Getting started with Text (Talk Team, Professional, and Enterprise)

Support your customers via SMS with Text, included with Zendesk Talk Team, Professional, and Enterprise plans. Talk enables you to respond to inbound texts, automate alerts, or send proactive messages. For example, you might send an automated text response when a customer submits a request or alert an agent via text when a ticket needs attention (for examples, see Text recipes).

Texts automatically create tickets right in Support, so you can apply all the advantages of automated workflows, centralized reporting and full customer history to text support. There’s no coding or additional software required, so you and your team can get started in minutes.

For a list of currently supported countries, and prices for Text, see Text usage pricing.

Text message support

• Text messages can be up to the standard 160 character limitation in length.

  If you type a longer message, it will be split into multiple messages, each 153 characters in length. For example, if you type a message of 161 characters, it will be split into two messages; one of 153 characters, and one of 8 characters.

• You can send up to 250 simultaneous text messages from the same number.
• Text does not support short codes or alphanumeric sender ID
• You can receive inbound MMS messages on US local numbers, but Text does not currently support outbound MMS messages.

This article contains the following sections:

• Set up Text to try it out
• Next steps

Set up Text to try it out

Take the following steps to set up Text for a 30 day trial:

1. Choose a Text number
2. Send an inbound text
3. Automate an outbound text

Choose a Text number

Set up a new Text number under Admin > Channels > Text in Zendesk Support.

If you want to add Text to an existing Talk number, see Enabling a Talk number for Text.

For detailed steps, see Adding a Text number.

Text is a feature of Talk, so selecting a number for Text will initiate your free trial of Zendesk Talk. Trials include one free phone number and a $1 of usage credit.

My team has a Talk Team, Professional, or Enterprise account.

If you have a Talk Team, Professional, or Enterprise account, you can choose a separate phone number to try Text -- it'll be yours, free, for 30 days (you may be able to use the same number for Text that you use for Talk. Contact our customer service team for more information).

If you are currently trialing Talk Team, Professional, or Enterprise, your free $1 credit will apply to Text. If you are a current customer with Talk Team, Professional, or Enterprise, any Text usage fees will be applied to your account.

My team has a Talk Lite account.

If you are on our Talk Lite plan, you will need to upgrade to our Talk Team, Professional, or Enterprise plan to use Text. To try Text before upgrading your Talk plan, contact our customer service team.

My team uses another SMS provider -- can I use that number for Text?

If you decide to purchase Text (included on the Talk Team, Professional, or Enterprise plans), you can port over an existing phone number from another provider to use for Text. Learn more here, or contact our customer service team for more information.

Send an inbound text

Now that you’ve started your free Text trial, send a test text from a mobile phone to your new Text trial number. You’ll see that your text will automatically create a ticket in your Zendesk Support account. Public replies in the ticket will send a text back to you.

Note: To take advantage of user identification for inbound texts, set the mobile phone number you use for testing as the “direct line” for an end-user profile. Learn more here.

Automate an outbound text

Now that you’ve received and responded to an inbound text, take it to the next level and set up an automated outbound text.

See detailed steps and more ideas for ways to use triggers and notifications with Text here.

Note: Because SMS messages have a 160 character limit, when you send a URL as part of a message, our provider Twilio automatically creates a shortened version of it. While this URL shortening generally works well, it might occasionally cause a problem with message delivery. If you notice your messages are not being delivered, please let us know.

Next steps

When you’ve reached the end of your free 30 day trial or use your $1 free credit, add Team, Professional, or Enterprise to your Zendesk subscription to continue using the Text channel.