Communications FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Communications.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Communications Overview.
Setup
Which features are on by default and which need to be turned on?
The Calendar, Idea Bank, Content Plan, Campaigns, Audiences, Analytics, Newsletters, AI Writer, Brand Voices, Comms Grader, writing help in the composer, and the read-only AI help agent are all on by default. Comms Triggers are on for new organizations; organizations that already had Communications when triggers were introduced keep them off until an admin turns them on. Approval Workflows, LinkedIn cross-post, the admin AI agent (drafting), and most signal-extraction and AI features (automatic topic tagging, discussion summaries, poll summaries, finding experts automatically, reader translation) are off by default and must be turned on in settings.
Newsletters come with the app. To hide them, turn off Publications (Newsletters) under Settings → Modules; the Publications and Issues surfaces and the Newsletters tab then disappear.
Permissions and access
Who can post Announcements, Must-Reads, and posts to Everyone?
The Who can post Announcements & Must-Reads setting controls both types in the composer. The options are Off (removes both types for everyone, including admins), Admins only, Admins and leadership, or Admins, leadership, and managers. The default is Admins and leadership. Leadership is a job-title property, not the manager role — a manager without a leadership designation is not included under Admins and leadership.
A separate setting, Who can post to Everyone, has three options: Admins only, Admins and leadership (the default), or Anyone. On the Broadcast page, anyone who may send broadcasts is offered Everyone regardless of this setting.
Who can manage Audiences, send Newsletter issues, and access Comms Analytics?
Audience administration and newsletter sending require the publish communications capability — by default that means admins and Communications app-admins. Comms Analytics and Triggers are admin-only. The Calendar, Idea Bank, and Campaigns are visible to all users who have access to the app; creating or changing the Content Plan is limited to admins and Communications app-admins.
Why can’t I see the Communications app?
Three things must be true for an employee to see it: the Communications licence is enabled for the tenant, the app is accessible to the employee through your Access Management rules (visibility rules, work-context gates), and the employee is not excluded by a location or shift scope. Check all three if someone reports the app is missing.
Day-to-day
Can I edit a post after it’s published?
Yes, at any time. The author and Communications admins can edit a published post, and it shows [edited] afterwards. One exception: once people have acknowledged a post, it is locked and nobody can edit it, because those acknowledgements apply to the exact words. Comments can be edited for 15 minutes after posting. An admin can turn editing off for everyone with Allow editing posts, polls, questions & comments in settings.
How do I feature a notice for a limited time?
On a published post, open Post actions → Feature notice. Choose the start and end, set its order among featured notices, and optionally narrow it to an existing audience. Preview audience shows the readers who match both that audience and the post’s current visibility. Save to schedule it; return to the same editor and choose Stop featuring to end it early.
Admins, Communications app-admins, and communicators with permission covering the post’s audience can feature notices. Active notices lead All Posts, and lead within each section on the mobile landing page and in Home’s News Feed card. Readers see a Featured label and expiry. Featuring does not send an alert, create an acknowledgment requirement, or change anyone’s personal pins. Withdrawing or deleting the source post ends its feature.
What happens when I publish a Must-Read?
The post is published and its recipient list is frozen immediately. Each recipient sees an acknowledge button, and the post keeps asking until its due date plus any extra days you chose (see the next question). Automated reminders are sent at 24 hours and 48 hours after publish (gated on the Automated acknowledgement reminders setting, on by default). Reminders are held to an 8 AM–8 PM local delivery window so nobody gets a reminder notification at 3 AM. A Must-Read is its own type in Compose — a Post or Announcement that has gone out can’t be turned into one.
How do I give a Must-Read or Broadcast a due date, and what makes someone overdue?
Set Due by in the composer’s Acknowledgement card. It must be in the future and, for a scheduled post, after the send time. If you leave it blank, the Must-Read default due date (days after sending) setting sets the due date: 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days after sending (default 30).
After the due date decides what happens next:
- Keep asking for 3, 7 or 14 more days, marked overdue — 7 is preselected. Anyone who still hasn’t acknowledged is Overdue for those days.
- Take it out of the must-read lane — the ask ends at the due date, so nobody is ever marked overdue.
You can move the due date later from the post’s edit page; the extra days move with it. Once the post stops asking, someone who never acknowledged shows as not acknowledged rather than overdue.
For a Broadcast, fill in Acknowledge by (optional) under Require acknowledgment. It must be after the send time and within 30 days of sending, because a Broadcast stops asking for acknowledgement 30 days after it goes out. Leave it blank and the ask stays open with no due date, so nobody is marked overdue.
How do I see which of my team haven’t acknowledged a must-read?
On the desktop, open Measure → Acknowledgements, pick the item, and use the Show filter: Everyone, Not acknowledged, Overdue, or Acknowledged. A manager who didn’t write the item sees only their own direct reports in its audience. Admins, Communications app-admins and the item’s author see everyone.
On a phone, tap My team on the Communications home. My Team’s Must-Reads lists every must-read and Broadcast your team still owes, with overdue ones marked. The My team link appears only if people report to you.
