[bromcom] MCAS Push Notifications on Phones

[karldenton]

Hi all

 

We are just trailing the use of MCAS at the moment. A few parents have reported (and I've seen the settings) that they don't receive notifications on there phone when a new announcement is sent via MCAS despite the "Push notification" button ticked and notifications allowed on the iPhone / Android. Some parents get the notifications, others don't.

 

I have spoken to Bromcom support but they say it's down to the persons phone (which I suspect it is)

 

Does anyone know of anything else we can test / try? Has anyone else had these issues reported?

 

Thanks

[CyBeRkId2002]

We do not use MCAS push notifications pretty much for this reason! I don't necessarily blame Bromcom but have always seen app-based messaging as a less reliable form of ensuring the message gets through. We had similar issue with another, third-party provider back when we had SIMs.

 

My knowledge of android / iphones is limited but the issue is predominantly related to whether the app is running and awake to be listening for inbound messages. When I trialled both systems if the app was in regular use it worked great. But if I didn't check it for a few days and the app was not running in the background to pick up the alerts thats where things went a bit pear-shaped. Add in the fact that some phones have built-in battery savers to stop apps automatically starting and I honestly think you are on to a losing battle with regards a platform that you would want to rely on all messages being received all the time by all parents! Is suspect iPhone is better due to only having to tailor to one version of the OS, but I am not sure.

 

That leaves SMS which, in my experience, is FAR, FARRR better - but certainly not 100%. I actually investigated quite heavily and found that certain parents said they were not receiving SOME of the messages going out from the school. This was limited to CERTAIN networks and almost always impacted bulk messages (rather than individual absences, for example). I came to the conclusion some networks were incorrectly (or correctly, depending on your outlook) tagging our bulk mail as SPAM. One work around I advised for this is to include something in the email to differentiate them (salutation for example) as this seems to get around bulk blocking.

 

Finally Email - it is brilliant. I can not only tell when it was sent and who to, but whether their email server received it! It really is an absolute god-send when it comes to identifying where the issues are and we rarely have issues with parents receiving these other than (a very small number!) ending in junk. Main issue with this is some parents check this very infrequently.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Obviously, Bromcom, if there have been changes to the app and the way it works to improve reliability then I would love to hear about it and will maybe reinvestigate.