Slack and Google Chat
What connecting a chat destination does: which newsroom events Nuvelics posts to a Slack channel or Google Chat space, what the messages say and how to keep them working.
Notifications put newsroom events where your team already talks. Each destination is one Slack channel or one Google Chat space, with its own choice of events and newsdesks, so a sports desk's channel can hear only about sports. Nuvelics only sends: it does not read your channels, and replies in them go nowhere. The steps to add a destination are in the Notifications settings tab.
What to ask your chat administrator for
Each destination needs one incoming webhook URL: an address that posts into exactly one channel or space. Nuvelics cannot choose the channel for it or move it later, so create one webhook per channel or space, and treat the address like a password: anyone holding it can post there.
Slack. Create a Slack app in your workspace (one app can serve every channel), switch on Incoming
Webhooks, and add a webhook for each channel with Add New Webhook. For a private channel you must be a
member first. The address starts https://hooks.slack.com/. Some workspaces let only administrators
create or install apps, so you may need your Slack administrator to do this or approve it. Slack's own
government cloud (hooks.slack-gov.com) is not accepted.
Google Chat. In the space, open Apps & integrations, then Webhooks, name the webhook and copy
its address, which starts https://chat.googleapis.com/. This needs a Business or Enterprise Google
Workspace, and a Workspace administrator who allows Chat apps and webhooks. If the space has no
Add webhooks entry, ask your administrator: personal Google accounts and Workspaces without
webhooks cannot do it. Nuvelics accepts only the address of one space's messages with its key and
token; an address with anything extra, such as a thread key, is refused.
What is posted, and when
A destination can follow any of three events:
| Event | When it fires | Choices |
|---|---|---|
| New pitch | Nuvelics creates a pitch | A minimum score from 40 to 100, starting at 70 |
| Story enriched | The enrichment of a story made from a pitch finishes | None |
| Pushed to NRCS | A story is pushed to your newsroom system | None |
Each destination also chooses its Newsdesks: all of them, including ones created later, or a selected few.
Every message has the event as its heading, the pitch or story title as a link with an Open in Nuvelics button, and a short summary. After that:
| Event | Details shown |
|---|---|
| New pitch | Why it matters, Newsdesk, Score, Topics, Locations |
| Story enriched | Why it matters, Newsdesk, Topics, Locations |
| Pushed to NRCS | Newsdesk and the connection's name |
Topics and Locations are left out when there are none. A push message is deliberately shorter, because it reports a status change rather than a new story. Messages are in English, and a very long summary is cut short. The links open Nuvelics, which asks the reader to sign in, so chat shows no preview. Nothing in a message can mention a person or the whole channel.
What to expect
- Each matching destination gets its own message. If two destinations match a pitch, both receive it.
- Only new events. Adding a destination, changing its filters or turning notifications on never posts earlier events, and nothing older than 24 hours is sent.
- Bursts are paced to about one message a second per destination. A large batch of pitches reaches the channel over a few minutes rather than all at once. Two Google Chat webhooks into the same space share that limit.
- Failed deliveries are retried with a growing delay, up to five attempts, then dropped.
- Rarely, a message is posted twice, when a delivery is interrupted at the wrong moment.
- An organization can have up to 50 destinations, and an Enable notifications switch turns all of them on or off without deleting them.
Test and fix a destination
- Send test message posts a short "connected" message. Saving a new address always sends one first, and if the chat service refuses it, nothing is saved and the reason shows under the address field. Test messages are limited to about 10 per organization every 10 minutes across Slack and Google Chat; past that, wait a few minutes.
- A destination is marked Not working when the chat service refuses its messages for good, for example because the channel was archived, the webhook or app was removed, or an administrator turned webhooks off. Create a new webhook and replace the address. Events that failed in the last 24 hours are retried on the new address; older ones are not.
- Removing a destination in Nuvelics does not delete the webhook in Slack or Google Chat; remove it there too if you no longer need it.
Limits
- Slack and Google Chat are the two destinations. Other chat tools are not available.
- Google Chat is a webhook, not a Chat app: Nuvelics cannot post to direct messages or to a space nobody gave it a webhook for, and every message is a new top-level post, with no threads or replies.
- The address is write-only: once saved it is never shown again, and you cannot read it back to copy it.
Manage it another way
- API: Notifications.