Send a message to several contacts

Steps

1. Step 1 of 19

   Open Contacts

   Contacts gathers the people your company talks to.

   Contacts is under Conversations, in the menu on the left. A contact is a person your company talks to, such as a customer or a prospect: it has a first name, a last name, a mobile with its country code, an optional email, a language and the attributes your company created, such as City or Segment. As an advisor, you see only the contacts assigned to you. With administration permissions you see the whole team’s contacts, with the Assigned to column, and every send goes out in the name of each contact’s advisor. In the header, New contact creates a contact, assigned to whoever creates it. Mass marketing campaigns are not sent from here: they have their own module, Campaigns.

   • Under Conversations, in the menu
   • Advisor: only your contacts
   • Administration: the whole team

   Watch step 1 on the screen

2. Step 2 of 19

   Read each contact

   Each row shows a contact and where things stand with it.

   Each row is a contact. Contact shows the name and, under it, the email or No email; Mobile shows the number with its country code. Connection status and Attempts tell where the chat with the contact stands, and Responsiveness how likely it is to reply (the next two steps). Last activity shows the channel and how long ago the last message or call was; resting the pointer on the icon shows who wrote to whom and the exact date. The table is sorted by Last activity, most recent first, loads more contacts as you scroll and says at the bottom how many it shows out of how many. In Columns you choose the columns you see, including any contact attribute. Click a row to open the contact’s information: its data, which you can edit right there, its chats, and Go to chat or Start chat.

   • Name, email and mobile
   • Last activity: channel and how long ago
   • Click the row: the contact’s information

   Watch step 2 on the screen

3. Step 3 of 19

   Understand the connection status

   The connection status says whether there is already a chat with the contact.

   Connection status has three values. Open: the contact answered and there is an open chat, that is, an ongoing conversation with them. Never connected: a WhatsApp template was sent to open the chat, but the contact never answered it. A WhatsApp template is an approved message used to start a conversation. Never contacted: nothing has been sent to the contact yet. For never connected contacts, Attempts counts how many templates went without a reply; resting the pointer on it shows the last one and its date. A contact can have several chats, one per line and person: you see one pill per status, for example Open × 2, and the chevron on the last one opens Chats with their name, showing who each chat is with, its line and its status.

   • Open: the contact answered
   • Never connected: template without a reply
   • Never contacted: nothing sent yet

   Watch step 3 on the screen

4. Step 4 of 19

   See who usually replies

   Responsiveness says how likely the contact is to reply.

   Responsiveness tells whether the contact replies when written to and how fast, from its last 12 attempts and in business hours: High, 65 to 100; Medium, 30 to 64; and Low, 0 to 29. It does not measure how often you write. Resting the pointer on the pill shows the score, how many times the contact replied and how long it usually takes. A contact with no history starts at 20, Low.

   • High, Medium or Low
   • From its last 12 attempts
   • No history starts at 20

   Watch step 4 on the screen

5. Step 5 of 19

   Search for a contact

   The search finds a contact in seconds.

   Search contacts finds a contact by name, mobile, email, company or city, regardless of accents or capital letters; with administration permissions, also by its advisor. The search works on the active view and filters. When the search changes, the table goes back to the top and the selection clears.

   • Name, mobile, email, company or city
   • Regardless of accents or capitals
   • It clears the selection

   Watch step 5 on the screen

6. Step 6 of 19

   Use the views

   The views show the contacts by status, with their count.

   The Saved views button carries the name of the active view, All contacts at first. It opens the default views, each with how many contacts it has: All contacts; Reply pending, when the contact wrote last and is waiting for your reply; Waiting on contact, when you replied last; Never connected; Never contacted; and Duplicates, contacts with the same mobile or the same email. The counts take the filters into account, but not the search. Under them are your personal views and, at the end, Save current view. Choosing a default view keeps your filters; choosing a personal view applies its own.

   • Each view with its count
   • Reply pending: your turn to reply
   • Below, your personal views

   Watch step 6 on the screen

7. Step 7 of 19

   Filter by an attribute

   Filter narrows the table by any field of the contact.

   Filter opens every field you can filter by, whether it is shown as a column or not: first Contact attributes, the ones your company created, such as Company, City or Segment; then Status, Activity and Bridge fields. Search fields finds them by name. Choose a field to see its values, each with how many contacts have it, and No value for those that have none. Tick the ones you want, for example Medellín and Cali in City, and choose Apply. A text attribute also filters by Contains, and a number attribute by a From and To range. Clear unticks the values, and All fields goes back to the list.

