Textline fully supports true Group Messaging! Group Messaging is the many-to-many conversation where you send a message to a group of contacts and any and all replies to that message are seen by all participants in the group in the same conversation. This differs greatly from our Announcement feature, which is a one-to-many feature that creates separate conversations between you and each participant once the Announcement is sent. Now when we say we fully support Group Messaging, we mean that:
You can create a group and add (up to) 9 contacts. All messages exchanged will be seen by all of them.
Whether you create the group or a contact creates the group, it does not matter.
You can use all of Textline's great features with Group Messaging, including sending and receiving attachments, Automations, and claiming/transferring. Announcements and Surveys can not be sent to group message conversations though.
It is compliant with all industry regulations. Group Messaging from other providers can be sent in unregulated ways, exposing you to fines and sanctions from mobile carriers.
Please note that group messages are charged MMS rates, which can be viewed here.
Group Messages will appear in your conversation dashboard just like any other conversation. You will be able to differentiate them by the icon next to the group name showing how many contacts are in the group.
To initiate a Group Message, click on the New Message button, type in your first contact and add them, type in the second contact and add them, and so on. You can add up to 9 contacts in a Group Message. If you cannot add more than one contact, then you are not in a department that supports Group Messaging. Once your contacts have been added, you have the option to add a group name. If you do not add a group name, the default will be a comma separated list of the contacts.
Once you have created the group, start messaging!
You can also manage the Groups created by a Group Message. Just like regular contacts, Groups can have tags, notes, and custom fields added to them. Any details added to the group are just for the group, not the contacts within the group. You can do this via the sidebar when viewing the Group Message or within the Groups section of the Address Book.
When it comes to Groups, once a group has been created, you cannot add or remove members. This is not something supported via SMS technology. If you want to add or remove contacts from a Group, you will need to create a new Group with or without the contact(s). This also means the new Group Message will not see the previous history.
IF a contact within a Group Message unsubscribes, you will not be able to message the Group. To continue, you will need to recreate the Group without the contact that unsubscribed. IF a contact in a Group unsubscribes, it does NOT affect the status of the other contacts in the Group Message.
If you're interested in Group Messaging, we'd love to get you texting quickly, but first let us get familiar with a few requirements:
You must be on a current Textline plan. Please reach out to Textline support if you cannot change your plan or have any questions.
For now: We are not supporting customers that use our Contact Consent feature at this time. We plan to add support at a later time.
Group messaging is not supported for customers texting in Canada or those using contact consent (HIPAA or Pro).
Group Messaging is only possible using a new carrier that Textline has partnered with. This means you will need a new department with a new phone number for most customers. At the moment, we do not support porting current numbers to this new carrier, but may eventually. Porting is a long process that can involve downtime.
This will also require a new compliance campaign and will incur an additional regulatory fee.
For now: Group Message conversations do not sync over to integrations. We hope to add support for this at a later time.
To add Group Messaging, head on over to your department list and add a new department where Group Messaging is supported. Create a new Department here.