Help & Support

Messages (SMS & MMS)

Messages is your team's shared SMS inbox. Everyone except Billing Admins can use it. Text messaging is delivered through Telnyx.

Before you can text

  • Your organization needs a phone number that supports SMS — a purchased or ported number. A verified business number works for calls only; trying to text from one shows This phone number is verified for outbound caller ID only. It cannot send SMS messages. Purchase or port a number to enable SMS.
  • US carriers require businesses to register for 10DLC before sending application-to-person texts. Register your brand and campaign under Settings → Phone Numbers → SMS Brands / SMS Campaigns. Until you're approved, carriers may block or filter your messages, and Broadcasts are unavailable. See SMS compliance (10DLC).
  • Each plan includes a monthly SMS allowance. When it's used up you'll see SMS message limit reached for your plan this billing period until the next billing period or an upgrade. Broadcast messages count against the same allowance.

The inbox

The left pane lists conversations; the right pane shows the selected thread.

  • Tabs: All, Mine (assigned to you), Unassigned, Archived.
  • Each conversation shows the contact's name (or number), the last message, the time and an unread count. Conversations from contacts who texted STOP show an Opted Out badge.
  • Claim an unassigned conversation to make it yours.
  • The row menu lets you Archive or Delete a conversation.
  • New incoming messages appear instantly; the thread header shows Live when connected.
  • Type in Search conversations... to filter the list by contact.
  • Click Search Messages to search inside message text instead (at least 2 characters). Results show Sent / Received and open the conversation when clicked.

Bulk actions

Click the checkbox icon next to + to enter selection mode, tick conversations (or Select all), then Archive, Restore, change Status (Open / Pending / Resolved) or Priority (Low / Normal / High / Urgent).

Start a conversation

  1. Click + (or New Conversation in the empty thread pane).
  2. Under Send To choose Existing Contact (search by name, phone or company) or New Phone Number (enter the number with country code, e.g. +1…).
  3. Optionally type an Initial Message.
  4. Click Start Conversation (or Create Conversation if you left the message empty).

Send a message

Type in the box at the bottom of the thread and press Enter to send (Shift+Enter for a new line). Use the emoji button to insert emoji.

Message status icons: clock = sending, one check = sent, two checks = delivered, blue checks = read, red alert = failed (with the error text shown under the message).

Long messages are sent as multiple SMS segments (160 characters per segment for plain text, fewer for messages containing emoji or special characters) and each segment counts toward your SMS allowance.

Attach photos or video (MMS)

Click the attachment button and choose up to 3 files per message. Supported: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP images and MP4 / 3GP video, each under 1 MB (most carriers reject larger files). Received attachments appear as a View attachment link.

Reply to a specific message

Click … on a message (or press and hold it on mobile) and choose Reply. A Replying to banner appears above the composer; click Cancel reply to remove it. Quoted messages are clickable and jump to the original.

Drafts

Unsent text is saved automatically per conversation and restored when you come back. If a message fails to send, your text and attachments are put back so you can retry.

Read status

Opening a conversation marks it read. If the browser tab is in the background, new messages stay unread until you return.

Opt-outs (STOP)

When a contact replies with exactly STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT or STOPALL, their conversation is marked Opted Out:

  • The composer is replaced with This contact has opted out of SMS messages and sending is blocked.
  • They're skipped automatically from Broadcasts.
  • If they later reply START, YES, SUBSCRIBE, OPTIN or JOIN, they're opted back in.

Call Helm keeps opt-in/opt-out records for compliance. Honour opt-outs — do not try to work around them.

Things to know

  • Messages are not shown on a contact's detail page; find them in the inbox.
  • A message from a brand-new number consisting only of STOP is not yet recognised as an opt-out — the contact must have an existing conversation. If you see one, mark it manually by not messaging that number.
  • Message reactions are not supported (a reaction never reaches the contact's phone), so they have been removed.