Blasts for cities, towns and counties
Give local government a direct, permission-based channel to connected residents. Boil-water advisories, snow emergencies, trash schedule changes and public meeting notices, on the screen of every resident who opted in.
Built on Blasts. Opt-in only, encrypted, no monthly subscription.
Local government publishes more than any other organization its size, and reaches fewer of the people it is publishing for.
A main break Sunday night. The advisory went on the city site, the Facebook page and the local radio station at 6 a.m. By noon the water department had 300 calls from residents asking whether the advisory applied to their street, and a viral post from a resident who found out at the coffee shop.
The parking ban was declared at 4 p.m. and posted everywhere the city posts things. At 2 a.m. the plows started, and by morning forty residents were at the police window asking why their car was towed and why nobody told them. The city had told them, in every channel that does not land on a screen.
The zoning change was noticed in the newspaper, on the bulletin board and in the agenda packet, exactly as required. Twelve people came. Six weeks later, three hundred people signed a petition saying they were never informed. Legal notice and actual notice are not the same thing.
There's another way
Blasts is built around persistent connections between parties that already know each other. A resident connects with the municipality once, by their own choice. From then on, the city has a direct, encrypted channel that shows the message on the resident's phone or desktop screen with the department's name and photo, and a badge that says at a glance whether it is Emergency, Event or FYI. The resident can leave at any time, silently.
A city does not have a membership list, and DirectToResidents does not pretend it can create one. What a city has is a set of touchpoints every resident already receives, and the invitation goes there.
On the water bill, the tax statement, the council agenda and the city website: the same places residents already look for city information.
A resident who wants city alerts connects in a few seconds on the phone or computer they already use. It is the resident's action, not the city's.
The boil-water notice, the snow emergency, the trash schedule change and the meeting notice land on their screen with the department's name and photo.
Every resident who asked, reached directly.
Residents opt in, always: the city cannot bulk-enroll residents from a billing file or voter roll, and any resident can leave silently.
The notices that fill the phone lines when they are missed.
Boil-water advisories, main breaks, planned outages, hydrant flushing, street closures and paving schedules, sent to the affected list with acknowledgement counts so the call center knows who has already seen it.
Snow emergencies and parking bans, flood warnings, shelter openings, evacuation guidance. The Emergency badge pins the message and pulses red on every connected resident's screen.
Collection delays after a holiday, bulk pickup week, hazardous waste day, leaf collection routes, in a channel that costs the same for the fifth reminder as the first.
Council, planning and school board meeting reminders with a calendar attachment and a link to the agenda, and a same-night summary of what was decided before the rumor version circulates.
Voter registration and early-voting dates, tax and license deadlines, permit application windows, sent from the clerk's office with the clerk's name and photo, so it is not mistaken for a scam.
Farmers market openings, parks and recreation registration, volunteer cleanup days, a 90-second voice Blast from the mayor on the new budget, and a poll on the next community project.
The website is where information waits. Email is where it competes with everything else. SMS alert systems bill per message, per carrier, and cannot tell you who read the advisory. None was designed to put a message on the screen of a resident who asked to hear from you.
Blasts credits are bought once and never expire, with no monthly subscription and no carrier fee. One typed Blast to one resident is one credit; a voice Blast is two. A town with 8,000 connected residents sending one update a week for a year uses about 416,000 credits, bought once, with no annual contract to renew.
The message appears on the resident's screen with the department's name and photo. Acknowledged and replied counts show who has seen the boil-water advisory, so staff answer the residents who have not.
The organization code goes on the water bill and the tax statement. Every billing cycle is another invitation, and every resident who connects has chosen to.
Encrypted tunnels, messages that auto-delete after 30 days, no tracking pixels, and a silent disconnect for any resident who wants out. Read counts come from real actions, so your reports to council are honest.
| SMS | Blasts | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Reaches residents who don't visit the site or read email | Depends on whether the person opens email | Yes, for residents who registered a mobile number | Delivered to the connected person's phone or desktop screen |
| Cost of weekly updates to 8,000 residents | Low | Per message, per carrier, every week | One prepaid credit per typed Blast; credits never expire |
| Confirms who saw the advisory | Open-tracking pixels only | Delivery only | Acknowledged and replied counts from confirmed actions |
| Resident must have opted in first | No | Yes, by registration | Yes, by design; residents can leave silently |
| Sender identity the resident recognizes | From-address; sender identity not verified | Short code or unknown number | Department name and photo on every Blast |
Comparison reflects published Blasts.app product information as of August 2026 and general characteristics of email and SMS alert systems. Cost modelling for your population and notice frequency will be part of the municipal rollout guide.
