Create an event
One-off or recurring, time zone, community name template, creation a few days before the live, and what happens when a community is full.
At the end of this page you have an event with its occurrences planned, and Groupilot will create a WhatsApp community before each one.
Steps
Check your time zone first
Every time you type is read in the time zone of your account (Settings). The time zone is copied onto the event when you create it and does not change afterwards. Fix it before the next step if needed.
Name the event
Go to your WhatsApp account, choose Create an event. The name gives the event its identifier, which appears in the smart link and cannot be changed later. You can edit the identifier before saving.
Choose one-off or recurring
- One-off: one date and one time. For a challenge over several days, create a one-off event per day or one event and add the other dates afterwards.
- Recurring: tick the days of the week and set one time. Groupilot plans the occurrences for the next 16 weeks and keeps adding new ones. There is no end date: stop the event when you are done.
Set the community name template
Default is {event_name} - {date}. Available variables: {event_name}, {date}, {time} and {project_name}. The result is the name your members see in WhatsApp, so keep it short and clear.
Decide how many days before the live the community is created
Default is 7 days, from 1 to 90. The community must exist when the first registrants click your link, so count back from the day your promotion starts.
Save, then open the event settings
After saving you can add the community photo and description (pushed to every active community of the event), choose who can create groups and add members (admins only by default), and under advanced settings set the switch threshold.
When a community is full
WhatsApp caps a community around 1,000 members. Groupilot does not wait for that:
- About 40 members before the threshold, the next community is created, named like the first one followed by
(2), then(3). - At the threshold (940 members by default), the first community is marked full and the smart link switches to the next one.
You can lower the threshold in the advanced settings of the event, between 100 and 980.
Example
Marie creates Sunday webinar, recurring, Sunday at 20:00, time zone Europe/Paris, template Webinar Marie - {date}, community created 3 days before. Her ads start on Thursday, so Thursday morning the community Webinar Marie - 09/11 exists and her smart link points to it.
Change a recurring event
Open the event settings, Recurrence. Change the days or the time and save: Groupilot first shows what it will add and what it will cancel, then applies after you confirm. An occurrence that no longer matches is cancelled, its planned messages are cancelled, and its community is set aside in Groupilot. The WhatsApp community itself is not deleted: the people in it stay, you just will not message them from this event anymore.
You cannot move a single occurrence to another date or time. Either change the recurrence, or add a date by hand from the Occurrences tab.
Rename an event
The name can change at any time from the settings. The identifier in the smart link stays, and the communities that already exist keep their name; the next ones take the new one.
Pause an event
A paused event sends nothing and creates no community. Its smart link goes to the fallback URL of the event if one is set, otherwise it shows the "no active event" page. When you resume, messages whose time passed during the pause are canceled, never sent late; future ones go out as planned.
Stop an event
Stop event in the settings cancels the planned messages, stops the creation of new communities and turns the smart link off. Existing WhatsApp communities are not deleted. A stopped event cannot be restarted: create a new one instead.