Behavior changes

Default SMS device option

: SMS text alert body is limited to 350 characters by default. SMS is designed to handle short messages from 150 to 350 characters. The new default option was introduced because numerous countries' SMS regulating bodies have recently increased their enforcement of SMS length regulations. As a result of the increased enforcement, sending a long-form alert using SMS jeopardizes the delivery assurance of the message, making your system less effective. Sending a long-form alert using SMS also impacts our compliance with carrier regulations. For that reason, we have introduced a default option that limits the alert body to 350 characters. The 350 character limit does not include the title and response options. When including response options, the alert creator must ensure there is sufficient information in the first 350 characters of the alert content to allow end-users to select a proper response.

Device delivery preference

: When device delivery preference is enabled and the operator selects Organization-defined in the alert template, setting the priority of phone devices from the UI is not available.

Distributions Lists API

: The Distributions Lists API now returns only distribution lists that the user has permissions to manage or publish by default.

Last Known Location attribute

: For location-based targeting, users with any geolocation attribute and users whose Last Known Location attribute has been updated within the last 4 hours are targeted. When an operator adds a location to an alert, the following message is displayed below the map: "Locations selected here will target all user geolocation attributes, plus Last Known Location Updated within the past 4 hours."

Legacy desktop templates support

: In

BlackBerry AtHoc

release 7.6, support for the following legacy desktop delivery templates were removed:

Amber Desktop Popup
Gray Desktop Popup
Green Desktop Popup
Red Desktop Popup
Yellow Desktop Popup
Black Desktop Popup
White Desktop Popup
Tan (Brown) Desktop Popup
Blue Desktop Popup
Orange Desktop Popup

Live map support for IE

: The live map is not supported on the Internet Explorer browser.

Mass device name update

: (For users on the alerts5 system only.) The following mass device names were updated:

Previous mass device name	Updated mass device name
American Signal Giant Voice	Sirens
CAP Exchange	COG to COG
Community Warning System Feeds V2	Community warning system
Industrial strobe beacon	Strobe
IPAWS-EAS	EAS
IPAWS-NWS	NWS
IPAWS-NWEM	NWEM
IPAWS-WEA	WEA
RSS Feeds	RSS

Mass device targeting

: The Select All option was removed when targeting mass devices  to prevent multiple alerts from being sent on Giant Voice speakers.

Migration from

BlackBerry AtHoc

release 7.9 to 7.15

: When migrating from

BlackBerry AtHoc

release 7.9 to 7.15, live alerts and accountability events are not automatically ended.

Mobile app check-in button

: When a user taps the check-in button (),  the check-out button () is displayed. Users must tap the check-out button before they can check in again.

Next Occurrence timestamp

: The Next Occurrence timestamp in alert and event templates was a static field. Now, this field changes automatically when Daylight Savings Time (DST) occurs.

Operator audit trail

: The operator audit trail now retains data for up to six months. A purge job runs once a month to remove data older than six months. If you need to retain data in the operator audit trail for longer than six months, you can use the API or export functionality to export and archive the data locally.

Operator role display

: If a feature is not enabled for an organization, then operator roles associated with those features are no longer displayed.

Organization Administrator access on the System Health page

: Organization Administrators can view health monitors on the System Health page. Organization Administrators cannot access modified or created health monitors, or add, delete, or edit health monitors. Ownership of any existing health monitors created by an Organization Administrator will be transferred to the Enterprise Administrator and System Administrator.

Organization code

: The organization code in General Settings is auto-generated from the organization name and is now a required field.

Placeholders in draft alerts

: Placeholder values for draft alerts are now resolved on the Review and Publish page. This enables alert publishers to view the final content of the message before publishing the alert.

Recorded response options

: Recorded response options are now played when an alert is delivered to an end user's phone.

Response option attributes

: The "Use as a Response Option" setting must be enabled for a user attribute to be available as a response option. Select this option in Settings > User Attributes.

Response option values

: User attributes with more than 9 values cannot be used as response options.

Roles

: The Advanced Alert Publisher and Alert Manager roles were added. The Advanced Alert Manager and Alert Publisher roles were modified. For more information, see "

BlackBerry AtHoc

roles" in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

Manage Operators and Administrators Guide

and the

BlackBerry AtHoc

Operator Roles and Permissions Matrix

.

Self Service My Info Updated On

: The "Self Service My Info Updated On" attribute was renamed to "My Info Updated On." This attribute is updated when an end user manually updates their user profile through Self Service or the mobile app. The My Info Updated On attribute is searchable in advanced queries and is displayed on user profiles in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

management system.

Single Sign On logout service

: In the SSO Service Provider settings, the Logout Service URL was renamed to "Custom Logout URL." The new Logout Service URL is read-only and is pre-populated with the URL of the service provider's endpoint that receives SAML log out messages. For more information, see "Configure Service Provider settings" in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

Single Sign-On Administrator Guide

.

SMS link

: When an operator sends an alert to SMS devices that exceeds the 1,250 character limit for title and body, the message may be delivered as multiple messages depending on target user’s mobile service provider. If the title and body exceed the 1,250 character limit, the title and body are truncated and a link is provided for the user to view the complete message so that users can view the complete message without piecing together multiple messages. This link now appears before any response options that are included in the alert.

SMS URL domain name change

: The number of characters for the SMS URL was reduced, so that more characters are available for SMS messages and the number of additional SMS pages is reduced. The SMS URL is included in SMS alerts to view the entire alert content and reply. The URL was updated from d1.athoc.com and d2.athoc.com to athoc.io.

SSO

: A password is required to upload an SP certificate for SSO.

Suborganization user move

: Operators who are End Users Managers, Organization Administrators, Alert Managers, or Advanced Alert Managers in a suborganization can move and subscribe users from their suborganization to other suborganizations. For more information, see "Enable user move" in the

BlackBerry AtHoc

System Administrator Configuration Guide

.

Support for IDP-initiated SSO

: Support was added for IDP-initiated SSO. Previously, only the SP-initiated SSO authentication flow was supported.

Text Messaging option

: The Alert Title and Body option was removed from the Personal Device Options settings for text messaging.

Two-factor authentication

: When two-factor authentication is enabled and the "User must change password at next login" option is selected, users are prompted to select a delivery method for receiving an activation code, then use the code to change their password.

Updated help text

: The SMS targeting help text and warning messages were updated.

User export

: The number of users that can be exported to a .csv file is limited to 25,000. When exporting more than 25,000 users to a .csv file, select a grouping of 25,000 users to export.

WEA 2.0 device option changes

: The Mass Device options for WEA 2.0 now include options for "English" and "English and Spanish." A text box was added for messages with a 90-character limit. Both 90-character and 360-character limit custom text boxes display the character count.