We recently made updates to our booking notification workflow with the goal of creating a fairer and more balanced experience for all users. In this update, we prioritised push notifications as our primary method for sending booking requests. To ensure no opportunities were missed, SMS and email notifications were designated as backup options, activated in cases when push notifications might not be successfully received as quickly as SMS due to differences in handset, network, signal strength and / or location.

We've been listening to your feedback throughout this period. It's become evident that for many of our valued teachers, SMS notifications are often preferred for a diverse number of reasons across our community of over 130,000 teachers in Australia.

Our team rolled back SMS in early Term 1, 2024 as a booking request preference.

Users once again now have the option to receive both SMS and push notifications simultaneously.

We're also committed to continuing to refine the three-phase booking request process for users who prefer utilising push notifications as their primary alerts.

ClassCover sends over 4.7 million SMS messages a year. This comes at a significant cost. Recognising its value to you, our team is exploring more sustainable ways to continue to offer this essential service to you well into the future.

Warm regards,

Team ClassCover

ClassCover is also working on other improvements to the booking process:

Choose your own custom notification tone.
As of 4/2/2024 we have introduced a set notification tone for ClassCover. This tone was specially selected to be different from the default tones on both iPhones and Androids. It’s also loud enough to capture attention. Soon, you’ll have the ability to choose your own notification tone if this doesn’t work for you.
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Actionable notifications
You may have noticed in some apps you are able to interact with the notification on your screen to take an action — like previewing a message or confirming two-factor authentication. We will soon be rolling out actionable notifications to booking requests on ClassCover, meaning you will be able to accept and decline quicker than ever from your home screen., without opening the app.

Apple Watch functionality
Some feedback we are receiving is that many teachers prefer to get notifications on their Apple Watches during class as they don’t have access to their phones. To make this easier, we are introducing a ClassCover app for Apple Watches, meaning you will be able to accept or decline a booking request from your watch.