SMS Chat

1. SMS Chat in the main menu on the left

2. SMS Chat shortcut link () at the top right of each page next to your account balance

Features of SMS chat explained;

1. Search – you can search the SMS chat for conversations with a specific contact or number by entering the name or number in the search field and then clicking enter or search. To cancel or clear the search, click Clear.
2. New – To start a new chat, simply click on the +New button and enter the number or name of a saved contact you want to SMS – this will open a new SMS conversation with them.
3. ⋮ Icon – Click on the Ellipsis icon (⋮) to mark all messages as read and clear all unread SMS badges. If you have purchased multiple Virtual Numbers, select “Filter messages to Virtual Number” and select one from the to show chat threads on this number only.
4. Conversation List – To view an existing conversation, simply click on the contact number or number in the list. Conversations containing unread messages will appear with a blue badge showing the number of unread messages. Messages you receive (inbound SMS) will appear blue, and those you send (outbound SMS) will appear grey in the chat thread.
5. Add Contact – Button – By clicking this button you can add the recipient as a contact. This will only appear above the chat thread when the recipient is not saved as a contact already.
6. Close Chat – Hide a chat thread by selecting a contact or number from your conversation list and clicking Close Chat. The entire SMS thread will be hidden from your conversation list. To reopen, click on the +New button and search for the number or name of the contact whose chat you closed – click Open Chat – this will re-add the thread to your list. Sending to or receiving SMS from a contact/number whose chat you have closed, will automatically relist/reopen the thread in your conversation list.

Sending in SMS Chat

1. Message – Simply type your message in the empty content box at the bottom of the chat thread. You can select a pre-saved template using the Templates dropdown and if you are sending an SMS to a contact you can use merge fields available in the merge field dropdown. Characters and Message Parts count are also shown below this box to ensure you are always aware of what you are sending.
2. From dropdown – Use this to change the Sender ID that the SMS is sent from. By default, the last Sender ID that was used to communicate with the selected recipient will automatically populate the From: field.
3. Send – Once you have typed your message click the Send button to submit your message – it will appear in the message thread immediately.

Things to note:

• If you send a campaign to a list/group of contacts and someone sends a reply, then the conversation that appears in the SMS Chat will relate only to that specific contact (i.e. sending a reply back will only go to the contact who sent you the response, not the entire contact list/group).
• Conversation threads will be constant for each contact, regardless of the number from which the outbound message was sent. This means that if you are sending via the shared numbers pool, even though the recipient will receive each message from a different number, their responses will always appear in the same conversation thread in the SMS Chat.
• If you send multiple messages to the same contact and get a response, you may not be able to see which message the response relates to as the thread will display in chronological order. Meaning if you send two SMS to a recipient and they respond to the first message after the second was sent, you will see the two outbound then the inbound SMS.