Send Files in Messages

An aftercare sheet, a price list, a consent form, your contact card, a calendar invite for the visit: the inbox sends them on whichever channel you are answering on, and keeps the ones clients send you in the same thread.

What you can sendCopy a link to this section

Pictures in any common format, and these documents:

• PDF
• Word (.doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf)
• Spreadsheets (.xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv)
• Presentations (.ppt, .pptx, .odp)
• Text files (.txt)
• Contact cards (.vcf)
• Calendar files (.ics)

Programs, zip and other archives, scripts, web pages and spreadsheets with macros are refused, on every channel: "setup.exe can't be sent: this type of file isn't allowed in messages."

Attach a fileCopy a link to this section

In Messaging → Inbox, open the conversation and press the paperclip (Attach Files) beside the reply, paste the file, or drag it onto the reply box. Each file shows above the reply with a button to remove it, and uploads when you send. A reply can be only files, with no words.

In the Perceny app, the paperclip opens Choose from Photos, Take a Photo and Choose a File.

What each channel does with itCopy a link to this section

• Email attaches every file, under its own name: up to 20 files and 20 MB in all.

• Web chat keeps every file on the message for the client to open: up to 10.

• Text carries up to 10 files, and decides file by file:

  • A picture goes inside the message, as a picture message (MMS). Perceny shrinks it to what carriers deliver.

  • A contact card, a calendar file or a PDF goes inside the same message when everything fits in about 1 MB. Phones open these from a picture message.

  • Anything else (Word, spreadsheets, presentations, text files) and a PDF that is too large goes as a short link under your words, one line a file:

    Here is the price list.
    
    prices.xlsx: https://prcny.co/…
    

  The reply says which is which before you send. Under the files it reads "Sent as a picture message, billed as 3 texts." for what rides the message, and "Sent as a link in your text, working for 30 days: prices.xlsx" for what does not.

• Group text sends every file as a link, pictures included. See Group texts.

About the linkCopy a link to this section

• It opens the file without signing in, so the client only has to tap it.
• It works for 30 days. After that it shows a not-found page; send the file again if the client still needs it.
• The link is long and random, so it cannot be guessed, but anyone the client forwards the text to can open it while it works. Do not send a file by text that only the client should ever see; email it instead.
• In the thread, the file shows under your message as it does for any reply, so you can open what you sent at any time.

What it costsCopy a link to this section

Email and web chat cost nothing. A picture message costs the price of 3 text segments, whatever it carries. A text whose files all go as links is an ordinary text, billed by its segments; each link adds about 35 characters plus the file's name. See Credits and segments.

Files clients send youCopy a link to this section

A file a client texts, emails or sends on web chat shows under their message as a row: an icon for what it is, its name, its kind and size, and a download button. A PDF or a text file also has Preview, which opens it in place. In the app, tap the row to open the file and share or save it. Each file is kept as one of your business's files and counts toward your storage; you find them all under Storage.

Two safeguards run before anyone sees a file:

• Photos are checked for payment cards and IDs, and one that shows either is taken off.
• Documents with readable text (PDF, text, CSV, contact cards, calendar files) are checked for payment card numbers. One that shows a card number is not kept, and the message says "A file was removed because it showed a payment card number." Word, spreadsheet and presentation files, and scanned pages inside a PDF, cannot be read this way, so open files from people you do not know with care.

A file is never run or shown as a web page inside Perceny: it is downloaded, or shown by the preview.

The AI receptionist and filesCopy a link to this section

The AI receptionist knows when a file was sent and what it is called, but it cannot open one. It tells the client that a person on your team will look at it. When a client's question depends on the file ("does my form look complete?"), answer it yourself.

Who can send filesCopy a link to this section

Anyone with Manage Conversations, as for the rest of the inbox. See Who can message and spend credits.