Blasts is not a way to message every household in the city limits, and DirectToResidents does not pretend otherwise. It is built for the residents who see the code on their bill and decide they want to hear from their city directly. That choice is exactly what makes the channel one they will not mute.
For the person who will set it up
For the communications director, IT lead or clerk who will set it up: here is what goes on the bill, how a request is approved and how departments are organized.
Blasts supports a public organization code that can be printed on a bill or a flyer; blasts.app itself uses the water-bill example. Put the city's code, or a QR to the city's invite link (blasts.app/connect/[ID]), on the water bill, the property tax statement, the trash calendar, the library card application, the permit counter sign, the council agenda and the city website.
A resident enters the code or follows the invite link from the iOS or Android app, a Chromium browser extension, or the web app at blasts.app, and requests the connection. The municipality approves the request; the resident can mute, set quiet hours or disconnect at any time, and the city is not notified when they leave.
If your city already runs an opt-in alert signup form, that opted-in roster can be uploaded so Blasts sends each of those residents a personalized invitation through your own Amazon SES, Microsoft 365 or Gmail account. Each still accepts. A voter roll or utility billing file is not an opted-in roster and cannot be used this way.
Distribution lists for utility customers, snow-route streets, downtown businesses, parks and recreation families or council watchers; a list reaches every member at once and large lists can be staggered into daily waves. Send typed Blasts with maps and links, a voice Blast from the mayor, an Event Blast with countdown and calendar attachment for the budget hearing, or a poll on the new park design. The Emergency badge pins the message and pulses red; Event, FYI and General cover the rest.
The approval workflow for organization-code requests and the department-sender structure will be documented in the municipal rollout guide once confirmed against current Blasts documentation.
In one paragraph
DirectToResidents is an implementation of Blasts for cities, towns, counties and public utilities that want a direct, opt-in channel to the residents who choose to connect. A municipality publishes its Blasts organization code on materials residents already receive, such as a water bill, a permit or a public meeting agenda, and each resident who requests the connection and is approved receives service alerts, emergency notices, meeting reminders and utility updates directly on their phone or desktop screen. Residents opt in; the municipality does not enroll anyone.
No. Residents opt in. A resident must request or accept the connection before any Blast is delivered, and Blasts is not a tool for messaging people who have not connected. A municipality cannot bulk-enroll households from a billing file or voter roll.
If residents have separately signed up through a city opt-in form, those residents can be sent personalized Blasts invitations through your own email account. Each resident still accepts before the first Blast reaches them.
By publishing its Blasts organization code on materials residents already receive, such as the water bill, tax statement, trash calendar and meeting agendas, and on the city website. Residents enter the code or follow the link, request the connection, and the city approves.
Blasts.app documents the water-bill example directly. Residents accept on the iOS or Android app, a Chromium browser extension, or the web app. Step-by-step setup will be in the municipal rollout guide once confirmed against current Blasts documentation.
Blasts have no per-message carrier fee, travel over encrypted tunnels rather than email servers or the carrier network, show the department's name and photo on every message, and report acknowledgements from confirmed actions. Like an SMS alert system, they require the resident to opt in first; unlike SMS, the resident can leave silently at any time.
Yes, for connected residents on those lists. Create distribution lists by route, neighborhood or utility zone and send to that list; large lists can be staggered into daily waves.
A typed Blast consumes one credit per recipient, so 8,000 credits; a voice Blast consumes two per recipient. Credits are prepaid, never expire, and are available at partner pricing through BlastCredits.com.
Every Blast shows the sender's name and photo, and it can only arrive from a sender the resident has connected with. A resident who never connected with the city cannot receive a message claiming to be from it.
Blasts auto-delete after 30 days, with an optional self-destruct timer from 1 hour to 30 days. Voice recordings and transcriptions are not stored on central servers. Your records-retention policy should be reviewed against this before adopting Blasts for notices that must be archived.
No. Credits are one-time deposits with no monthly subscription requirement, and they never expire.
DirectToResidents is expanding into a full implementation resource for opt-in resident communication on Blasts.
We're finishing the first edition now. Join the early-access list and we'll send it to you as soon as it's available.