Feature tour
Messaging
Reach every group, however they listen.
Email, text messages, picture messages and voice calls go to a whole group at once, and group posts reach members in the free mobile app. Members choose how they hear from each group, and you see who received what.
- Text messages
- Picture messages
- Voice calls
- Group posts
- Scheduling
- Replies & opt-outs
01On for each group
On for each group
Turn on email, texts, picture messages and voice calls group by group, so each ministry uses the channels that fit it.
02Authorized senders
Authorized senders
Only the people you mark as senders for a group can message it. Everyone else is politely turned away.
03Members choose
Members choose
Each member decides, group by group, whether they want its emails, texts and calls, and can change it any time.
Every group gets its own address.
Turn on email for a group and it gets an email address. Senders write from Gmail, Outlook or their phone, exactly as they would any other email, and it goes to everyone in the group.
- Formatting and attachments
- Bold text, links, inline images and attachments come through just as the sender wrote them.
- Replies go where you choose
- Set a reply-to address for each group, so answers reach the right person instead of everyone.
- Clear footers
- Every email shows who sent it and from which group, with a link to manage subscriptions.
- Bounces handled for you
- Addresses that hard bounce or report spam are blocked automatically, and admins can unblock them.
Text messages
The fastest way to reach a group.
Send a text to the whole group from the admin site, the member web app or the mobile app. You see what it will cost before you press send.
- A live character counter
- The counter keeps each text to a single message, including the special characters that count double.
- Cost before you send
- See the estimated cost for the group before the message goes out.
- Schedule or send now
- Pick a time in your church's time zone, or send right away. Cancel a scheduled text before it goes.
- Replies come to your inbox
- When someone texts back, their reply is emailed to the person who sent the message.
- STOP and START built in
- New recipients get opt-out instructions with their first text. STOP and START are handled automatically.
- Delivery for every person
- See who each text reached, and a plain-language reason when one fails.
Picture messages
Room to say more, with a picture.
Picture messages (MMS) hold up to 1,600 characters, so longer announcements arrive as one message instead of several.
- Admins can attach a JPG or PNG image up to 500 KB.
- No image? We add a simple card naming your church and group, so carriers still deliver it as a picture message.
- Scheduling, replies, opt-outs and delivery tracking work just like texts.
Voice calls
A phone call in your own voice.
For members who don't text or check email, a phone call still gets through. Type your message, or record it yourself.
- Text to speech reads your message in a natural voice. Choose a female or male voice for each group.
- Record it yourself: we call your phone, you record up to five minutes, then listen back before it goes out.
- Answering machine detection waits for the voicemail greeting to finish, so your whole message is left.
In-app messaging
Group posts, right on their phone.
Not every message needs a text. Group posts live in each group's feed in the app and member web app, and a push notification lets members know there's something new.
- Push notifications
- Members choose alerts for new posts, and for comments on their own posts or on every post.
- Comments and reactions
- Members reply, react and keep the conversation going without a reply-all.
- Polls
- Single or multiple choice, with a closing time, so decisions don't stall in a long thread.
- Photos, videos and files
- Share pictures, videos and documents right in the post.
Delivery & controls
Know it went out, and to whom.
Every group keeps a message history. Open any message to see each recipient's status, and the reason when one didn't go through.
Message history
A list of every message sent to the group, with counts by status.
Scheduled messages
See what's queued for texts, picture messages and calls, and cancel anything before it sends.
Member preferences
Members turn group emails, texts and calls on or off for each group, on the web or in the app.
One-click unsubscribe
Email recipients can manage their subscription or unsubscribe without signing in.
Email is available with every plan. Texts, picture messages and voice calls are usage priced. See pricing.
Messages go to a group, so a group that includes your whole congregation works for church-wide announcements. Smaller groups keep everyone else's inbox quiet.
Only the people you mark as authorized senders for a group. Being a Group Admin doesn't give sending rights on its own, so you decide exactly who can reach each group.
The reply is emailed to the person who sent the text, so it reaches someone who can answer.
Yes. Members can turn off a group's emails, texts or calls in their settings, reply STOP to texts, or use the unsubscribe link in any group email.
No. Email, texts and voice calls reach members without the app. Group posts and push notifications are where the app shines, and posts are also in the member web app.
Email is available with every plan. Texts, picture messages and voice calls are usage priced, and there are no contracts. The pricing page has the current rates.
On every plan
Keep everyone in the loop.
Messaging works with every Lightpost plan, alongside groups, the directory, prayer lists, calendars and the rest of the core features.