# Send a Broadcast to Your Partners

Compose one message and send it to every partner Slack channel at once — then see, partner by partner, who received it, who reacted, and who replied.

Messages post under your organization's connected Slack bot.

---

## Overview

**Broadcasts** let you announce something once instead of pasting it into every partner's Slack channel by hand: a product release, a pricing change, a training deadline, a webinar invite. You write the message, pick who should get it, and Fours posts it to each partner's mapped Slack channel using your organization's connected Slack bot.

Broadcasts are **Slack-only**. A partner receives a broadcast only if that partner has a Slack channel mapped in Fours — partners without one are never included in an audience, and they are not shown as an option when you pick recipients.

:::info
Composing and sending needs an Admin or Editor role on Partners. The standard **Viewer** role has no Partner Management permissions; a [custom role](/get-started/account/#custom-role-with-granular-permissions) with only `partners.read` still sees the controls, but the send is rejected. **Broadcasts** is hidden entirely for partner-side organizations. See [Account](/get-started/account/).
:::

## Before You Start

Connect your Slack workspace first. Until you do, the Broadcasts page shows a **Slack isn't connected** banner and the **Next**, **Send** and **Schedule** buttons stay disabled — the message would have nowhere to go.

1. Click **Connect Slack** on the banner, or go to **Settings**, then **Partner**, then **Slack**.
2. Authorize the Suger app in your Slack workspace.
3. Map a Slack channel to each partner you want to reach.

![The Broadcasts page with the "Slack isn't connected" banner — the Slack mark, the explanation that broadcasts go to partner Slack channels, a Connect Slack action on the right, and the New broadcast button greyed out above it](images/46-broadcast-slack-banner.png)

:::info
There is a second, milder banner: **Slack status couldn't be checked**, with a **Check Slack settings**
action. It means Fours could not confirm your workspace, not that it is disconnected — so sending is
**still allowed**, though delivery may fail. Only a confirmed disconnection blocks the send.
:::

## Find Broadcasts

Go to **Fours Console**, then **Partners**. In the sidebar, under **Workspace**, click **Broadcasts**.

The list is grouped into four tabs:

| Tab | What it holds |
|-----|---------------|
| **Sent** | Broadcasts already delivered. The time column shows when they went out. |
| **Scheduled** | Broadcasts waiting for their send time. |
| **Drafts** | Saved but not sent. Drafts are the only broadcasts you can delete. |
| **Failed** | Every target channel errored, or delivery retries ran out. |

Each row shows the broadcast's **Name**, its **Audience**, and a time column that changes with the tab — *Sent*, *Scheduled*, or *Updated*.

![The Broadcasts list on the Sent tab — the Sent, Scheduled, Drafts and Failed tabs above a table of Name, Audience and Sent columns, with the connected Slack workspace and the New broadcast button top-right](images/31-broadcasts-list.png)

## Compose and Send a Broadcast

Click **New broadcast**. The composer is three steps: **Message**, **Audience**, **Review**.

### Step 1 — Message

1. Give the broadcast an **internal name**. This is how you'll find it in the list; partners never see it.
2. Add a **Header** if you want a bold first line. It's optional.
3. Write the **Message**. The editor supports bold, italic, links, emoji, and file attachments.
4. **Send as** shows your Fours organization's name. It is read-only, and it is a label for you rather than something Slack displays — the message posts under your connected Slack bot's own identity.
5. Leave **Show link previews** on if you want Slack to unfurl links in the message, or switch it off for a cleaner post. It's on by default.

A live preview beside the editor shows the message the way Slack will render it, unfurled link cards included.

![Step 1 of the composer — the internal name, optional header and rich-text message on the left, with Send as, the Show link previews toggle, and a live Slack preview of the message on the right](images/32-broadcast-compose-message.png)

**Attachments.** Files are uploaded to each target channel along with the message. The limits are:

| Limit | Value |
|-------|-------|
| Attachments per broadcast | 10 |
| Size per file | 50 MB |
| Total size per broadcast | 100 MB |

### Step 2 — Audience

Choose who receives the broadcast:

- **All partners with a mapped channel** — everyone reachable, with the count shown so you know the real reach.
- **Specific partners** — a searchable picklist. Only partners with a mapped Slack channel appear in it.
- **By tier** — a single tier, chosen from the tiers configured for your organization. See [Partner Tiers](/prm/partner-tiers/).

:::warning
Partners without a mapped Slack channel are excluded from every audience, including **All partners**. If a partner tells you they never got a broadcast, check their Slack channel mapping first.
:::

If *no* partner has a channel mapped yet, this step opens with a notice — **"None of your partners have a Slack channel configured."** — and a **Go to Settings** action that saves your work as a draft and takes you to **Settings → Partner → Slack**. The notice sits above the audience choice rather than inside one option, because every option is a dead end until at least one channel exists: **All partners** resolves to nobody, the **Specific partners** picker has no entries, and a tier matches only unmapped partners.

:::info
The notice is advisory — it explains the situation rather than blocking you. The real guard runs when you send: a **Specific partners** or **By tier** audience that matches no reachable partner is rejected outright, rather than being accepted and quietly finishing as *Sent* with nobody on the list. **All partners** is deliberately not guarded that way, since it legitimately resolves to zero when an organization simply has no mapped channels yet.
:::

![Step 2 of the composer — the three audience options, with the reminder that only partners with a mapped Slack channel can receive a broadcast](images/33-broadcast-compose-audience.png)

### Step 3 — Review

Review the recap, then decide when it goes out:

- Leave the schedule time **empty** and the primary button reads **Send now**.
- Fill in a **date and time** and the same button becomes **Schedule**. Times in the past are rejected inline.

You can click **Save as draft** from any step and come back to it later.