A must-read in my Inbox says Overdue — can I still acknowledge it?
Yes. Overdue means its due date has passed while the post is still asking. You can acknowledge it from Waiting on you in your Inbox or from the post itself until it stops asking. After that, acknowledging is refused because the acknowledgement window has closed.
How do I send only to people who are on shift?
In the composer’s audience card, choose Specific people or groups, then People matching several attributes, pick at least one attribute, then tick Only people on shift. Choose when they count as on shift:
- Now — clocked in, or on a scheduled shift, at the moment it sends.
- Today — clocked in when it sends, or on a scheduled shift any time that day (12:00 AM to 11:59 PM).
- Tonight — on a scheduled shift between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM, or clocked in if it sends within those hours.
- Next hours — clocked in when it sends, or on a scheduled shift running in the next 1 to 24 hours (default 4).
Today and Tonight use each site’s own local time. The audience is worked out again at every send, so a repeating message reaches whoever is on shift that time.
Why didn’t I get the message my coworkers on shift got?
The sender probably limited it to people on shift during a set window. You are included only if you were clocked in when it sent, or had a scheduled shift inside that window. With Now, someone clocked in at a different site counts at that site, not this one.
How do Broadcast acknowledgement reminders work?
Broadcast reminders use their own settings, under Settings → Broadcast: Reminder frequency (every 2, 4, 8, 24, or 48 hours — default 24) and Maximum reminders (0–10 — default 3). A broadcast with Auto-widen channels ticked also sends a text with every reminder from the 2nd and a voice call with every reminder from the 3rd, on channels it uses — texts to people who haven’t turned texts off or replied STOP, calls to people who take calls (everyone, on a Critical broadcast). When manager escalation is enabled, unacknowledged Must-Reads escalate to each employee’s manager after a configurable window (24, 48, 72, 96, or 168 hours — default 72).
What happens if my audience resolves to nobody when I hit Publish?
The publish is refused. The message stays editable and tells you which audience needs attention. This applies to feed posts, broadcasts, scheduled sends, recurring sends, newsletter issues, and the API. A message is never reported as delivered when nobody received it.
What is “Where people see it”, and where does the message actually show up?
It is the composer’s card for where a message appears. Every type goes to News and Inbox. You can also tick extra places your company has switched on: Top of Home (one message at a time, 7 days at most), a Store home pin (when everyone the message reaches works at one store you manage), the shift a person is about to work (below the shift summary), the Time & Attendance screen while they are clocked in, their Benefits page beside the enrollment window, and break-room screens. A place shows only to people in the audience whose screen qualifies — the shift’s date and site fall inside the window and sites you set, the punch is open, or an enrollment window is open (unless you untick that). The reader can dismiss it; if the message asks for acknowledgement, acknowledging removes it and writes the same acknowledgement record a must-read does.
To show a Post or Announcement only in its places, tick Skip News and Inbox — no one gets a notification, and each place takes it down on the Until date you set for it (break-room screens have no Until date and keep it for up to 14 days after it is published). A must-read can’t skip News and Inbox. Who may add which place: Top of Home needs publishing rights that cover everyone the message reaches (admins and Communications app-admins always have them); a store’s home, a manager of that store; the shift, clock-in and Benefits places, anyone who may send that type of message. Usual audience limits still apply, and a place’s site choice only narrows further. A Broadcast can be placed too: its places add to its normal delivery.
Why don’t I see the “Shift card” slot in the composer?
It is off by default. The shift list is the schedule, and a marker on every card would read as a banner, so an admin has to switch it on deliberately under Settings → Modules → Placement slots. Once on, it offers a title-only line on qualifying shift cards in the Shifts list and the My Shifts calendar; tapping the shift opens the full message.
What does “Shown” count in Measure’s Placements table?
People, not page loads. A person counts once per day when the surface actually rendered the card for them — a worker who reloads their shift ten times is one. Opened, Dismissed and Acknowledged are counted the same way, and the median time to acknowledge runs from the first time the card was shown to the acknowledgement. Placement counts are separate from a broadcast’s Views (Views = opened the message itself); the broadcast page shows both side by side.
Can the AI send or publish on its own?
No. Every AI capability in Communications produces a draft or a suggestion. The AI Writer, Comms Grader, writing help in the composer, channel-native copy, newsletter drafter, and the admin AI assistant all stop at a draft or a suggestion the author accepts. A person must explicitly confirm before anything is published or sent. There is no setting that enables autonomous publishing.
When something looks wrong
“I changed my audience after publishing, but the acknowledgement roster didn’t update”
That is expected. The recipient list is frozen as a snapshot at publish time. Changing the audience definition after publish does not add or remove anyone from the compliance roster. This is deliberate — it keeps the audit trail stable. If you need to reach additional people, publish a new Must-Read to the updated audience.
“My poll closed earlier than I expected” or “My poll never closes”
Poll duration is set at creation time and accepts 1–30 days (default 7). You can also choose Never to keep a poll open indefinitely. Once published, the close date cannot be changed. If a poll closed sooner than expected, check the duration that was set when it was created.
