Reach multiple families at once without repeatedly selecting the same parents or sending individual messages.

With Broadcast Messages, you'll soon be able to send rich messages to selected groups of parents, create reusable recipient lists, and track delivery—all from one streamlined workflow.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Choose Exactly Who Receives Your Message

Select recipients across classes and filter by Mother, Father, Both Parents, classroom, or student status. You can also search directly by student or parent name.

💬 Send More Than Just Text

Broadcasts can include text, images, videos, files, or voice notes, with an emoji picker, one-click translation, and AI Suggestions available while composing.

💾 Create Reusable Recipient Lists

Frequently message the same group of families? Save your selection as a named recipient list and reuse it for future broadcasts. Lists can be edited, renamed, or deleted as your needs change.

📊 Track Broadcast Delivery

See live progress while your broadcast is being sent, including how many messages were delivered or skipped and the reason for skipped recipients where applicable.

⚡ Send Without Waiting

You can dismiss the delivery progress notification and continue working while your broadcast sends in the background. If delivery stalls, illumine will clearly indicate that the broadcast failed instead of leaving you with a hanging progress indicator.

A step-by-step walkthrough of both ways to send a broadcast: from a default room/class, or from your own saved custom recipient list.

Step 1: Open Broadcast from Messages

From the Messages screen, tap the broadcast (megaphone) icon in the top-right corner of the Shared tab.

Fig. 1 — Messages screen with the Broadcast icon highlighted

Step 2: Choose a Default Room

On the Broadcast screen, stay on the Default rooms tab. You'll see every room/class along with its student count (e.g. After school, Butterfly Room, Infants, Nido, Playground). Tap the room you want to message.

Fig. 2 — Default rooms list

Fig. 3 — Selecting a room, e.g. "After school"

Step 3: Compose Your Message

The recipients (e.g. "2 Parents across 2 Students") are pre-filled based on the room you picked. Type your message in the text box. You can add attachments, use AI Suggestions (magic wand icon), or translate the message before sending.

Fig. 4 — Composing a broadcast to the "After school" room

Step 4: Fine-Tune Recipients (Optional)

Tap the pencil icon next to Recipients to open Edit Recipients. Here you can filter by Mother, Father, or Both Parents, search by student or parent name, and check/uncheck individual recipients before sending.

Fig. 5 — Edit Recipients, filtering by Both Parents

Step 5: Send

Once your message and recipients look right, tap the send (paper plane) icon. Your broadcast will be delivered to everyone selected.

Step 1: Switch to Custom Lists

From the Broadcast screen, tap the Custom lists tab. The first time you visit, you'll see "No saved broadcast lists yet." Tap Start new broadcast to build one.

Fig. 6 — Empty Custom lists tab

Step 2: Hand-Pick Your Recipients

In the New broadcast screen, search by parent or student name, or filter by Mother / Father / Both Parents. Recipients are grouped by student — tick the checkboxes for everyone you want to include, then tap Continue.

Fig. 7 — Selecting recipients across multiple students

Step 3: Save the Selection as a List

After confirming your recipients, illumine will prompt you to save the group for reuse — e.g. "Save these 28 recipients as a list to reuse next time?" Tap Save as list.

Fig. 8 — Prompt to save recipients as a reusable list

Step 4: Name and Save the List

Enter a clear, descriptive name (e.g. "Grade 3 parents") and tap Save. This list will now appear under Custom lists for future broadcasts, so you don't have to reselect the same parents again.

Fig. 9 — Naming the new list "Grade 3 parents"

Step 5: Write and Send Your Message

With the list saved, type your message — for example, a gate-closure or drop-off change notice — and tap send. Every parent in the saved list receives the broadcast instantly.

Fig. 10 — Composing and sending a broadcast to the saved "Grade 3 parents" list