Chat SMS with email

  • Last updated on August 31, 2022 at 4:21 PM

This article explains how to set up the Chat SMS feature with email so that you can have a conversational thread with your contact via email and they can reply via SMS.

For information on the standard Chat SMS feature that can be utilised within the portal, see the article here.

You must have a VMN assigned to your account to enable Chat SMS with email. If you do not have a VMN, please get in touch with your Account Manager. The VMN must be dedicated for the Chat SMS with email feature so if you have another VMN assigned you are already using for other purposes then you will need a second.

To begin with, you will need to create a new keyword on your Chat SMS with email VMN.

Click on Inbound SMS and then “New Keyword” to begin. Type the asterisk symbol into the box and click on “Search”. Select your Chat SMS VMN from the list:

In the 1st Action box, click on the dropdown and select “Chat SMS WITH Email”

Fill in the email address you want to send to. To add more than one email address, click on the “+” button.

To receive nicely formatted HTML emails, select this option.

If you would like to receive an email confirmation back that your message has been sent by SMS, tick “Send Receipt Notifications”.

Choose how many messages you would like to see in the email thread from the Transcript History drop down.

Select how many days you want the messages to be archived after. Be aware they will be automatically archived after 90 days.

You will also need to ensure that your email address is registered in the “Email to SMS” module, by clicking on “Send SMS” in the left hand navigation and clicking on “Email to SMS”. For more information on the Email to SMS function, see the Email to SMS article here.

To register an email address, click on “+Email”

When a contact texts your Chat SMS with Email VMN, you will receive this via email to your address.

As you can see in this example, the VMN is in the subject line and the email body shows the number you have received the message from and the body of the message.

To reply, simply hit reply. Make sure that you end your message with “##” just in case you are using any signatures etc. This will ensure that you do not use any extra characters in your message.

For example:

All of your conversations are available to view in the Chat SMS module in the portal also.

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