“Employees say they aren’t getting broadcast SMS or voice calls”
Check four things in order: (1) SMS or Voice call must be ticked on the broadcast itself — they start from your company’s Default Channels (email only, unless an admin changed it); (2) your company must have that channel switched on — while it is off, no text or call goes, Critical included; (3) a broadcast that is not Critical texts or calls only people who turned texts or calls on in their own notification settings — a Critical one reaches everyone, except texts to anyone who turned texts off, replied STOP, or whose number can’t receive texts; and (4) for SMS specifically, the employee’s phone number must be verified. Voice calls need a phone number on file but not a verified one. Critical broadcasts bypass quiet hours; non-critical ones respect them unless the author turned off Respect quiet hours. Adding SMS or voice to a broadcast, or marking it Critical, is limited by Who can add SMS, voice or Critical to a broadcast? under Settings → Modules (default: admins and Communications app-admins); someone sending from a template marked Critical keeps it.
“I placed a message but the person says it isn’t on their shift”
Check four things in order: (1) the person is in the audience — a placement follows the message’s recipient snapshot, so someone added to a group after you sent it is not in it; (2) the shift falls inside the placement’s From / Until window and, if you narrowed to sites, at one of those sites (a region includes every site under it); (3) the slot is switched on under Settings → Modules → Placement slots, and the slot’s app is turned on for the organisation; (4) they have not already dismissed it — Dismiss is per person and permanent for that message. A broadcast’s page shows Placed on with each place, its dates and how many people have seen it there; a post’s page lists its current places under Where people see it, with End now, for anyone who may end them.
“The approval workflow isn’t blocking my post from publishing”
Admins always bypass approval workflows — an admin can publish without workflow approval. If you want admins to go through the workflow, that is not currently supported. Also confirm the workflow is set to Active and that its Applies to checkboxes cover what you’re testing (posts, questions, polls, announcements, must-reads, broadcasts, in-context messages, newsletter issues and emergency alerts are each separate).
“A triggered communication didn’t fire for some employees”
Triggered communications are suppressed in four situations: the trigger is disabled, the per-trigger throttle has not elapsed since the last firing for that recipient, the current time falls inside the trigger’s quiet hours, or the firing time falls inside a PTO blackout period and blackout respect is on. Each firing records a status — check the trigger’s firing history to see the suppression reason.
“The Experts tab is empty even though people are answering questions”
The Experts page lists only the people an admin adds to each topic there — answering questions never adds anyone to it. To staff a topic, open it on the Experts page and add people. Turning on Find experts automatically in settings also scores contributors weekly: the people it finds appear under Top experts on the Communications home page and, while Send new questions to experts is on, receive routed questions, but are not listed on the Experts page. Allow one weekly cycle after turning it on. Send new questions to experts uses the experts you add even when automatic scoring is off.
“A scheduled newsletter issue didn’t send”
If a scheduled issue’s send time passes and it is not sent within 24 hours (due to a worker outage or transient failure), the issue is reverted to draft and the publication owner is notified. Check whether the issue landed back in draft status. Also confirm the issue’s audience still resolves to at least one person with an email address — an email-only publication with no reachable recipients is refused.
Licensing and limits
Does Communications require a licence?
Yes. Communications is a licensed marketplace app, disabled by default. An administrator enables it per tenant from Admin → Apps → All Apps.
Are there limits I should know about?
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Media attachments per post | 10 |
| Image file size (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC/HEIF) | 100 MB |
| GIF file size | 100 MB |
| Video file size (MP4, MOV, WebM) | 500 MB |
| Document file size (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV, plain text) | 50 MB |
| Post edit window | Any time, until people acknowledge the post |
| Comment edit window | 15 minutes (fixed) |
| Poll duration | 1 hour to 30 days (or never auto-close) |
| Reaction palette | 2–12 active emojis from a 14-emoji catalog |
| Voice recording length | 1, 2, 3, or 5 minutes (default 3) |
| Brand Voice training samples | 3–10 samples, 50–5,000 words each, minimum 300 words total |
| Newsletter block types | 6 static (text, image, divider, hero, callout, button) + 8 dynamic |
| Must-Read default due date (when Due by is blank) | 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days (default 30) |
| Must-Read “keep asking” after the due date | 0, 3, 7, or 14 days (7 preselected) |
| Broadcast Acknowledge by | Within 30 days of sending |
| On-shift audience, Next hours window | 1–24 hours (default 4) |
| Broadcast reminder frequency | Every 2, 4, 8, 24, or 48 hours (default 24) |
| Broadcast max reminders | 0–10 (default 3) |
| Discussion auto-close | 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days after last activity (default 30, off by default) |
| Broadcast auto-archive | 1, 2, 4, 8, or 12 weeks (default 1) |
| Weekly notification limit | 3, 4, 5, 7, or 10 notifications per person, Monday to Sunday (default 5; the limit is off by default) |
More help
- Communications Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers Communications questions from these articles.