Notifications
Choose how Agoo reaches hosts, staff and visitors, by push in the Workspace app first, then SMS, WhatsApp and email, with fallbacks, quiet hours, lock-screen privacy and scheduled reports.
Agoo is in early access. This page describes the feature as it ships to early-access organisations; screens are illustrative.
Agoo sends messages when something needs someone's attention: a visitor has arrived, a pass is ready, a booking is tomorrow, a parcel is waiting. You decide which channels it uses and in what order, in Console → Settings → Notifications.
Channels
| Channel | Reaches | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Push | Staff with the Workspace app | Always tried first. Free and unlimited on every plan. Fastest, and carries buttons such as Approve. |
| In-app | People signed in to the console or app | Live updates on screen, such as the on-site list, devices and alerts, without refreshing the page. |
| SMS | Any phone, including feature phones | Sent through Hubtel. Included each month, then from your wallet. |
| Anyone on WhatsApp | Approved message templates with buttons. Included from Growth; from your wallet on Starter. | |
| Anyone with an email address | Sent through SendGrid. Included each month by plan. |
Actions in SMS, such as approving a visitor or confirming you're safe in a roll call, always use a link, not a reply. Links work on every network. They open your organisation's visitor pages, such as voltabank.agoohq.com or your own domain, without signing in.
WhatsApp messages come from Agoo's WhatsApp number, +233 50 450 5175, with your organisation's name in every message. Each message starts once Meta approves its template; until then, SMS carries it.
When visitors write back on WhatsApp
Visitors can reply to a WhatsApp message, for example to say they're running late. They get an automatic reply straight away, naming your organisation, and their message appears in Console → WhatsApp and the Workspace app for your team to answer (on Free, your team can read them and Agoo's team answers for you). Each reply your team sends counts as a WhatsApp message, and Owners and Admins are told by email and push when replies reach 80% of your monthly WhatsApp budget and when it's reached. See WhatsApp replies. For anything urgent, the reply tells them to contact you directly, so keep your organisation's phone number up to date.
Anyone who replies STOP gets no more WhatsApp messages from Agoo, from any organisation, until they reply START. Their passes and reminders then go by SMS or email instead, so they still arrive.
Push first
Everyone at your organisation who has Agoo Workspace on their iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet, with notifications allowed, gets their alerts there first. Visitors and guests don't have the app, so they never get pushes.
- Delivered means on the phone. Each push carries a receipt that the phone sends back to Agoo the moment it arrives. If it doesn't come back in time, because the phone is off or has no signal, Agoo moves on to the person's next channel (WhatsApp, SMS or email), so nobody misses an alert. A push that did arrive isn't followed by a text, so you don't pay for one.
- How long Agoo waits. The alert's move to the next channel time under Alerts to your team, or 5 minutes when it's set to Only if it fails. Roll call's "Are you safe?" moves on after 1 minute.
- Answer from the lock screen. Hosts approve or decline a visitor, tell reception they're coming or ask the visitor to wait, and confirm a booking; security opens a held check-in; everyone on a roll call taps I'm safe. The phone asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode first (on Android, your fingerprint, face unlock or screen lock).
- Free and unlimited on every plan, Free included. Pushes never use your SMS or WhatsApp allowance or your wallet.
- Each person decides. They can turn the app off for any alert in Account → Notifications, and see and remove the phones that get their notifications (up to 10). Signing out of the app stops that phone's notifications.
What a locked phone shows
By default a notification names the visitor ("Ama Owusu is here"), so a host knows at a glance. If who visits you is sensitive, as at a clinic or a counselling service, turn on Leave names out of the app's notifications under The Agoo app in Console → Settings → Notifications. Notifications then say "Your visitor is here" or "A visit needs your answer", and people see the name when they open Agoo. Security hold alerts then leave the name out by text, WhatsApp and email too.
Emergency roll calls come as Time Sensitive notifications, which break through Focus modes. Agoo has asked Apple for Critical Alerts, which also sound when a phone is on silent; until Apple grants them, roll calls sound like any other Time Sensitive notification.
