sending">Sending</a></li>
      <li><a href="#delivered">Delivered</a></li>
      <li><a href="#sent-internationally">Sent internationally</a></li>
      <li><a href="#does-not-exist">Phone number or email address does not exist</a></li>
      <li><a href="#inbox-not-accepting-messages">Inbox not accepting messages right now</a></li>
      <li><a href="#phone-not-accepting-messages">Phone not accepting messages right now</a></li>
      <li><a href="#technical-failure">Technical failure</a></li>
    </ul>

    <h3 id="sending" class="heading-small">Sending</h3>

    <p>All messages start in the ‘Sending’ state.</p>

    <p>This means that we have accepted the message. It’s waiting in a queue to be sent to our email or text message delivery partners.</p>

    <h3 id="delivered" class="heading-small">Delivered</h3>

    <p>This means the message is in the person’s email inbox or on their phone.</p>

    <p>We can’t tell you if they’ve read it – to do so would require invasive and unreliable tracking techniques.</p>

    <h3 id="sent-internationally" class="heading-small">Sent internationally</h3>

    <p>This means the text message has been sent to a valid international phone number, but delivery receipts aren’t provided by mobile networks in that country.</p>

    <h3 id="does-not-exist" class="heading-small">Phone number or email address does not exist</h3>

    <p>You’re still billed for text messages to non-existent phone numbers.</p>

    <p><strong>You need to remove these email addresses or phone numbers from your database.</strong></p>

    <a id="not-accepting-messages"></a>

    <h3 id="inbox-not-accepting-messages" class="heading-small">Inbox not accepting messages right now</h3>

    <p>This can happen for a number of reasons, eg the user’s inbox was full.</p>

    <p><strong>You can choose to retry these messages later or not.</strong></p>

    <h3 id="phone-not-accepting-messages" class="heading-small">Phone not accepting messages right now</h3>

    <p>This means the user’s phone was full or hasn’t been switched on in the last 72 hours.</p>

    <p>You’re still billed for these messages.</p>

    <p><strong>You can choose to retry these messages later or not.</strong></p>

    <h3 id="technical-failure" class="heading-small">Technical failure</h3>

    <p>This means there is a problem with the connection between Notify and our email or text message delivery partners.</p>

    <p>Messages still being retried are marked as ’Sending’. We mark messages as ‘Technical failure’ once we’ve given up.</p>

    <p>You won’t be billed for these messages.</p>

    <p><strong>You need to retry these messages yourself later.</strong></p>

  </div>
</div>

{% endblock %}