Group Announcements/Blasts

Send mass messages to everyone in your sports group

OpenSports has just launched our group announcements section so that you can have even more touch points with your group members! Whether you want to send weekly newsletters, tell all of your group members about an upcoming tournament or league and include links to join, or send a discount code to everyone, announcements have you covered!

Group Announcements, Defined

Simple text announcements that a group admin can blast to everybody in their group.

Who has control?

Group Admins

How do I make an announcement? Web & App

Web

There is a tab on your Group’s page, for sending out group announcements. This will only be visible to group admins (see below)👇

To make a new announcement, click on the Announcements Tab > Create a new announcement > Click the checkbox to Pin the announcement if you want it to appear on your Group’s home page (see image below) > Click Save.

You can go back and edit your announcement at any time, and you can pin and un-pin announcements at any time.

Admins and Players can view pinned announcements on your Group’s Home page👇

Making an announcement: App

On the app, under your Group page, you can make an announcement by tapping on the ellipsis (…) at the top right corner.

To make an announcement when you are using the App, go to your Group’s page > Tap on the ellipsis (…) at the top right corner, and tap on the “Announcements” button. You will be brought to a page with all of your past announcements. Click on the plus (+) button to create a new announcement.

On the app, pinned announcements appear on the Group’s home page, right above the group’s list of events.

How will players receive announcements?

Receiving announcements through the App

On the app, players will be notified the same way they receive OpenSports event invites and event notifications:

  • Push notifications on — If a group member has push notifications turned on, the will see a preview of the announcement on their phone. When they tap on the push notification preview, the app launches open, and the player is brought to a page that shows them the entire announcement.
  • No push notifications — If they don’t have push notifications turned on, they will see the notification (a red dot on the notification bell) the next time they open their app. They will also receive an email if they don’t open the notification within 15 minutes of it being sent.

The announcement will also be pinned to your group’s home page, if you selected to pin it when you created the announcement.

Below is what an announcement preview looks like in the “Notification” section of the app/web.

When a player checks their notifications (through the notifications bell), they will see a preview of the announcement. When they click on the text, they are brought to the full announcement.

Web

If players have web-accounts only (and have a connected email address), they will receive an email when you send out a group announcement.

Here’s what the new email looks like in the players’ inbox:

Here’s the email content. Your group member will receive an email with the full text of the announcement, and a button that allows them to easily go to your group on the web:

Group members who prefer using OpenSports on the web can also see announcements on their web profile, by clicking on the notifications bell:

Clicking on the notification bell will open the notification pane, seen in the screen shot below:

View of a player’s notifications, on the web.

Overall Functionality

For the first version of group announcements, the functionality will have basic text only. This will become more customizable over time (i.e., gif’s, memes, template tags to make messages more personalized, ability to send announcements to specific group members only, etc.) Read below to learn about some upcoming add-ons!

Who can see my announcements?

Right now, announcements go to everybody who is a member of your group. For private groups, this means only members can see announcements. For public groups, this means that anybody who finds your group can see your announcements.

Can I filter my announcements to sub-groups within my group?

i.e., just to players who play at a specific level, or just to a certain gender, or just to players with a soccer sport card?

Not on the first release. We will update you when this is available.

Other upcoming add-ons

  • A sidebar with upcoming events that you can drag into your announcements, so that the event is clickable
  • E-mail template tags (first name, last name) to make it feel personalized, that way you can send a blast of announcements that say “Hey [First name] we have an announcement!…”

Yay to new features! We’d love to hear back from you about Group Announcements so that we can continue to make it amazing for you and your group. Email us with tips and suggestions at alicia@opensports.net :-)