Getting started with Text

What's my plan?

Zendesk Talk allows you to respond to inbound text messages, automate alerts, or send proactive messages. For example, you can send an automated text response when a customer submits a request or alert an agent via text when a ticket needs attention (for example, see Text recipes).

Texts automatically create tickets in Zendesk 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.

Note: Text messaging is not available for Talk trial accounts. Due to a change in US telecom regulations, businesses that want to send and receive texts must first register for A2P10DLC, otherwise all texts will be blocked (see Registering to use A2P 10DLC for text messaging). Accounts that are fully subscribed to Talk will have full SMS functionality available.

Text message support includes:

• You can send text messages of up to 160 characters 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. If you exceed this amount, messages will no longer be sent, and you'll see a warning that the message was rejected by the provider.
• Text does not support shortcodes or alphanumeric sender IDs.
• You can receive inbound MMS messages on US local numbers, but Text does not currently support outbound MMS messages.

To learn about the supported countries, and prices for Text, see Zendesk Text number availability and pricing.

This article covers the following topics to help you set up Text:

• Choosing a text number
• Sending an inbound text
• Automating an outbound text

Choosing a text number

You set up a new Text number in the Admin Center.

To choose a text number

1. In the Admin Center, click Messaging and social .
2. Click Text, then see Managing Talk line settings to add Text to an existing Talk number. For detailed steps, see Adding and managing Text numbers.

If your team uses another SMS provider and you want to use that number for Text, you can port over your existing phone number from the other provider. For more information see, Porting numbers for Zendesk Talk or contact the Zendesk Customer Service team.

Sending an inbound text

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

The following example shows the texts the customer sees on their phone.

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. For more information, see Understanding how Talk calls become tickets.

Automating an outbound text

When you’ve received and responded to an inbound text, you can set up an automated outbound text using a trigger.

The following example shows a trigger that responds to text messages with a standard message.

The standard message that customer then sees as a personalized text on their phone. For more help creating Text triggers, see Automating SMS support with Text triggers.