Messages and follow-up questions

The Messages tab is where your team talks with participants. Each participant has one conversation with your team. You can write to one person, ask about a specific entry, or send the same message to many people.

The inbox

Open the study and click the Messages tab. The number on the tab shows unread messages from participants.

Under Conversations, each participant with messages is listed, newest first. You see the last message, when it was sent and how many are new. Click Unread to see only conversations with new messages.

Opening a conversation marks the participant's messages as read. Under each of your own messages you see Read or Not read yet.

Write to one participant

1. In the Messages tab, type the participant's code, such as P001, and click Write to them.
2. Type your message.
3. Click Send.

Write in the participant's language. The page reminds you which one it is. A message can be up to 4,000 characters.

Ask a follow-up about an entry

1. In the Responses tab, find the entry.
2. Click Ask a follow-up in its header.
3. The conversation opens with "Follow-up about" and the task name and day. Write your question and click Send.

The participant sees which answer your question is about. In your conversation, the follow-up links back to the entry. If you change your mind, click Not about this entry to send an ordinary message instead.

Message many participants

Use the Message to many participants box on the Messages tab:

1. In Send to, choose Everyone who has joined, a group, or Participants without a group.
2. Write your message.
3. Tick Include test participants if they should get it too.
4. Tick I want to send this to everyone selected.
5. Click Send.

Each person gets the message in their own conversation. Their replies come back to you one by one.

Who you can write to

You can write to participants who have joined, so their status is Consented or Active. You cannot write to someone who has not signed the consent form yet, or who has left the study.

Emails to participants

When you write, participants with an email address get an email saying there is a new message. It includes the message and a Read and reply button that signs them in. If you send several messages quickly, they get at most one email every 10 minutes.

Participants without an email address see the message the next time they open the study app.

Participants read and reply in the Messages section of the study app. Once the study is closed, they can no longer reply. See Messages for participants.

Emails to your team

When a participant writes, Zolensa emails the workspace owners and the study's researchers and moderators. The email shows the participant's code, the start of the message and a Read and reply button.

Each person gets at most one of these emails per study every 30 minutes. Newer messages wait in the inbox.

Who can do this

Owners, researchers and moderators can use Messages. Clients do not see the Messages tab. See Roles.

Tip: Click Their responses at the top of a conversation to see everything that participant has sent.