What are users, contacts and active contacts?

Users

A user is a person who has a Whispir account. They can log in to Whispir, send messages and perform any other functions consistent with the permissions of their company-level and workspace-level roles.

  • Whispir user accounts are created and managed by a company administrator on the Manage Users page.
  • Users can also be viewed on the Contact List page. However, their details can’t be updated here.
  • Users belong to the company in which they were created, and they are then assigned to one or more workspaces.
  • Users have access to the contact portal by default. See About the Whispir contact portals.
  • Messages can't be sent to users. So if they need to be sent typical Whispir messages (as distinct from system messages) they also need to be set up as contacts or active contacts in Whispir.

Contacts

A contact is someone – or something – that messages are sent to from the Whispir platform. This can be your company’s staff members, stakeholders, customers, service providers, systems or even assets such as fleet management devices, signage, PA systems and sirens.

  • Contacts can be created by any user with sufficient permissions.
  • Contacts can’t log in to Whispir or the contact portal.
  • Contacts initially belong to the workspace in which they were created, but they can be moved, copied or mapped to other workspaces as required.
  • Contacts are displayed on the Contact List page, where their details can be viewed and updated.

Active contacts

Contacts can be invited to become active contacts, which gives them access to your company’s web-based Whispir contact portal. In the portal they can view and update their contact details at any time, and also receive messages. See Invite and manage active contacts and About the Whispir contact portals.

Apart from contact portal access, all other details listed above for contacts apply to active contacts.

How users, contacts and active contacts appear on the Contact List page

On the Contact List page contacts have no shading, users are shaded blue and active contacts are shaded green.

how contacts, active contacts and users are shown on the contact list page

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