Messages lets your team text customers from the business phone number, not from anybody's personal phone. Replies land in the app, where everybody can see them.
Before the first text
1.Settings → Phone number: get a number for the business (it is the same number the virtual assistant answers on).
2.Settings → Texting registration: in the United States, carriers require a one-time registration before a business can start text conversations. Fill it in and wait for the approval (usually a few days). Replies to customers who wrote first work while it is pending.
Sending a message
1.Press the speech-bubble icon in the top bar — it is on every page — or press Message on a customer, an invoice, an estimate, a project or an appointment.
2.Pick the customer (✎ starts a new conversation), write, and press Send or ⌘/Ctrl + Enter.
3.📷 attaches a photo or PDF. 🧾 inserts a link to an invoice, estimate, payment link, client portal, render board or contract, and pins that document to the conversation.
4.📋 opens your templates. Add or change them in Settings → Messages; `{first_name}`, `{customer}` and `{business}` fill themselves.
5.📝 switches to an internal note — your team sees it, the customer never does.
Under each text you sent, ✓ means the carrier took it and ✓✓ means the phone received it. A red ! means it did not arrive; the reason is beside it.
Replies, photos and who answers
·A customer's reply opens the conversation in the panel with a red count on the icon. Filter Unanswered to see what is waiting.
·Photos customers send are kept in the thread.
·Assign a conversation to somebody with the drop-down in the thread header. Mine filters to yours.
·Close a conversation when it is done; a new message from the customer reopens it.
·If nobody answers within 15 minutes (change it in Settings → Messages), the owner gets an email.
STOP and START
A customer who replies STOP is opted out for the whole company: nothing can be texted to that number until they reply START. The thread says so.
WhatsApp and email
·A WhatsApp conversation accepts free text for 24 hours after the customer's last message. To start one, paste an approved opener template SID in Settings → Messages.
·If the customer has an email on file, the drop-down beside the send button lets one message go as an email instead.
What it costs
Texts count against the plan: Complete includes 2,500 a month, Multi has no limit, Core does not include Messages. Past the allowance, a block of 500 texts is added to the next invoice for $12. Settings → Usage shows the count.