What people start with
Each person chooses for themselves in Account → Notifications. Until they do, they get your organisation's defaults. In Console → Settings → Notifications, under Alerts to your team, choose for each alert whether people start with SMS, Email or both:
| Alert | Goes to |
|---|---|
| A visitor has arrived | The host |
| A visitor needs an answer | The host |
| A visitor needs someone | Whoever receives the visitor: the site's front desk, the person named, or the team's members until one of them takes it |
| Asked to see a waiting visitor | The person the front desk asks |
| An answer about a waiting visitor | Whoever asked, else the site's front desk |
| A waiting visitor was taken | The others who were told about the visitor, so nobody answers twice |
| A visitor booked in for another time | Whoever the visitor will see at the new time |
| Bookings (four alerts) | The host: a booking to answer, new, moved or cancelled |
| A parcel is waiting | The person a parcel is for, or each member of its team, with the code to collect it |
| A parcel is still waiting | The same people, until it's collected, as often and as many times as the deliveries settings say |
| A parcel was collected | Whoever logged it, when someone else hands it over, if the deliveries settings ask for it |
| A check-in is on hold | The site's security leads (or Owners and Admins if none) |
| A visitor gave a low score | Owners and Admins, or each site's admins, as Settings → Feedback says |
| A barred vehicle at the gate | The site's security leads (or Owners and Admins if none), even in quiet hours (Vehicles) |
| A visitor wrote on WhatsApp | Whoever on your team has the conversation, else the host (WhatsApp replies): the app first, then email |
- A person's own choice always wins. Once someone saves Account → Notifications, changing a default doesn't change theirs.
- WhatsApp is always each person's choice. It's never switched on for them, so it isn't one of the defaults.
- The five alerts about waiting visitors don't use WhatsApp. They go to the app, then by SMS or email, and WhatsApp isn't offered for them in Settings or in Account → Notifications. See Who a visit is for.
- Each alert keeps SMS or email on, so nobody who hasn't chosen misses it.
Fallback chains
A fallback chain is the order Agoo tries channels in, and when it moves to the next one. Set one for each alert under Alerts to your team, and one for passes, approvals and booking messages under Messages to visitors and guests.
- Order: any order of WhatsApp, SMS and email. WhatsApp is only tried for people who chose it, and visitors get only the channels they asked for.
- Move to the next channel: Only if it fails (the default), or when a message isn't delivered within 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes.
Agoo moves on when a message fails, for example a wrong number or a WhatsApp number that isn't on WhatsApp, or when SMS or WhatsApp hasn't confirmed delivery in time. Email doesn't report delivery, so a chain moves on from email only if it fails. A late message isn't withdrawn, so someone may get both, and each is paid for as usual. Each message shows its delivery status per channel: queued, sent, delivered and, where the channel reports it, read.
If a messaging provider has a problem, Agoo may pause push, SMS or WhatsApp for a while. Messages then go by the next channel in your chain straight away, life-safety alerts included, and nothing is lost; Settings → Notifications says so while it lasts, and your settings stay as they are.
Push to the Workspace app always comes before the chain, for anyone with the app, on iPhone, iPad and Android. Roll call's "Are you safe?" always tries every channel it can, whatever the chains say.
Who gets what
| Message | Goes to |
|---|---|
| Visitor arrived, approval needed | The host, or everyone the visit is for |
| A visitor needs someone | The front desk, the person named, or the team |
| Asked to see a waiting visitor | The person the front desk asks |
| An answer about a waiting visitor | Whoever asked, else the front desk |
| A waiting visitor was taken | The others who were told |
| A visitor booked in for another time | Whoever they'll see at the new time |
| Invitation and QR pass | The visitor |
| Your visitor is running late | The host |
| Your visitor can't make it | The host |
| Your visitor asked for another time | The host |
| Your visit has moved | The visitor |
| Your visit stays at its time | The visitor |
| Booking confirmations and reminders | The person who booked, and the host |
| A waitlist time has freed up | The first person waiting for that day |
| A parcel is waiting, and reminders | The person it's for, or each member of its team, with the collection code |
| A parcel you logged was collected | Whoever logged it, if your organisation asks |
| Watchlist match | Security |
| Barred vehicle at the gate | Security |
| Roll call | Everyone on site |
| Your shift is about to start | The person on the shift (in the app only) |
| Still clocked in? | The person on the shift (in the app only) |
| Your shifts changed | Each person a published roster changes (in the app, or by email without it) |
| A Wi-Fi password changed | Each person a staff Wi-Fi network is shared with, but not whoever changed it (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Open shift posted | The people at the site who can take it, when a roster with open shifts is published (in the app only) |
