Over recent months we've made significant updates to our Messaging interface so it's more efficient and user-friendly, giving you better control over your messaging processes. Let's jump in and take a look at what you can expect to see in our upcoming Vanguard release.

Wait, wasn't this slated for Ultima?

You're right, we originally planned to release redesigned messaging forms and scenarios in our Ultima release. We've decided to hold off the production release for now, just while we finish testing scenarios. This will ensure you'll have the most seamless experience sending messaging forms and scenarios—and since messaging is such a core component of the product, extra testing isn't a bad thing!

But what if I want it sooner?

If you're eager to enable this feature in your production environment before the Vanguard release, just reach out to customer support. This option will be available after scenarios are released to non-production in late January/early February.

What do I get if I enable it?

Message side panel

We've implemented the side panel you've seen elsewhere in the product, enabling you to view forms and scenarios at the same time as the messaging list. This makes it easy to quickly click each message and preview the fields it contains to check if it's the form or scenario you want to use.

Site recipients

In our updated forms, you can now search for sites just like any other recipient type. Don't worry, your users won't be able to add sites as recipients on just any form—to enable this functionality, you'll need to add the 'Site Recipients' section to the form layout.

To search using the map, open the 'Advanced' recipient selector and select sites. It works largely the same as the old map, although we've made a few usability tweaks, such as the ability to click on a circle representing multiple sites and select the ones you want.

More info on targeted recipients

We also took the opportunity to enhance information about targeted recipients. The recipients section provides a clear count of each type selected, and the total targeted recipients is prominently displayed next to the Send button. This small change aims to eliminate any confusion about the number of people being targeted, preventing those “Oops, why does this say up to 7658 people will be targeted” moments!

Required recipients

Sending messages without recipients can be useful when you initiate an incident automation or alert subscribers. However, it's not that helpful if you try to notify on-call resolvers and accidentally remove all targeted recipients (for example, using the new 'Remove All' recipients functionality). Now, for messages that definitely need recipients, you can set up forms to require them from the form layout.

Scheduling is sending…just later

We’ve moved the Schedule Message option next to the Send button, following the pattern common in many applications, which makes sense because you're either sending it now or configuring it to send later.

Unlocking future improvements

Nothing to show off here, but we've made a lot of updates under the surface overhauling the code used to deliver messaging forms and scenarios. This makes it easier for us to tackle future improvements, including the additional ones you've asked for!