   • Contact attributes first
   • Each value with its count
   • Tick the values, then Apply

   Watch step 7 on the screen

8. Step 8 of 19

   Adjust and save the filters

   Active filters become chips you can adjust.

   Each active filter becomes a chip next to Filter, for example City: Medellín +1, and Filter shows how many filters are on. Click the chip’s text to change its values, or the × to remove it; Clear filters removes them all. Several values in one filter add contacts: Medellín or Cali. Several filters apply together: City and Segment. To use the same combination again, open Saved views and choose Save current view: type the View name and choose Save. The view joins your personal views, which only you see, and it needs at least one filter.

   • Click the chip to change it
   • Several values: one or the other
   • Save the combination as a view

   Watch step 8 on the screen

9. Step 9 of 19

   Select the contacts

   The selection decides who gets the message.

   Tick the box of each contact you want to write to. The header box selects the contacts loaded in the table, and Select all 18 selects every contact in the view, even those not loaded. On the right you see how many are selected and Clear, which removes the selection. With contacts selected, Send message appears with their number. Export, the download icon, is always there: it exports the selection or, with none, every contact in the view, and the file arrives by email with all its attributes. With administration permissions, Assign to also appears, which reassigns the selection to another advisor.

   • Tick the boxes
   • Select all 18: the whole view
   • Send message appears

   Watch step 9 on the screen

10. Step 10 of 19

    Open Send message

    Send message picks the way for each contact.

    Send message opens a panel that picks the way for each contact according to its status. At the top, the summary says how many contacts the send reaches, how many messages go out when some contact has several chats and, in Line, the line each one goes out from. A line is a WhatsApp number of your company: each contact has one per brand, the one of the first message ever sent to it, and everything always reaches it through that line. If the selection mixes never contacted contacts with contacts in other statuses, Send to splits the two groups: Never contacted, which opens first, and Other statuses. You send to one group and then to the other, because a never contacted contact starts a new chat and you choose who takes it. Cancel closes the panel without sending.

    • Summary: contacts, messages and line
    • Never contacted comes first
    • Then, Other statuses

    Watch step 10 on the screen

11. Step 11 of 19

    Choose the line and who replies

    A never contacted contact needs a line and someone to reply.

    For never contacted contacts, To start a chat asks for two required details. From appears if you write from more than one line: choose the line the first message goes out from, which becomes the contact’s line. If you are on a team with an exclusive line, the message always goes out from it. Replies go to sets who gets the chat the send starts: a Bridge user; a Team, whose routing assigns it to one of its members; or an AI agent, which takes it and answers. Choose the type and then the name in the list. The chat is created with the send and appears with the message in the Chats of whoever you chose, so they can follow up even if the contact does not answer. If either detail is missing, sending shows the warning under it and nothing is sent.

    • From: the line of the first message
    • Replies go to: who takes it
    • Both are required

    Watch step 11 on the screen

12. Step 12 of 19

    Choose the WhatsApp template

    A WhatsApp template is what starts a new chat.

    A new chat always starts with a WhatsApp template. The list shows the approved templates available to your team, by name, with their category and tags; the workspace default is marked Default and comes chosen. The Tag filter comes with the opening tags, Start with a customer and Start with a prospect, and you can change it. If the template has its own variables, the Variables box asks for the text of each one: the same text goes to every contact of the send and, if you leave it empty, the template’s default text goes. Standard variables, such as the contact’s first name, are filled by Bridge with each contact’s data. Sending WhatsApp templates is a permission: without it, contacts without a chat are left out with a warning.

    • Approved templates only
    • The default comes chosen
    • Variables: the same text for all

    Watch step 12 on the screen

13. Step 13 of 19

    Check how it arrives

    The preview shows what the contact receives.

    On the right, the preview shows the message as the first contact of the group receives it, under the title How … receives it, with the contact’s first name: the line, the header, the text, the footer and the buttons. Every variable appears filled and highlighted: in violet the ones Bridge fills with each contact’s or the sender’s data, and in blue the ones you type for this send. When the group has contacts with an open chat and contacts without one, Start a chat and Open chat switch between the two messages. The preview is indicative and varies by device.