| Shift offered to a colleague | The colleague named, or everyone who could take it (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Shift offer taken or refused | The person who offered the shift (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Swap waiting for a decision | The approvers of the step now waiting: the line manager, HR, a deputy, or whoever it moves up to (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Swap approved or declined | Both people in the swap, also when it's called off (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Claim waiting for a decision | The approvers of the step now waiting (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Claim decided | The person who asked for the open shift (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Extra time from your team | The line manager of someone who worked past their hours (in the app only) |
| Extra time waiting, each morning | Line managers with extra time still waiting (by email only) |
| Your extra time decided | The person whose time it is (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Scheduled report | The roles, Owners and Admins you choose (by email only) |
| Your own domain is connected | Owners and Admins (by email only) |
| Your own domain couldn't be verified | Owners and Admins (by email only) |
| Leave waiting for approval | Whoever the request is waiting with, or their deputy (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Leave waiting: daily summary | Approvers with requests waiting (by email only; your organisation can turn it off) |
| Leave approved or declined | The person who asked |
| Leave cancelled | The approvers of the request |
| Named as a deputy | The deputy |
| Leave year end summary | Owners and HR (by email only) |
| A legal minimum for leave changed | Owners and HR (by email only) |
| Your timesheet to confirm | Each person on attendance when a period ends, if staff confirm their own (in the app, or by email without it) |
| Timesheets waiting for you | Each approver with timesheets waiting when a period ends, then every two working days while some wait |
| A timesheet sent back to you | The person, to check it again, or the first approver, with the note |
| A timesheet reopened | The person and whoever approved it, with the reason |
| Timesheets still waiting before payroll | Owners and HR, two working days before the payroll date and on the day (by email only) |
| Every timesheet approved | Owners and HR, when every timesheet for a period is approved (by email only) |
| A data request arrived | Owners and Admins, when someone asks about their data from your visitor pages (by email only) |
| A data request is due soon | Whoever it's assigned to, else Owners and Admins, seven days before it's due (by email only) |
| A data request is overdue | Owners and Admins and whoever it's assigned to, once, when it passes its due date (by email only) |
| A new review on your page | Owners, Admins and the site admins of its branch, when someone publishes a review on Agoo Reviews (in the app only) |
| New reviews paused on your page | Owners and Admins, when Agoo Reviews pauses new reviews during unusual activity, and when they open again (in the app only) |
People choose their own in Account → Notifications, in the Console or the Workspace app: whether each alert comes to the app, which of WhatsApp, SMS and email it uses after that, and their own quiet hours. For example, a host can choose WhatsApp instead of SMS. See Your profile and notifications.
Quiet hours
Quiet hours hold alerts until they end, on the clock of the site the alert is about. Set them for your organisation under Quiet hours in Console → Settings → Notifications: they apply to people who haven't set their own. Security holds, roll calls and shift reminders always come through straight away.
When the wallet runs out
When your allowance and wallet can't pay for an SMS or WhatsApp message, Agoo sends it by email instead. Turn off Send by email instead to skip such messages; each skipped message is recorded with the reason. Roll call always falls back.
Scheduled reports
A scheduled report is an email with a day's or a week's visits in numbers: visits, visitors, walk-ins, no-shows, late arrivals, the typical visit and wait, the busiest day, hour and site, and who's on site now. It links to the same period in Reports, where you can see the rest and export it.
Add a report
In Console → Settings → Notifications, under Scheduled reports, select Add a report.
Choose when
Every day covers the day before; Every week covers the 7 days before, on the day you choose. Choose the hour it goes, on your organisation's clock, and one site or every site.
Choose who gets it
Tick whole roles that can see visits, such as Security lead or Receptionist, and Owners and Admins by name. Then select Add the report.
- Each person sees their own numbers. A report counts only what Reports shows that person: their sites, and visits within your plan's history.
- Totals, no names. Reports never list visitors, hosts or companies, and have no attachment.
- Anyone can stop one for themselves, from Account → Notifications or the link at the foot of each email. Owners and Admins see who stopped a report, and can't send it to them anyway.
- Up to 20 reports an organisation. Changes are recorded in the audit trail.
Reports go by email. Reports by WhatsApp would need message templates approved by Meta, and aren't offered.
Allowances and usage
| Included each month | Free | Starter | Growth | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMS | 20 (once) | 300 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 10,000 pooled |
| WhatsApp messages | — | Wallet | 300 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
| 500 | 2,000 | 10,000 | 50,000 | Fair use | |
| Push | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Console → Settings → Billing shows what you've used this month by channel against your plan's allowance. When an allowance runs out, messages are paid from your prepaid wallet. See Wallet and credits.
Keep SMS short
An SMS of up to 160 plain characters is one message. Longer messages go as two or more and use more of your allowance. Special characters, such as ₵ or emoji, lower the limit per message, so write "GHS" rather than "GH₵" in anything sent by SMS.