Email / SMS Notifications

Description

Email and SMS Notifications provide a fallback and supplementary channel for delivering important alerts to users who may not have push notifications enabled or who prefer non-app communication. The system supports transactional emails (e.g., invitation links, password reset, activity confirmation) and SMS messages (e.g., verification codes, urgent coordinator alerts). The notification delivery infrastructure abstracts over email and SMS providers, enabling organization-level configuration of sender addresses and messaging templates.

User Flow

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Analysis

Business Value

Email and SMS notifications extend the platform's reach to users with varying levels of digital engagement, which is especially important given the diverse user base across NHF, Blindeforbundet, HLF, and Barnekreftforeningen. Many peer mentors are older or less digitally confident and may miss push notifications entirely. Providing email and SMS as fallback channels reduces the risk of critical operational messages being missed, supports regulatory requirements around formal communication (e.g., reimbursement confirmations), and ensures the platform meets the accessibility and inclusion standards expected by all partner organizations.

Implementation Notes

The backend implements an abstracted notification delivery service that dispatches to email (e.g., SendGrid or Resend) and SMS (e.g., Twilio or a Norwegian provider) based on user preferences and notification type. Email templates are stored server-side with organization-specific branding support. The service uses a queue-based dispatch pattern to handle retries and delivery failures gracefully. User notification preferences (stored in notification_preferences table) determine which channels are active per user. All outbound messages must comply with GDPR requirements, including unsubscribe mechanisms for non-transactional emails.