Group Texts
Text up to eight clients or numbers together in one thread, from your own texting number: start one, add people, and see who said what.
A group text is one thread with several people in it: a bride and her bridesmaids, a couple booking together, a parent and the teenager they book for. Everyone gets every reply on their own phone, as one group conversation, and the inbox shows the whole conversation in one place.
Start a group textCopy a link to this section
On the web, go to Messaging → Inbox, press New Conversation and switch to Group Text.
- Search under Add a client and pick each client. They go on the list under People, with their picture.
- For someone who is not a client, type their number under Or add a phone number and press Add Number.
- Take anyone off with the × beside them.
A group text has two to eight people. Press Start Group Text once you have picked at least two.
In the app, open the Inbox and tap the people icon beside the new-conversation button. Search for clients and tick each one, or type a phone number into the search and tick it. Tap Start Group Text. Swiping the sheet away starts nothing.
The same people always get the same thread back, in any order and whoever texted first. If a client starts a group text with your number and other people, it lands in the inbox as a group text by itself.
Reading a group textCopy a link to this section
A group text is titled by its people's names, in the order they joined, with the first two people's faces on it. A person who is not a client shows as their number. The header says how many people are in it, and every incoming message says who sent it.
ReplyingCopy a link to this section
Type and send as in any thread. The reply goes to everyone in the group as one text from your business number; the composer says Group Text where the channel picker usually is, and To lists the people.
- Group texts go by text only, words only.
- They need a texting number of your own. On the shared number you start with, the reply is not sent: "Not sent: group texts go out from a texting number of your own." See Your texting numbers.
- A group text costs what texting each person would: its segments for every person in the group. See Credits and segments.
- If anyone in the group replied STOP, nobody in it is texted: "Someone in this group opted out of texts, so the group can't be texted."
- The AI receptionist does not answer group texts, and automatic replies are not sent into them. Answer them yourself.
Add peopleCopy a link to this section
Press Add People in the thread's header (or in the thread's menu in the app) and pick clients or numbers the same way. The thread and its history stay in Perceny; the new person gets the next reply, not the earlier messages. To everyone's phones it is a new group conversation, as it is when anyone adds a person to a group on their phone.
If those people already have a group text of their own, Perceny says "These people already have a group text. Open that one instead." A group never grows past eight people.
Who can use group textsCopy a link to this section
Group texts need the Manage Conversations permission, like the rest of the inbox. A team member who sees only their own clients' conversations can't start or open them: a group has no one client to narrow it by. See Who can message and spend credits.