    • The first contact’s message
    • Violet: Bridge fills it
    • Blue: you type it

    Watch step 13 on the screen

14. Step 14 of 19

    Send to the first group

    Each group is sent separately.

    The Send to button shows how many messages go out; choose it. The send starts in the background and the panel stays open: it moves to the other group, Other statuses, with a notice saying how many contacts are left to send to. Contacts who receive the template become Never connected, with one more attempt, until they answer. The send’s status appears at the bottom left. If you choose Cancel at this point, the first send carries on and nothing else is sent.

    • Send to 6: the first group
    • The panel moves to Other statuses
    • The send runs in the background

    Watch step 14 on the screen

15. Step 15 of 19

    Choose what each open chat receives

    Contacts with an open chat get the message in that chat.

    In their open chat groups the contacts that already have an open chat: the message reaches them inside that chat as a WhatsApp service message, with the cost of that kind of message. Choose how: Quick template, Write a message or WhatsApp template. A quick template is a text your company saved with a shortcut, such as /followup, and it is sent only inside an open chat: choose one from the list and, if it has its own variables, type them in Variables. With WhatsApp template, if the group also has contacts without a chat, they all get the same template chosen below. Under it, To start a chat gathers the group’s never connected contacts: they get a WhatsApp template from the line of their first template.

    • A WhatsApp service message
    • Quick template: text with a shortcut
    • Never connected: WhatsApp template

    Watch step 15 on the screen

16. Step 16 of 19

    Write your own message

    You can also write the message yourself.

    Write a message opens the same editor as quick templates. In Header you choose None, Text or a file: Image, Video or Document. In Message body, required, write the text and format it with Bold, Italic or Strikethrough, which mark it with *, _ or ~; add an emoji; with Variable insert the Recipient’s data (first name, last name, phone, email and their attributes) or the Sender’s, which each contact receives with their own data; or use Write with AI so Bridge AI drafts it and you review it before sending. The counter allows up to 1,024 characters with a header or buttons, and 4,096 without them. In Buttons you add up to 3 quick replies or a single website button. If the body is empty, sending shows Write the message.

    • Bold, italic, strikethrough and emoji
    • Contact and sender variables
    • Up to 3 buttons

    Watch step 16 on the screen

17. Step 17 of 19

    Check who is left out

    The panel says who will not get the message and why.

    Before you send, the panel says who will not receive the message and why. A contact with several open chats gets one message in each: Choose chats lets you remove the ones you do not want, and a contact with no chat chosen is left out. A contact whose conversation is on a line you do not write from is left out. Contactability counts too: Do not contact is a contact who asked not to be contacted, because Bridge AI detected it in the chat or a person marked it, and it is left out; Paused · No response is a contact Bridge stopped sending templates to after several without a reply, and it is left out when it would need a template. Without the WhatsApp templates permission, contacts without a chat are also left out, with their warning.

    • Several chats: Choose chats
    • A line you do not write from
    • Do not contact or paused

    Watch step 17 on the screen

18. Step 18 of 19

    Send and keep working

    The send continues in the background while you work.

    Choose Send to for the second group. The panel closes, the selection clears and the send continues in the background, because sending to many contacts can take a few minutes. At the bottom left, the send’s status shows Sending, how many messages are out of how many and a progress bar. In the table, contacts still waiting for their message show Sending in Last activity and change to their new status as their message goes out. You can keep working in Contacts: filter, open contacts or start another send. Leaving Contacts does not interrupt the send.

    • Sending: messages and progress
    • Rows change as messages go out
    • Leaving does not stop the send

    Watch step 18 on the screen

19. Step 19 of 19

    Check the result

    The result of each send arrives in Notifications.

    When it finishes, the send’s status says how many messages went out and, with a warning, how many could not be sent. Open Notifications shows the detail: Bridge posts a notice to Notifications, the Bridge system chat in Chats, with how many messages went out in their open chat, how many contacts got a template to start the chat, who gets the replies and the names of those not sent. The notice arrives even if you left Contacts and stays there as the record of the send. A message that fails is only marked Not sent on the contact: it is not retried and nothing else changes; to try again, send it another message. When contacts reply, their chats appear in Chats. Next: See the customer’s information.

    • Open Notifications: the detail
    • Not sent: no retry
    • Replies arrive in Chats

    Watch step 19 on the screen