Fourth Engage: Location & Role Based Channels in Messaging – Fourth & HotSchedules Customer Success Portal

What Are Location & Role-Based Channels?

Location and Role-Based Channels allow you to create group channels, automatically populated with the right people based on where they work and what role they hold - no manual user selection required.

Creating a Channel Using Location & Role Filters

In the Fourth app, go to Messages from the side menu and select the + icon to create a new channel

**Fig.1 - Creating a new messaging channel**

Then select the Location/Role button

This will launch a simple two-step wizard:

Step 1 - Locations

Select the required Location(s) - each Location listed shows the number of eligible users in brackets, e.g. Royal Oak (Bishops Cleeve) (2)
Use the search bar to find a specific location quickly
Use the select all checkbox at the top to include all locations at once
When ready, select Next - this button updates in real-time to show how many users will be included, e.g. Next (2)

Step 2 - Roles

After choosing locations, the next step is Role selection.

Only the roles relevant to the selected locations will be listed - each displaying a user count, e.g. QA (2)

Use the search bar to find a specific role and make selections as required
The Finish button confirms the total number of users who will be added to the channel, e.g. Finish (2)

**Fig.4 - Selecting Roles (this example only has 1 available)**

Step 3 - Channel Name

On the next screen, enter a name for the channel (up to 191 characters)
Then select Create

The channel will be instantly created, and a welcome message will appear: "Welcome to [Channel Name] channel! Happy chatting!" (see Fig.6)

Channel information panel options can be used to further edit the channel (Operators, Members, Invite users, Muted members, Banned users, Freeze Channel, Leave channel) as seen in the desktop view

**Fig.6 - Newly created channel, welcome message, 'Channel information'**

Who Is Included?

Users are included in Location & Role-Based Channels when they meet all of the following:

They are active in the system
They have an assigned location
They have an assigned job role
They have not been excluded from messaging by an administrator

Automatic Membership Management

Once a Location & Role-Based Channel has been created, membership is kept up to date automatically - no manual maintenance is needed.

New starters are automatically added to the relevant channel(s) when their account is created
Role or location changes update channel memberships instantly - users are removed from channels that no longer match and added to new ones that do
Location closures automatically freeze the channel, preserving message history while preventing new activity
Large teams are fully supported - channels are automatically upgraded to handle larger numbers of members as teams grow

Security & Isolation

Every organisation's channels are completely isolated. All channel membership and data is scoped exclusively to each organisation, ensuring their communications remain private and secure.