A broadcast lets you send the same message to everyone on a list at once. Each person gets it as a normal, private text, so it looks just like a message you sent them one to one. They never see who else received it, and nobody ends up in a group chat. If someone replies, it comes back to you as an ordinary one-to-one conversation.
It is handy for messages like “we’re in your area on Thursday” or “the office is shut over Christmas”.
Sending a broadcast
- Start a new conversation from the inbox you want to send from.
- Choose your list: next to To:, click Select, then choose List.
- Pick the list you want. Dialbird shows you how many contacts are in it.
- Type your message and send.
- Confirm: Dialbird shows you Confirm Broadcast Message, with how many people it is going to and the message itself. Read it, then click Send Broadcast.
When it goes, Dialbird tells you how many contacts it reached.
There’s no undo. Once you click Send Broadcast it has gone to everyone on that list. Dialbird warns you, and it means it.
You need a list first
A broadcast always goes to a saved contact list. You cannot tick a handful of people and send to just them.
If you have not got a list yet, you can make one right there in the list picker with the + button, or set one up in advance under Contacts.
The count Dialbird sends to is the whole list. When you open a list it shows a preview of the contacts in it, but the send always goes to everyone on the list, not just the ones you can see in the preview.
Text only
Broadcasts are plain text. The photo, file, and voice-note buttons are hidden while you are composing a broadcast, so you cannot attach anything to one.
Finding your broadcasts afterwards
Broadcast conversations are hidden from your normal chat list, so it is easy to think they have disappeared.
To see them, turn on the Broadcast filter at the top of your chat list. Turn it off again to get back to your usual view.
This catches people out. If you send a broadcast and then cannot find it in your inbox, nothing has gone wrong. You just need the Broadcast filter on.
If a broadcast won’t send
The same things that stop ordinary texts stop broadcasts too: US carrier registration, KYC checks, and your workspace’s fair usage level. If one of those is in the way, sort it first. See When texts won’t send. 
