Creating and Sending Text Messages

You can use IRIS ParentMail to send text messages to contacts who have registered their mobile number with you.

Recipients are unable to respond to text messages sent from IRIS ParentMail. If a response is required, consider using Forms to send messages.

Sending text messages come with a cost per recipient per message sent. Your text credit balance is shown at the top of the page. If you need to top-up the text credits balance, select Buy Credits.

Creating and Sending a Text

When creating the message, you can choose whether to use an existing template or create the message from scratch. Do the following:

1. If creating a text from scratch, go to SMS > Compose.

   If using an existing template, go to SMS > Templates.

   1. Highlight the relevant template then select Use.

      For a detailed description of how to manage your templates, go to Managing Text Message Templates.

2. In the Compose an SMS page, select Contact Recipients.

   

3. If the student or staff member name is known, use the search bar to locate them immediately.

   When sending texts to parents or carers, you always choose the student as the recipient.

   If the name is not known, use the Categories tree to drill down to the required user.

   To choose all members of a category, select the relevant category.

    

4. Select all required contacts, then select Confirm.

5. If the recipient is not registered with IRIS ParentMail, enter their mobile number in You can add mobile numbers below for any people not on ParentMail.
6. Enter a Subject to help identify the message within IRIS ParentMail (limited to 200 characters) — note that this is just for identifying purposes in IRIS ParentMail and is not sent to recipients.
7. Select when you want to send the text (Do you want to send this message immediately?):
   • Yes — Send the text message immediately
   • No — Send the text at a scheduled date and time
     • Select the Schedule date and time field and select the required delivery information.
8. If messaging student contacts, choose the intended recipient:
   • Send to Primary Contacts only — Send the text to the person selected as the primary contact for the student
   • Send Per Student — Send a copy of the message to every contact for that student
   • Send Per Family — If multiple students are linked to the same contact, for example, siblings in the same school, select this option to have the contact receive a single copy of this message
9. Use Economy Mode to reduce the number of text credits used (recommended). Economy Mode sends an email instead of a text message to recipients who have an email address entered in IRIS ParentMail. Users of the IRIS ParentMail app receive the message via the app regardless.
10. Enter the details of the text message you want to send.

    Note that one text credit consists of 160 characters. The count above the message area indicates the number of text message credits used per recipient and the number of characters remaining.

    Use the provided options to insert personalised fields placeholders — these are replaced with the recipient's information when the text is sent.

    

11. When you are happy with the message contents, select Send to send the message now or save the scheduled message for later delivery.
12. Confirm the delivery method.
13. Text messages that cannot be sent to recipients generate an exception list along with paper copies of the message. To download the list and print paper copies, go to Documents to Print > SMS.