Two-Way SMS

Two-way SMS gives your provider a dedicated Australian mobile number so you can send and receive text messages with participants (and their contacts) directly inside Astalty. Inbound replies land in a shared SMS inbox, and you can use the same number to send participants automated SMS Reminders ahead of their supports and appointments.

Enabling SMS

Only the Account Owner can enable SMS, and your provider must be on an active paid subscription.

Open the SMS settings page

Click the settings wheel in the left-hand menu, then select SMS.

Read and agree to the terms

Enabling SMS provisions a dedicated Australian mobile number for your provider. Before you can continue, you must read and agree to the terms shown on the page, which cover:

• You have read and agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
• You are responsible for obtaining valid consent from each recipient before sending them SMS messages.
• You will not send content that is unlawful, misleading, or prohibited under Astalty's Terms and Conditions.
• Message content, recipient phone numbers, and related metadata are transmitted through Astalty's messaging infrastructure and third-party carriers to deliver your messages. Delivery is subject to carrier availability and cannot be guaranteed.
• SMS usage and the dedicated phone number will be billed to your account in accordance with Astalty's pricing.

Once you're happy, tick I have read and agree to the above items, then click Enable SMS.

Choose your number

You'll then be prompted to Choose your SMS number. Pick the number you'd like to use from the list, then click Confirm Number.

Configuring inbound notifications

Once SMS is active, you can choose who gets alerted whenever an inbound message arrives. On the SMS settings page, click Edit next to the Settings section.

Under Notifications, choose which User Groups should be notified — by email and in-app — each time an inbound SMS arrives. You can select more than one group.

Granting access to the SMS inbox

Access to the SMS inbox is controlled per user. To grant it, head to the Users page from the left-hand menu and click into the relevant user's profile.

Click the Permissions tab on the user's profile.

Click Edit, tick Can access the SMS inbox, then click Update User.

Using the SMS inbox

Once a user has inbox access, the SMS inbox icon appears at the top right of the screen, next to the chat and notification icons. A badge shows the number of unread conversations.

From the inbox you can:

• Read inbound replies and see the full two-way conversation thread for each contact.
• Reply to a message, or start a new conversation with a participant, a participant's contact, or any mobile number.
• See delivery status on outbound messages (sent, delivered, or failed) and mark conversations as read or unread.

Conversations from contacts who have opted out (for example, by replying STOP) are clearly flagged, and Astalty blocks any further outbound messages to those numbers until they opt back in.