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Send a message

Ready-made words for a speaker, a prayer or a renewal, sent from your own phone.

Where
Assignments

Message opens a template already filled in for one person: their name, the date, your name, the ward's sign-up link. You send it from your own phone, then tell 1stHour whether it went.

It's on a speaker's slot on a Sunday, a named prayer on a Sunday's hymn block, and a recommend renewal on Assignments. A person's card in People can also invite them to speak or pray before you pick a Sunday: see a person's card. In Appointments it opens on its own when you send someone times, and after you book a time if you ask it to (see appointments). On the Sunday's program, a named prayer also has a message button right beside the name, so you can send the invitation without opening the block.

Assignments also lists the speakers you're asking, under Mine, for the bishopric. A speaker is yours when your seat is Who's asking on their slot. Only the next eight Sundays are read, so a talk asked further ahead shows here once its Sunday comes within eight weeks. Each one shows until they accept, as a row like an assignment's, with a pulpit where the box would be: a yes is recorded on the slot, not checked off here. Message sends the invitation, and once they're asked, Follow up sends a note checking back. Tap the name to open the slot.

Grouped by Person they're in your own card, by Date with the week of their Sunday, and by Org under No organization, each saying its Sunday. Grouped by Source, each Sunday has its own card, such as Speakers · Sunday, November 2.

Everyone shows the speakers the whole bishopric is asking: grouped by Person, each in the card of whoever is Who's asking, and otherwise with that person's name leading the row.

Heads up

1stHour sends nothing. It never sees whether a message went, and it never stores a phone number or an email address for it. You choose the person in your own app.

1. Send one

1 min

  1. Tap Message. The sheet opens with a template picked for you.
  2. To use other words, choose another template under Template.
  3. Read the message. Anything 1stHour knows is already filled in.
  4. A blank nothing could fill shows amber. Type it in its field under the message. If the blank is the Sign-up link, the sheet also links to Settings, to set it once for every message.
  5. To change the words for this one person, tap Edit the words and type. Fill the blanks first: one still empty is left out, and the sheet names it. Your edit is for this message only, and the template stays as it is. Back to the template’s words undoes it, and so does choosing another template.
  6. Send it one of these ways:
    • Share the message opens your phone's share sheet. Where there is none, it copies the message instead.
    • Under Or send it, the text message, email and WhatsApp icons open that app with the words in and nobody picked. Email uses the template's subject. Hold the pointer over an icon to see its name.
    • The copy icon, the last under Or send it, copies it, to paste wherever you like.

Sending from a computer {#from-a-computer}

The text message icon asks your device to open its messages app. A phone does; a computer may open a desktop messages app, or nothing at all. The email icon opens your computer's email app with no one picked yet, which may not be the email you use. WhatsApp opens in the browser.

On a computer, the copy icon is usually the surest way: copy the message, then paste it into the email or chat you already use. Share the message copies it too when the computer has no share sheet.

2. Say whether it went

Once you share, copy or open it, the sheet asks Did it go out?

  • On a recommend renewal, Mark it sent starts the wait to its next message.
  • On a speaker still at Idea or Open, Mark him as asked (or her, or them) moves the speaker to Asked on the Sunday.
  • On a speaker already asked or accepted, the sheet starts on the reminder, and Done closes it without changing anything.
  • On a prayer, Done closes it. A prayer keeps no asked or accepted, so nothing changes.
  • On an appointment, Done closes it. The times or the booking are already saved.

Not yet goes back to the message and changes nothing. Share again and Copy again send it once more.

Appointments: times sent, or a time booked

When you tap Send the link in the schedule sheet, the message opens on its own, starting on the Interview request template with the link made for that person in it. The first time they tap wins, and the others are released. Under Just the link, Copy copies the link alone.

To send one after booking a time yourself, tick Let them know under I pick one before you tap Schedule it. Once it's booked, the message opens on the Interview time template with the day and the hour in it. Your phone remembers the box for next time. Closing either message keeps what was booked or sent.

3. Change the words

Bishopric only

SettingsYour wardMessage templates

The templates are the bishopric's, shared by all of you. They're grouped by where they're offered: Speaking, Prayers, Recommend renewals, Appointments and Every message. Tap a chip at the top to show one group.

Every ward starts with a speaking invitation, a follow-up for a speaker who hasn't answered, a speaking reminder, a prayer invitation, a first message, follow-up, final note and limited-use message for renewals, and for appointments an interview request and an interview time. A ward that saved its own list before a new one was added gets the new one at the end of its list. One you removed stays removed. A badge such as 1 of 3 shows which renewal message the schedule sends.

  1. Tap a template to open it.
  2. Change the Name, Offered on or Email subject (optional).
  3. Edit the words under Message. How it reads for a sample person, above it, shows the message filled in.

Each change saves as you make it. Messages already sent aren't changed.

Offered on decides where the template shows: Speaker assignments, Prayers on a Sunday, Recommend renewal assignments, Appointments or Every message. One for every message is offered in every Message sheet, after that sheet's own, such as a thank-you you send to anyone.

Blanks in a template {#blanks}

A blank is a word 1stHour fills in for each person, shown as a chip in the message. Tap + Add a blank, or type an opening brace ({), and pick one.

Every template can use Title (Brother or Sister), Last name, Your name, Ward name and Sign-up link. A renewal's can also use Month. A speaker's can also use Date, Topic and Length. A prayer's can also use Date and Which prayer (opening or closing). An appointment's can also use With (who they meet), Times link (the link made for them to pick a time), and a booked Date and Time. A blank with nothing to fill it, such as the Sign-up link while your sign-up page is off, waits in amber for whoever sends. A speaker's Length starts at 10 minutes, in its own field under the message, so whoever sends can change it for that talk.

For something that changes with each person, such as the General Conference talk to read, make a blank of your own: tap + Add a blank, choose A blank of your own…, type its name, then tap Add the blank. Nothing fills it in. Whoever sends types it in the message sheet, and one left empty is left out of the message.

4. Add or remove a template

2 min · Bishopric only

SettingsYour wardMessage templates

  1. Tap Add a template.
  2. Give it a Name. It's saved once it has a name and words.
  3. Choose Offered on, and an email subject if you like.
  4. Write the message, with any blanks.

Heads up

Removing a template is for good. Tap Remove this template at the bottom of it, then Remove. Nobody is offered it again. If the renewal schedule used it, that message uses another renewal template instead, and 1stHour says which before you remove it.

5. Fill-ins for every template

Bishopric only

SettingsYour wardMessage templates

Under Fill-ins for every template, set two things once:

Sign-up link
1stHour’s sign-up page, the default, is your ward's sign-up page. For a renewal it opens on the temple recommend appointment type, when members can book that type. It fills in only while the sign-up page is open; while it's off, no link fills in and the blank waits for whoever sends. Your own link takes any link that starts with https://.
Ward
The ward's name, as Ward name fills it in. Change opens the ward's details.

Your name always fills in from whoever is sending.

The renewal schedule, lower on the same page, is in recommend renewals.