Preview and test groups

A preview group is an audience group you create for previewing personalized content in the dashboard. Wherever a personalization preview is available, you can select a preview group, and those users’ attributes will appear for any Handlebars references to attributes. You can enable any preview group as a test group so the users can receive test messages sent to the group. These messages appear as tests in Messages Overview.

By keeping a saved list of approved test users in Airship, you can be sure that your test messages only reach an approved, in-house list of users. You might limit your test group to company employees such as Product staff, Development team, etc.

You can create up to 20 groups. After creating or making changes to a group or to user within a group, click Groups in the page breadcrumbs to return to the list of all your groups.

Creating a new group

1. Go to Audience » Preview and Test Groups.
2. Click Create group.
3. Enter a name for the group. The name cannot be changed after creating the group.
4. (Optional) Enable Test group. This setting cannot be changed after creating the group.
5. Click Save and continue.
6. Repeat for each user you want to add:
   1. Click Add user.
   2. Enter the user’s:
      • Name — A personal name or description to identify this user.
      • ID — A Channel IDAn Airship-specific unique identifier used to address a channel instance, e.g., a smartphone, web browser, email address. , email address, or MSISDNThe mobile phone number of an individual in your Airship audience. Each MSISDN represents an individual mobile device. . This cannot be changed later.
      • Sender ID — If you entered a MSISDN as the user ID, your project’s Sender IDThe alphanumeric code that your audience will see when they receive messages from you; it is essentially the phone number or name that your SMS messages come from. Members of your audience subscribe (opt in) to each individual sender ID they want to receive messages from. appears here. If more than one sender ID is configured for your project, select from the available options.
   3. Click Done.

Deleting groups

1. Go to Audience » Preview and Test Groups.
2. Click   for a group.

Adding users to an existing group

1. Go to Audience » Preview and Test Groups.
2. Click   for a group.
3. Repeat for each user you want to add:
   1. Click Add user.
   2. Enter the user’s:
      • Name — A personal name or description to identify this user.
      • ID — A Channel IDAn Airship-specific unique identifier used to address a channel instance, e.g., a smartphone, web browser, email address. , email address, or MSISDNThe mobile phone number of an individual in your Airship audience. Each MSISDN represents an individual mobile device. . This cannot be changed later.
      • Sender ID — If you entered a MSISDN as the user ID, your project’s Sender IDThe alphanumeric code that your audience will see when they receive messages from you; it is essentially the phone number or name that your SMS messages come from. Members of your audience subscribe (opt in) to each individual sender ID they want to receive messages from. appears here. If more than one sender ID is configured for your project, select from the available options.
   3. Click Done.

Editing or deleting users in a group

You can change the user’s name:

1. Go to Audience » Preview and Test Groups.
2. Click   for a group.
3. Click   for a user.
4. Enter a new name.
5. Click Done.

To remove a user from a group:

1. Go to Audience » Preview and Test Groups.
2. Click   for a group.
3. Click   for a user.

Using preview groups

See: Previewing personalized content.

Sending to test groups

Messages you send to a test group appear as tests in Messages Overview. You can send to a test group from:

• The Audience step in the Message, A/B Test, and In-App Automation composers — you must complete the remaining composer steps and send the message before it is sent to test users.

  1. Select Test Users, and select from the Test Groups menu.
  2. Complete the remaining steps, and send the message.

• The Review step in the Message, Automation, and Sequence composers — the message is sent to specified recipients immediately.

  1. Click Send Test.
  2. Enter at least one named user or test group and select from the results.
  3. Click Send.

• The Manage screen in a sequence — the message is sent to specified recipients immediately. See: Test a message in a sequence.

• The Test Run option in a sequence. See: Test a sequence.