Public Notices

Public Notices

Public notices let you keep people informed about things like road closures, water advisories and service updates. People sign up on your own public sign-up page, and you send them notices by text message, email, or both. You can send to everyone or only to people in certain areas.

Go to Flare SMS → Public Notices (/flare/public-notices).

Caution

Public notices are not an emergency alert system. Your sign-up page, the send screen and every notice email say so: “This is not an emergency alert system. In an emergency, call 911.” Don’t use public notices in place of official emergency alerting.

How It Works

• Opted-in subscribers only. Notices go only to people who signed up on your public page and gave consent. You can’t upload a list or add subscribers yourself.
• Text notices are Flare SMS campaigns. Each text notice is sent as a Flare SMS campaign. Every rule that applies to your campaigns applies here too, including 10DLC registration, send limits, consent, STOP opt-outs and quiet hours.
• Email is double opt-in. People confirm their email address before they get notices. Every notice email has a one-click unsubscribe link.
• Area targeting uses the postal code or ZIP code each subscriber enters when they sign up.
• Text and email only. Public notices never place phone calls.

Who Can Use It

You need an active Flare SMS subscription. If the subscription ends, your public sign-up page stops loading.

To do this	You need
See the page, settings and history	View campaigns (flare.campaigns.view)
See subscribers	View contacts (flare.contacts.view)
Change settings	Permission to update campaigns
Send a notice	Permission to manage (send) campaigns

Account owners can use every part of the page without being in a permission group. See Permission groups.

Step 1: Set Up Your Program

Open the Settings tab and click Turn on public notices if this is your first time. Then fill in Program settings:

• Agency name: the name people see. It is shown on the sign-up page, in the consent text and in every notice.
• Description (optional): a short line for the sign-up page, for example “Road closures, water advisories and service updates.”
• Page address: the end of your sign-up page link. Use 3 to 50 lowercase letters, numbers or hyphens, starting with a letter or number. Changing it breaks links you already shared.
• Country: Canada (postal codes) or United States (ZIP codes). This decides whether the page asks for a postal code or a ZIP code.
• Channels: turn on Text messages, Email, or both.
  • Text messages need a Flare SMS number. Pick it in Send texts from.
• Accept sign-ups: when off, the sign-up page stops taking new subscribers. Existing subscribers stay subscribed.

Click Save settings.

Step 2: Share Your Sign-Up Page

Your public sign-up page is at:

https://sipstack.com/notify/?p=your-page-address

The Public sign-up page card shows your link. Share it on your website, social media, or printed material.

What Subscribers See

On the sign-up page, a person enters a phone number, an email address, or both, plus their postal code or ZIP code. They tick a consent box for each channel. The page uses a bot check.

Text sign-ups follow the same rules as Flare sign-up forms:

• A US number must reply YES to the confirmation text before it can receive notices.
• A Canadian number is subscribed when the form is submitted and gets one confirmation text. No reply is needed.

Email sign-ups get a confirmation email. The person clicks the link, then clicks the button on the page that opens to confirm. The link works for 7 days. An email sign-up that is never confirmed is deleted 30 days after its last confirmation email.

Step 3: Send a Notice

1. Open the Send notice tab.
2. Enter a Title. It is for your history only. Subscribers do not see it.
3. Pick the Channels: Text message, Email, or both.
4. Pick the Areas: All areas, or one or more areas from the list of areas your subscribers are in.
   • In Canada an area is the first 3 characters of a postal code, like A1A.
   • In the US an area is a 5-digit ZIP code.
5. Write the Text message (up to 1,600 characters), the email Subject (one line, up to 200 characters) and the email Message (plain text). The email message is placed in your branded email layout with an unsubscribe link and the “not an emergency alert system” statement.
6. Check the Recipients counts, then click Send notice.
7. Confirm in Send this notice now?. The dialog shows how many people get the notice by text and by email, and which areas. A notice can’t be recalled once it is sent.

The text recipient count uses the same audience estimate as a Flare SMS campaign. Consent, opt-out and quiet-hours checks run again when the texts are sent. The email count is the confirmed email subscribers in the areas you picked.

Subscribers

The Subscribers tab shows how many people are signed up by text and by email, and by area. You can filter the list by area, channel and status:

Status	Meaning
Pending	Signed up but hasn’t confirmed yet.
Confirmed	Gets notices.
Unsubscribed	Opted out. For text, this includes anyone who replied STOP or whose contact is blocked or deleted in Flare SMS.
Bounced	The email address can’t receive mail.

For text subscribers, the status always comes from the Flare SMS contact. A STOP reply unsubscribes the person from public notices too.

History

The History tab lists the notices you sent, with their recipient counts.

Troubleshooting

Code	What it means	What to do
SLUG_TAKEN	Another organization already uses that page address.	Choose a different page address and save again.
NOTICE_LINK_EXPIRED	A subscriber’s email confirmation link is invalid or more than 7 days old.	The subscriber signs up again on the same page to get a new confirmation email.

“Set up Flare SMS before turning on text message notices.” Your organization needs Flare SMS set up before you can turn on text messages.

“That number is not one of your Flare SMS numbers.” Pick a number from the Send texts from list.

“Text message notices are turned off for this program.” or “Email notices are turned off for this program.” Turn the channel on in Settings first.

The text half of a notice wasn’t sent. Text notices go through the same checks as any Flare SMS campaign. If a campaign from your number would be blocked (for example, 10DLC registration isn’t complete for a US number), the notice text is blocked too. See Flare SMS compliance and 10DLC registration.

The sign-up page says it isn’t found. Check that Accept sign-ups is on, the page address is right, and your Flare SMS subscription is active.

Related

• Flare SMS Campaigns
• Sign-up Forms
• Contacts
• Flare SMS Compliance