Messages

Screen: Messages (/messages, in the menu). Who: the owner; instructors only if the school turns on the setting "Instructors can cancel a session and write to students" (off by default). Without this setting, instructors do not see the Messages menu entry and see "This section is for the school owner" if they open the screen from a link.

Messages are sent by email only (no SMS, no notification). They are used for announcements (holiday, event, reminder) and to notify students about a cancelled or moved session.

Writing a message

1. Open Messages (menu, or the Send a message shortcut on Today).
2. To: tap Whole school (selected by default) or one or more groups. Each group shows its number of active students (e.g. "Kids · 12"). Choosing a group removes Whole school; tapping Whole school removes the groups. With no recipient, the screen shows "Choose at least one recipient."
3. Subject: 1 to 150 characters, on a single line (a line break pasted into the subject becomes a space).
4. Message: 1 to 5,000 characters, plain text (no bold, images or attachments). Line breaks are kept. A counter shows the number of characters.
5. Tap Preview.
6. Check the preview, then tap Send by email, or Edit to go back to the text.
7. The message "Message sent to {n} address(es)" appears. The form is cleared and the message appears at the top of the History.

The Send by email button stays disabled while sending: a double tap does not send twice.

Who receives the message

• Targeted students: active students (not inactive, not in the trash) who are members of the chosen groups, or all active students for Whole school. For a session: the members of the session's groups; visitors from another group are not included. A session "Open to all" (no group) therefore has no recipients.
• Each student's address:
  • adult student with an email on their record → their email;
  • minor student → the email of their family's main contact (the first parent or guardian in the list);
  • if the main contact has no email → the next parent in the family, in list order, who has one;
  • adult student without email who belongs to a family → same rule as a minor.
• One address per family: addresses are grouped regardless of upper or lower case. A family with three targeted children receives a single email; so does a parent who is also a student with the same email.
• One email per address: each recipient receives their own email. No address is visible to others (never a copy or a recipient list).
• Student without an address: receives nothing. The preview flags them (see below).

The preview

The preview shows exactly what will be sent:

• "From: {school name}": the school name is the sender name (the technical sending address is Martialnote's);
• "Reply to: {address}": where replies will arrive;
• the subject, the text, then the footer "You are receiving this email because you are registered at {school}." (in the school's language);
• the number of addresses and the number of targeted students;
• No address ({n}): the list of students without an address (first name and last initial). Tapping a name opens their record to add an email (only the owner sees and edits contact details);
• "Sent within the next few minutes.";
• "This message will be reviewed before sending (less than 24 h)." when the message will be held (see "Review, unsubscribed addresses and pause"). The Send by email button then becomes Send for review;
• "{n} address(es) no longer receive your messages (unsubscribed)." when some addresses are unsubscribed or bounced: they are not counted among the recipients.

If no address is found, Send by email stays disabled; the API also refuses with "None of the recipients has an email address: add one to their record or a parent’s."

Sending and delays

Emails are put in Martialnote's sending queue when you send, then go out within the next few minutes. Martialnote sends a limited number of emails per day (a Martialnote setting, not a school setting): beyond that, the remaining emails go out automatically the next day. An email that has been sent cannot be recalled or edited.

A new school is in its trial period: it can send at most 50 addresses per day and no message with a link. Beyond that number, or for a link, the message is held and reviewed before sending. A trusted school has no such holding.

Review, unsubscribed addresses and pause

• Holding: a message can be held instead of being sent when the school is in its trial period (more than 50 addresses per day, or a link), being verified, suspended, or when its message sending is paused. The preview says so before sending, and the history shows "Awaiting review". The review takes less than 24 h: the message is then sent, or refused and the history shows "Not sent". With no decision after 7 days, it is refused automatically. Nothing is lost while it waits.
• Unsubscribed addresses and bounces: an address that is unsubscribed or bounced no longer receives this school's messages. The preview shows how many, and the student's record (owner) shows "No longer receives the school's messages". The school cannot resubscribe someone: see the "Unsubscribing" article.
• Pause: a school's message sending can be paused (banner "Message sending is paused. Write to support."). New messages are then held. Write to bonjour@martialnote.com to have it lifted.
• Large send: Martialnote caps its email volume each day. A large send may therefore go out partly the next day.

Replies ("Reply to")

When a parent or student replies, their reply arrives at the school's Reply to address, not in Martialnote (there is no inbox in the app). By default, it is the owner account's email. To change it: see "Message settings".

History

Below the form (on the right on a large screen), the History lists sent messages, most recent first: subject, date, author, recipients ("Whole school", group names, or "Session on {date}") and number of addresses. It is visible to the people who can write. A message in the history cannot be edited or deleted. Individual addresses are not shown. A held message carries the "Awaiting review" label, a refused message "Not sent". The latest 50 messages are displayed; Show older messages displays the next 50, and so on.

Message settings (owner)

1. Open Settings, Communication section, and tap Message settings. (The Settings button of the Messages screen leads to this section.)
2. Reply to: a valid email, or empty to use the owner's email (shown below the field). There is no check that the address belongs to the school.
3. Instructors can cancel a session and write to students: a switch, off by default.
4. Tap Save. The message "Settings saved" appears.

With the instructor setting on: any instructor of the school can write to any group or to the whole school, see the history, and cancel or restore any session in the schedule (then notify its students). They still cannot edit or delete a session or a class, change these settings, or see students' contact details. Coordination between instructors happens outside the app. An instructor who is already signed in sees the change without reloading the app: as soon as they open Messages, and otherwise within 30 seconds, when changing screens or coming back to the app.

Notifying students about a cancelled or moved session

After Cancel session, after Restore on a cancelled session, or after changing the date or time of a single session (Edit > This session only), the app opens the Notify students sheet, if the session is not in the past (a session today still counts):

1. The message is pre-filled in the school's language, for example: subject "Morning tai chi on October 24, 2026 cancelled", text with the class, date, time, location and reason. For a move: old and new date and time ("moved"). For a restore: "is back on".
2. Edit the text if needed, tap Preview, then Send by email.
3. Or tap Don’t notify to close without sending anything.

The recipients are the active students of the session's groups (address rule above). Nothing is offered for a change to a whole recurring class (This and following sessions), or for a change of location, title or groups. For those cases, write from Messages.

Limits

• No SMS, notifications or social media posts.
• No replies in the app: they arrive at the Reply to address.
• No scheduled sending, no saved templates, no attachments, no formatting (plain text).
• No message to a single student from their record.
• Parents other than the main contact do not receive the message (unless the main contact has no email).