Texting your contacts (SMS)

Status: Texting is built in v0.38.0 but shows as Coming soon until Fifi's texting service is switched on. Registering a US number with carriers (v0.64.0) needs one more switch by Fifi's team, and the Registration card appears only once they've turned it on. Fifi uses its own Twilio account, and CorporateMutt hasn't set that up yet. Until then you won't see Texts in the menu, a Settings → Texting tab or a Texts section on contacts. Settings → Modules lists Texting under Coming soon with "Fifi's texting service is being set up".

Texting lets your team send and receive text messages with contacts from one shared business number. Every text shows on the contact's timeline, and replies land in Texts.

Who can do what

Texting is part of the Business plan. During the beta every workspace gets Business, so it's available to everyone once Fifi's service is set up. See Modules, business types and plans.

Get a number

1. Go to Settings → Texting.
2. Under Get a number, choose a Country: United States or Canada.
3. Optionally type a 3-digit Area code (optional). Leave it empty to take any local number in that country.
4. Pick the Quiet-hours time zone (it starts as yours).
5. Click Get a number. The button shows "Getting a number…".

Fifi sets up a sub-account for your workspace and buys a local, text-capable number. When it's done, Your number shows at the top of the page. A US number then needs registering with carriers before it can send (below).

Register your business (US numbers)

US carriers deliver a business's texts only when the business is registered with them (a scheme called A2P 10DLC). From v0.64.0 Fifi does the registration for you. In Settings → Texting, an owner or admin opens the Registration card, answers a short set of questions, and an owner agrees to the fees and submits. Fifi follows it to the end and approves your number by itself when carriers accept it. It usually takes 3 to 10 days for a sole proprietor and 1 to 3 weeks for a business. US carriers charge a one-time registration fee, passed on at cost: from $19.50, and from $1.50 a month.

The whole walk-through, the costs, what to do when we need something and what Fifi shares is in Register your business for texting.

While a registration is under way you can receive texts but not send them. The badge next to your number shows where it stands:

Until Fifi's team switches automatic registration on, and for Canadian numbers and kinds of organization Fifi doesn't register by itself (nonprofits, government bodies, publicly traded companies), the review is by hand as before:

You can receive texts while your number is being registered or reviewed.

Send a text

1. Open a contact who has a phone number.
2. Find the Texts section.
3. Type in the box ("Write a text…"). The counter shows characters and how many texts the message makes.
4. Click Send. It shows "Sending…" while it goes.

You can also reply from Texts: open a conversation and use the same box at the bottom.

What you'll see: the text appears straight away in the conversation and on the contact's timeline as Text sent, with its status:

• Sending
• Sent
• Delivered
• Not delivered, with the reason in words

Length and "texts"

• A text can be up to 640 characters.
• Carriers count long texts as several parts. A plain part holds 160 characters (a little less when it's split).
• An emoji or other special character makes every part 70 characters. The counter tells you when that happens.
• Fifi's limits count these parts, not messages.

Numbers Fifi can text

Fifi texts US and Canadian numbers only. It understands numbers however they were typed, for example "(415) 555-0123".

Read and answer replies

1. Click Texts in the menu.
2. You'll see one conversation per contact, newest first, 50 to a page. Each shows the latest text, when it came, and Needs reply or Replied.
3. Open a conversation to see every text, oldest first. Click Show older for more.

Replies also appear on the contact's timeline as Text received.

If a text arrives from a number Fifi doesn't know, Fifi creates a new contact named like "Unknown (415) 555-0123", with source Inbound, owned by the workspace's first owner. Rename them when you find out who it is.

Opt-outs and consent

People can stop your texts at any time:

• A reply of just STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, OPTOUT, OPT OUT or REVOKE opts that number out of your workspace's texts.
• START, UNSTOP or YES opts them back in.
• HELP or INFO gets an automatic reply naming your workspace, at most once a day per number.

The contact's timeline shows each change, for example "replied STOP: no more texts". The contact's Texts section shows "Opted out of texts. Only they can turn texts back on, by texting START."

If someone tells you in person that they don't want texts, open their contact and click Don't text. That opts the number out too. Only the person texting START undoes it.

An opt-out belongs to the phone number, not the contact. It stays even if the contact is deleted.

Appointment reminders by text

If your workspace also uses Online booking, visitors who give a phone number see an unticked Text me a reminder the day before box, with "Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out."

If they tick it, Fifi texts a reminder about 24 hours before the appointment. Reminders:

• never go between 9 pm and 8 am in the visitor's time zone (or your workspace's quiet-hours time zone when Fifi doesn't know theirs);
• wait until 8 am when they fall in quiet hours, or are skipped if the appointment would already have started;
• aren't sent for a booking that was moved or cancelled in the meantime;
• never go to a number that has opted out.

Texts your team sends by hand aren't held for quiet hours.

Limits

These limits apply during the beta, because every text costs money.

You can't buy more texts: the monthly count starts again on the 1st (UTC).

Fifi also has an overall daily budget across all workspaces. If it's reached, a text shows "Fifi's texting service had reached its limit for the day." and you can try again the next day (UTC).

Settings → Texting → Usage shows Today (UTC) and This month against your limits. Settings → Plan shows them too.

Turning texting off

An owner or admin can turn Texting off in Settings → Modules. Then:

• Texts, Settings → Texting and the contacts' Texts section are hidden;
• nothing is sent, and waiting reminders are cancelled;
• texts people send you still arrive and STOP and START still count, so nothing is lost. Turn it back on to see them.

Troubleshooting

Related guides

• Register your business for texting
• Online booking
• Contacts and companies
• Modules, business types and plans
• For Fifi staff: Twilio setup and number approval and Texting budget runbook