![Step 3 of the composer — a recap card listing Name, Send as, Audience and Link previews, the optional "Schedule for later" datetime field below it, and Back on the left with Schedule and Send now on the right](images/44-broadcast-review.png)

After an immediate send, the list refreshes on its own while delivery completes — you don't need to reload the page.

### Send a Test First

Before a message goes to your whole partner list, send it to one of your own Slack channels and look at it. The live preview beside the editor is close, but a test is the real Slack render — unfurled links, attachments, and all.

**Test** sits with the composer's header actions, so you can fire one from any step. It is greyed out only when Slack is disconnected; every other reason a test can't go through is explained inside the dialog rather than through a disabled button.

1. Click **Test**. The **Send a test** dialog opens on your organization's internal notifications channel — the same one co-sell internal notes go to, set under **Settings → Partner → Slack**.
2. Click **Change** (or **Pick a channel**, when no default is set) to send it somewhere else this once.
3. Click the send action in the dialog.

The test arrives carrying exactly the message body a partner would receive, untouched, plus one appended line: *"Test broadcast sent by {your name} — partners did not receive this."* That line makes it impossible for a teammate reading the channel to mistake a test for the real thing, while leaving the render above it trustworthy as a proof.

:::warning
**A test can only go to an internal channel.** Fours refuses any channel mapped to one of your partnerships — including partners who are paused or archived, because a channel a partner can still read is still a partner channel — and any channel shared with people outside your organization through Slack Connect. It also refuses a channel the Fours Slack bot hasn't been invited to.

If Fours can't confirm a destination is safe, it refuses rather than sending. On a very large partner list the dialog says so up front: it couldn't check every partnership, so the send may be refused when you submit it.
:::

A test writes no broadcast and no recipient rows. Nothing appears in **Sent**, **Scheduled**, **Drafts**, or **Failed**, and no per-account delivery is recorded.

| Test-send limit | Value |
|-----------------|-------|
| Total attachment size | 25 MB (a real broadcast allows 100 MB) |
| Concurrent tests carrying attachments | 4 at a time. A fifth waits up to 5 seconds for a slot, then asks you to retry. |

Text-only tests are never throttled.

## Track a Broadcast

Open any sent broadcast to see how it landed. Three tiles summarize the whole send:

- **Delivered** — channels the message reached.
- **Reactions** — total emoji reactions across all channels.
- **Replies** — total replies in the message threads.

Below them, a **Per-account delivery** table breaks the same numbers down by **Account**, **Channel**, **Status**, **Reactions**, and **Replies**. Partners that were skipped for having no mapped channel are not listed. Once a broadcast has finished sending, the detail page keeps refreshing on its own, so reaction and reply counts fill in as partners engage — you don't need to reload it.

![A sent broadcast — the Delivered, Reactions and Replies tiles above the message that went out, then the Per-account delivery table with one row per partner showing its channel, delivery status, and reaction and reply counts](images/45-broadcast-detail.png)

:::tip
Reactions and replies are the fastest read on whether an announcement actually landed. A broadcast delivered to 30 channels with two reactions usually means the message needs a clearer ask, not a resend.
:::

## How a Broadcast Reaches a Partner

```d2
direction: right

you: "You\nPartners → Workspace → Broadcasts" { shape: rectangle }
compose: "Compose\nmessage · audience · schedule" { shape: rectangle }
suger: "Fours" { shape: rectangle }

check: "Partner has a\nmapped Slack channel?" { shape: diamond }

slack: "Partner's Slack channel" { shape: rectangle }
skipped: "Skipped\n(not shown in the report)" { shape: rectangle; style.stroke-dash: 3 }

engagement: "Reactions and replies\nflow back to the detail page" { shape: rectangle }

you -> compose
compose -> suger: "Send now, or at the scheduled time"
suger -> check: "for each partner in the audience"
check -> slack: "yes — post as your org's bot"
check -> skipped: "no"
slack -> engagement { style.stroke-dash: 4 }
```

## Reference: Broadcast Statuses

**Broadcast status** — where the whole broadcast sits in its lifecycle:

| Status | Meaning |
|--------|---------|
| `DRAFT` | Saved but not sent. The only state you can delete. |
| `SCHEDULED` | Waiting for its send time. |
| `SENDING` | Delivery in flight across the audience's channels. |
| `SENT` | Delivery finished. |
| `FAILED` | Every target channel errored, or the delivery retries ran out. |

**Audience type** — how the recipient list was chosen:

| Type | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| `ALL` | Every partner with a mapped Slack channel. |
| `SPECIFIC` | The partners you picked by hand. |
| `TIER` | Every partner in one tier. |

**Recipient status** — the result recorded for one partner:

| Status | Meaning |
|--------|---------|
| `SENT` | The message reached that partner's channel. |
| `FAILED` | Slack rejected the post to that channel. |
| `SKIPPED_NO_CHANNEL` | There was nowhere to post. Left out of the **Per-account delivery** table entirely — every audience already excludes partners with no mapped channel, so this can only mean a channel was unmapped mid-delivery. Listing it as a delivery outcome would pad the report with a partner you never chose to target. |

## Scope and Limits

- **Slack only.** There is no email or in-portal equivalent of a broadcast today.
- **One channel per partner.** A broadcast goes to the partner's mapped channel, not to individual partner contacts.
- **Drafts are the only deletable state.** Sent and scheduled broadcasts stay in the list as a record.
- **Partner-limited organizations don't see Broadcasts.** The item is hidden from the sidebar for partner-side orgs — it is a seller-side tool.
- **Send as is a label, not an identity.** Slack posts every broadcast under your connected bot's own identity; the field never reaches Slack.
- **A test is not a broadcast.** Tests reach only internal channels, leave no record in any tab, and cap attachments at 25 MB rather than 100 MB.