Texting

Texts to and from your business numbers land in the same inbox as your calls and voicemail, so the whole conversation with a customer lives in one place. SimpleVox handles SMS and MMS, so you can send and receive pictures as well as words.

Receiving texts

Every SimpleVox number can receive texts from the start, with no registration needed. Incoming texts appear in the number’s inbox and mark the conversation Unread for the team. See Conversation inbox.

Pictures people send show in the conversation. Choose one to see it full size. Other files, such as PDFs, audio or video, can be downloaded. If a file can’t be shown, the conversation says so and you can ask the customer to send it again.

Sending texts

Registration comes first

US carriers require businesses to register before sending texts from a local number. Until your A2P 10DLC registration is approved and the number is added to it, you can receive texts on that number but not send them. Start early, because carrier review takes time. Toll-free numbers need toll-free verification instead. See Toll-free numbers.

To check a number, go to Settings → Phone numbers, choose it and look at Texting on the General tab. Send texts shows Yes, Pending while carriers review your registration, or No with what’s needed.

Reply in a conversation

Open the conversation, type at the bottom and press Enter. Shift+Enter starts a new line. Your reply goes out from the number the conversation is on, so the customer hears from the number they know.

Start a new text

1. In the inbox, choose New text. You can also use the text icon next to a phone number on a contact.

2. Choose a number in Send from and enter the Recipient’s number.

3. Write your message, attach any pictures, then choose Send text or press Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter on a Mac).

The text appears in the conversation for the whole team. A text can be up to 1,600 characters. Each text goes to one person: there are no group texts.

Send pictures

Choose Attach pictures, or paste or drag pictures into the message box. You can attach up to 10 JPEG, PNG or GIF pictures, each up to 5 MB, and send them with or without words. Send text waits until every picture has finished attaching.

Delivery status

Each text you send shows how far it got:

• Queued or Sending: on its way out.
• Sent: handed to the carrier. Delivery isn’t confirmed yet.
• Delivered: the carrier confirmed it reached the phone.
• Didn’t send or Not delivered: it didn’t go through. SimpleVox won’t retry on its own.

Sent doesn’t mean delivered, and delivered doesn’t mean read.

Don't double-send

If your connection drops while you’re sending, SimpleVox may not know straight away whether the text went out. It shows Unconfirmed and offers Check status instead of inviting you to send a second copy. Check before you send again.

Consent and opt-outs

Only text people who’ve agreed to hear from you, such as a customer who asked you to text them about their appointment.

If someone replies STOP (or a similar word such as UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END or QUIT), they’re opted out of texts from that number. SimpleVox won’t send to them, and the composer says “This person opted out of texts, so you can’t text them.” If they reply START, they can receive texts again.

See our messaging opt-in policy for the rules that apply to texting through SimpleVox.

Other reasons a text can’t send

The composer tells you why in plain words. The common ones:

• The number isn’t registered with carriers yet, or the registration is suspended.
• The number has sent a lot of texts recently, so sending is paused for a while. See our fair use policy.
• Calling and texting are paused for your business. Contact support.

There’s no automatic reply to incoming texts.

What AI tools can do with texts

Your AI tool can read texts on the numbers you can see and quote them with a link back to the original. If you gave the connection the Send text messages permission when you connected, it can also send a text for you from a number you can use. AI tools send words only, not pictures.

The same rules apply as in the app: the number needs an approved A2P 10DLC registration, the text shows up in the conversation for the whole team, and its status is reported as it is, so sent never shows as delivered. SimpleVox records which person and connection sent it, and a repeated request doesn’t send a second copy. See AI tools.