What is OC Connect
OC Connect is OpenCity Labs’ solution for integrating proactive communications within the digital service experience. When a citizen uses an online service — requests a document, enrolls a child in school, pays a fine — they expect to be kept updated in a simple and timely manner. OC Connect makes this possible: it sends personalized messages via App IO and, optionally, by email, at the right moment, turning a notification into a coherent and useful part of the service journey.
This is not about sending mass messages, but about accompanying the citizen, reducing uncertainty, and anticipating their information needs. To do this, OC Connect provides public authorities with a flexible back office to govern the sending of communications and fully leverage the potential of App IO, one of Italy’s most important digital infrastructures.
To learn more, read the complete documentation.
Recurring use cases
Municipal office activities, however complex, are organized around a limited set of recurring communication situations that OC Connect handles in a structured way:
- Payment notices: notifications for local taxes and administrative fines with a direct payment link in App IO
- Appointment reminders: reminding citizens of the date, time, and location of a booked appointment
- Document expiration: notifying citizens in advance about renewing identity cards, permits, and enrollments
- Application status updates: keeping citizens informed about the progress of a request
- Outcome notifications: notifying the granting of a benefit, approval of a request, or release of a document
How the platform is organized
OC Connect organizes communications by services and events. A service is a thematic area for which the authority can send communications to citizens (e.g., “Local tax”, “Identity card”, “Healthcare”), corresponding to services in the App IO catalog. Within each service there are one or more events — specific situations in which it makes sense to contact the citizen.
The flow is always the same: choose the service → choose the event → send the notification.
For each event, a customizable message template is available for each enabled channel. The template contains placeholders that the platform automatically replaces with the citizen’s real data at the time of sending: name, expiration date, amount, payment link, and so on.
Integration with App IO
App IO is the Italian Government’s app with over 14 million active users and more than 400 million messages sent in 2025 alone. OC Connect fully leverages this infrastructure:
- App IO messages: citizens receive notifications directly in the app, with the ability to complete a payment in a single step
- Email delivery: optional channel that can be enabled per service, as an alternative or in addition to App IO
- Automatic synchronization: services active in OC Connect sync with the App IO catalog via the IO Master Key
Automation via API
OC Connect exposes REST APIs that allow the authority’s management systems to send notifications in a fully automated way, without manual intervention. The APIs support an idempotency mechanism: if the same request is sent multiple times, the platform blocks duplicates and ensures the citizen receives the notification only once. API documentation is automatically generated based on the services configured for each authority.