Platform Notifications

Overview

Platform Notifications allow admins to broadcast announcements to clinics, citizens, or both. Use this feature to communicate maintenance windows, new feature launches, policy changes, drug recalls, or any platform-wide updates. Notifications can be sent immediately or scheduled for a future date/time. The system tracks delivery and read metrics so you can measure communication effectiveness. Requires the notifications.send permission.

Viewing Notification History

1. Navigate to Communications > Notifications from the sidebar.
2. Notification list — Displays all sent and scheduled notifications with columns: Title (AR), Type, Target, Sent At, Sent Count, Read Count, and Status.
3. Click any notification to view full details including body text, delivery statistics, and target filter criteria.

Creating a New Notification

1. Click "New Notification" at the top of the page.
2. Fill in the notification details:
   • Title (Arabic) — Required. Short, clear headline for the notification
   • Title (English) — Optional. For bilingual display
   • Body (Arabic) — Required. The full message content. Supports basic HTML formatting.
   • Body (English) — Optional bilingual body
   • Type — Select: announcement, maintenance, feature_update, policy_change, urgent, or info
3. Set the target audience:
   • Target Type — Choose: all_clinics, all_citizens, all (both), or filtered
   • Target Filter — If "filtered" is selected, specify criteria:
     • By city/governorate
     • By plan tier
     • By clinic status (active only, trial only, etc.)
     • By specific clinic IDs
4. Schedule or send immediately:
   • Send Now — Delivers the notification immediately to all matching targets
   • Schedule — Set a future date and time (Cairo timezone) for delivery
5. Click "Send" or "Schedule" — The notification is queued for delivery.

Notification Delivery

Notifications are delivered through multiple channels:

1. In-app notification — Appears in the notification bell/panel within the clinic or citizen dashboard
2. Email — Sent to the primary email of clinic admins or citizens (for urgent/maintenance types)
3. Push notification — Sent to mobile app users (citizens)

Tracking Delivery Metrics

1. Open any sent notification to view its metrics:
2. Sent Count — Number of recipients the notification was delivered to
3. Read Count — Number of recipients who opened/viewed the notification
4. Read Rate — Percentage calculated as (Read Count / Sent Count) x 100
5. Delivery breakdown — Shows delivery by channel (in-app, email, push) if applicable

Notification Types and Best Practices

1. Announcement — General platform news, new features. Non-urgent.
2. Maintenance — Scheduled downtime or service disruptions. Send at least 24 hours in advance.
3. Feature Update — New module or feature availability. Include a brief "what's new" summary.
4. Policy Change — Terms of service updates, pricing changes. Send with ample advance notice.
5. Urgent — Security alerts, critical system issues, drug recalls. Triggers immediate multi-channel delivery.

FAQ

Can I edit a scheduled notification before it sends?

Yes. Navigate to the notification detail and click "Edit" if the scheduled time has not passed yet. Once sent, notifications cannot be recalled or edited.

Is there a limit on how many notifications I can send?

There is no hard limit, but best practice is to send no more than 2-3 platform-wide notifications per week. Excessive notifications lead to users ignoring them.

Can I target a notification to a single clinic?

Yes. When creating a notification, select "filtered" as the target type and enter the specific clinic ID in the target filter. This is useful for communicating about a specific issue with one clinic.