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Employee View
Private: Here you can write a private message to parents or an employee - only those who are a recipient can see the message. You must specifically select the name of the recipient so that there is a green cross next to the name.
Please note, you can send a message to a maximum of 50 recipients at a time. We recommend creating a newsfeed post if you want to reach more recipients
Team: This inbox allows you to communicate with a room. These messages can be read by all employees who have marked the room as a favourite by starring it. You also have the option to upload photos and attach documents to a message.
All: Those who have permission to send messages directly to parents also have this inbox, here you can see all the rooms, even those that are not marked as favourites.
Regarding permissions, if employees have the permissions for "Send private messages to parents" then employees can send private messages to parents - as well as parents directly to employees, without other employees seeing the message.
If employees do not have the permission to directly message parents ticked off they can only send messages from team inbox, which other employees in that room can also see.
Parent View
A parent's view of their inbox may look something like this:
Here they'll have the option to message their child's classroom (this the Opal room in the screenshot above).
Parents can also send messages to Management. This can be for administrative and private concerns that they'd rather not share in a group message.
*Note: There is no way to stop parents from having this option.
💡 Keep in mind it's not possible to attach videos to messages in Famly for both parent and staff messages
Search within Messages
If you're looking to find a particular message or message thread, you can use the search bar within your messaging inbox to filter for:
Recipients of the message
Key terms within a message or thread
You can search for message recipients directly within your messaging inbox, or using the global search function in your app by selecting Messages:
Name your Conversations
You also have the option to name conversations in your inbox, which makes finding a particular thread a little easier. Conversation names can be searched for in the same way that recipients can be, via the search bar in your messaging inbox.
Please note, this option is only available for staff members, not for parents.
To name a conversation
Navigate to your inbox
Click on the conversation you'd like to name
Click on Actions and choose Name conversation from the dropdown
A pop-up will appear where you can enter a new name
Remember to click Save to update your changes!
The new name will be displayed in the sidebar in your conversation overview, replacing the name(s) of the recipient(s)
You can rename conversations by repeating this process
If you'd like to remove a name from a conversation, just delete the name you entered in the pop-up so the field is blank and save it - the previous name will be removed
Archive and Delete Messages
The Actions dropdown also allows you to archive and delete messages.
To delete a message, click on Actions and select Delete messages. Then, select all the messages you'd like to delete. You can only delete your own messages in a thread, other people's messages cannot be deleted by anyone but themselves.
To archive a conversation, click on Archive conversation from the Actions dropdown. This conversation will be moved to your archive, which you can access by clicking on Inbox, then switching to Archived:
Leave a Conversation
In the Actions menu, you can also select to Leave conversation. This will remove you as a participant in the message and you won't be able to rejoin the thread.
Sometimes, conversations will appear locked. This happens when there is only one participant left in the message due to other participants leaving the conversation. You won't be able to send new messages in a locked conversation.
💡 Keep in mind, that you cannot add or remove conversation participants once a message thread has been started. If a conversation needs to include another participant, you will need to draft a new, separate message including this participant.