Read and reply to a text message

For staff in organisations that use text messages. A conversation is one phone number. Everything you send is kept in its record.

Steps

1. Open the conversation from the link you were given. The page shows the contact's name, or their number if it is not known.
2. Read the thread from the top. Older messages are first and the newest is at the bottom.
3. Click in the box that says Type a reply….
4. Write your message. It can be up to 1,600 characters. The counter shows how many are left.
5. Press Send, or hold Ctrl or Cmd and press Enter.
6. Look under your message for Delivered. If you see Failed, the text did not arrive.
7. Press ← Back to inbox when you have finished.

If it goes wrong

• If you see Send failed, check your connection and press Send again.
• If a message shows Failed, do not assume it was read. Contact the person another way.
• If the page says No messages in this conversation yet., the link may be old. Go back and open it again.

How it links together

A conversation begins with a reminder text or a message from a contact. Your reply is stored with the conversation, and the phone company's report updates its status.

Texts go only when the text module is on. See the guides on writing reminder templates and on your inbox.

When text messages are available

Text messages are a module. Your admin switches them on for the organisation. If they are off, nobody is texted, whatever a person's own notification choices say.

Templates for appointment reminders are written by your admin. Replies from the person come back into the same conversation.

Reading a conversation

Your messages are on the right, in colour. The other person's are on the left. Each shows the time it was sent.

Opening the page counts as reading the conversation.

Writing a reply

• Keep it short, clear and kind. A text is not private from your organisation.
• Do not include details a stranger could use if the phone is lost.
• Use the contact's name only if you are sure the number is theirs.
• Never put safeguarding detail in a text. Use the concern form instead.

What the status means

• Sending: the message is on its way.
• Delivered: the phone company says it reached the phone.
• Failed: it did not arrive. The number may be wrong or the phone may be off.
• No label: it was sent, but no delivery report has come back.

Sending problems

If the box refuses to send, check you have written something and not gone over 1,600 characters. The error under the box says what to fix.

If sending keeps failing, tell your admin the time and the number. Do not paste the message into an email.