Text Messaging

The Texting Platform lets you send and receive SMS messages with your customers directly from the Frontdesk dashboard. Your AI receptionist can automatically reply to incoming texts, or you can take over and respond manually.

Video walkthrough

Accessing the Texting Platform

From the sidebar, click Texting Platform. The page opens with two tabs at the top: SMS and Chatbot. The SMS tab is selected by default and shows all your text message conversations.

Conversation List

The left panel shows all SMS conversations, listed by the customer's phone number or saved contact name. Each conversation displays:

  • The contact's name or phone number
  • A preview of the most recent message (truncated to 35 characters)
  • The date or time of the last message
  • An indicator if the conversation has unreceived replies

Use the search bar at the top of the conversation list to filter by phone number or contact name.

You can scroll down to load older conversations as they become available.

Reading a Conversation

Click any conversation in the list to open it in the right panel. The conversation view shows:

  • The contact's name and phone number at the top
  • The full message history, with your outgoing messages on the right (in blue) and the customer's incoming messages on the left
  • Timestamps for each message

Sending a Message

To reply to a conversation:

  1. Click the conversation in the list to open it.
  2. Type your message in the text input area at the bottom of the conversation.
  3. Press Enter or click the Send button to send your message.

Your message is sent from your provisioned phone number and appears immediately in the conversation.

AI Auto-Reply

Each conversation has an AI Reply toggle in the top-right corner of the conversation view. When enabled, your AI receptionist automatically responds to incoming messages from that customer. When disabled, the customer's messages will wait for your manual reply.

To toggle AI auto-reply for a single conversation:

  1. Open the conversation.
  2. Locate the AI Reply toggle (with a lightning bolt icon) in the conversation header.
  3. Switch it on or off.

Bulk AI Auto-Reply

To enable or disable AI auto-reply for multiple conversations at once:

  1. Enter select mode by clicking the Select Chats button at the top of the conversation list.
  2. Check the conversations you want to update.
  3. Click the AI Auto Reply button that appears.
  4. In the Bulk AI Auto Reply modal, choose to enable or disable AI auto-reply for the selected conversations.

Saving Contacts

You can save a customer's phone number with a name for easier identification:

  1. Click the add contact icon next to a conversation in the list.
  2. In the Contact modal that appears, enter the contact's name.
  3. Click Save to save the contact.

Once saved, the contact name appears in place of the phone number throughout the conversation list.

Composing a New Message

To send a message to a new recipient or multiple recipients:

  1. Click the Compose button to open the compose view.
  2. In the TO field, type a phone number in the format +1xxxxxxxxxx and press Enter to add it as a recipient. You can add multiple recipients.
  3. Type your message in the Message field.
  4. Click Send to [N] recipients to send.

Each recipient receives the message individually. A banner at the top of the compose view notes: "Messages will be sent separately to each recipient."

Bulk Messaging

To send the same message to multiple existing contacts:

  1. Click the Bulk Message button at the top of the conversation list.
  2. In the Bulk Message modal, select the recipients and compose your message.
  3. Send the message to all selected contacts.

Chatbot Tab

If your account has the chatbot feature enabled, a Chatbot tab appears next to the SMS tab. Click it to view chatbot conversations separately. The chatbot tab shows web-based chat conversations with visitors, using the same conversation list and detail view layout as the SMS tab.

SMS in the Inbox

SMS conversations also appear in the Inbox under the Texts tab. The Inbox provides a unified view where you can see text messages alongside calls and voicemails. From the Inbox SMS view, you can:

  • Read conversation histories
  • Toggle AI Reply on or off per conversation
  • Send manual replies
  • Load older messages by scrolling up within a conversation

To start a new conversation, use the standalone Texting Platform page. The Inbox SMS view only shows existing conversations — you can reply to them but cannot compose new messages from there.