Release Notes
Release Notes: Mobile Push Notifications
Published
Overview
Section titled “Overview”The weCLIMB mobile app (release 6.2.0) now receives push notifications. The nine notification categories introduced with per-user notification preferences can each be delivered to a phone as well as by email, and tapping a notification opens the observation or coaching cycle it refers to.
This also completes the Push column on the user profile, which shipped with the previous release as a disabled preview. Push is now live and user-controllable from both the web profile and the mobile app.
Push notifications default to on. Anyone who has already allowed notifications on their phone will begin receiving them when this release lands, without taking any action — worth reading the Heads-up for support notes below before the first questions arrive.
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”- The mobile app registers for push and receives all nine notification categories.
- A one-time Turn on notifications prompt appears after sign-in; the phone’s own permission prompt follows.
- New Notifications screen in the app (☰ → Notifications) with an on/off switch per category, grouped into Observations, Coaching, and Recommendations.
- Every push category is user-controllable, including the finalized report — the always-on exemption applies to email only.
- Push preferences default to on; saved opt-outs are preserved.
- Tapping a notification opens the specific observation (on the right tab) or coaching cycle, including from a fully closed app.
- Notifications generated between 9:00 pm and 7:00 am in the device’s time zone are held until morning.
- The Push column on My Profile → Notifications is now editable on the web.
What changed — push delivery
Section titled “What changed — push delivery”What changed
Section titled “What changed”The notification dispatcher can now send to a registered device in addition to sending email. The same nine categories apply, resolved per user, per channel:
- Observations — Reflection requests, Acknowledgment requests, Acknowledgments, Finalized reports, Comments.
- Coaching — Action step updates, Action step reminders, Coaching visit reminders.
- Recommendations — Recommendations.
A user receives a push for a category when they have a registered device, the category is enabled for them on the push channel, and the organization’s own settings for that category allow it. The organization-level gates that govern email apply unchanged to push.
Notification text is deliberately generic — “Reflection requested — An observer asked you to reflect on an observation.” No teacher name, school, score, or comment text appears on the lock screen. The specifics load only after the user taps through and the app confirms their session.
Turning it on
Section titled “Turning it on”Nothing for an organization to enable. Push sending is switched on centrally with this release, and the category-level controls an administrator already uses continue to apply.
For users, two things are needed: the updated mobile app, and notification permission granted on the phone.
Heads-up for support
Section titled “Heads-up for support”- “My phone suddenly started buzzing.” Expected. Push defaults to on, so any user who previously allowed notifications on their device starts receiving them as soon as they open the updated app. Point them at ☰ → Notifications to switch off what they don’t want.
- Saved opt-outs are preserved. The default applies only to users who have never set a push preference. Anyone who explicitly turned a push category off keeps that choice.
- “I never saw the prompt.” The Turn on notifications prompt appears once, and tapping either button retires it permanently. A user who tapped Not now must allow notifications for the app in their phone’s system settings, then reopen the app.
- “It arrived hours late.” Check the timestamp against quiet hours: anything generated between 9:00 pm and 7:00 am in the device’s time zone is held and released shortly after 7:00 am.
- Android notification channels are separate. Each category is its own Android channel. A category muted in the phone’s system settings won’t arrive even though the app’s switch shows on — check both.
- Notifications go to every signed-in device. Preferences are per account, not per phone. Permission, however, is granted per phone.
- No device, no push. A user who has never opened the updated app has no registered device; their notifications continue by email only.
What changed — the Push column on the web profile
Section titled “What changed — the Push column on the web profile”What changed
Section titled “What changed”The Push column on My Profile → Notifications was previously visible but disabled, labelled as a preview of a future update. It is now a live control: users can set push preferences from the web profile as well as from the mobile app. Both write the same preference, so the two surfaces always agree.
Heads-up for support
Section titled “Heads-up for support”- A user who doesn’t use the mobile app can still change push preferences from the web — the settings simply have no device to deliver to until they sign in on a phone.
- The help-center article on notification preferences has been updated; the previous wording said push was not yet active.
The finalized report behaves differently on each channel
Section titled “The finalized report behaves differently on each channel”The observation Final report email is always sent and can’t be turned off. Its push equivalent, Finalized reports, is an ordinary switch a user can turn off.
This is deliberate: the guarantee is that the report reaches the user, which the always-on email satisfies. The push is an extra prompt on top of that, so users can silence the phone without weakening the delivery guarantee. Both remain subject to the organization’s observee/observer notification settings.
What’s unaffected
Section titled “What’s unaffected”- Email behavior is unchanged. Same categories, same recipients, same timing, same always-on final report. Adding push does not alter what anyone receives by email.
- No new notification categories. The nine categories are the same set introduced with per-user notification preferences.
- Organization-level settings still win. If an administrator has muted a category for the organization, neither channel sends, and the category shows a status note on both surfaces.
- In-app records are untouched. Comments, reflections, acknowledgments, and coaching records are unaffected by any notification preference.
- Security and account email (sign-in links, invitations, password resets) is never sent as push and doesn’t appear in the preference list.