Text clients: one-to-one texts, quiet hours and STOP
Text a contact from your business number, reuse templates, and know when texts wait for quiet hours to end and what happens when someone replies STOP.
For agents and team leadsChecked About Calls & texting
Video walkthrough
The video for this guide isn’t recorded yet. Every step it will show is written out below.
- 1. Before your first text
- 2. Sending a text
- 3. Templates
- 4. Quiet hours
- 5. What STOP does
What it’s for
Texts in Uplevel go out from your business number, not your personal phone, and every one lands on the contact's timeline and in your Inbox. Replies come back to the same place, so the whole conversation stays with the client's record.
US carriers hold business texting to rules about registration, timing and opting out. Uplevel applies them for you. This guide explains what you'll see.
Before you start
- A number set up for Text messages, with its carrier registration approved. Get a phone number covers it, and the number shows what is still pending.
- A mobile number on the contact.
Steps
Step 1: Send a text
Open the contact and choose Text, or open their conversation in the Inbox. Check the number under Send from, write your Message and choose Send text.
The text is marked delivered when the carrier confirms it. Replies arrive in your Inbox and on the contact's timeline.
Step 2: Reuse what you write often
In the Inbox, type / in a text reply to pick a message template, such as directions to an open house. Choose Save as template to keep something you've written for next time.
Templates can be just for you, shared with a team, or for the whole workspace. Merge tags like
{{first_name}}fill in each contact's details.Step 3: Know when quiet hours apply
Your one-to-one texts and replies are never held. They send when you choose Send text.
Marketing and automation texts are different. They wait for the recipient's local daytime window, worked out from their area code and address, and send automatically when the window opens. The window can be narrowed in Settings → Calls & SMS → Compliance, never widened past 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM local time.
Step 4: Understand what STOP does
When someone replies STOP, their number is opted out straight away. Uplevel stops every text to them from that program, including your one-to-one texts, cancels anything queued and takes them out of automations waiting on a reply. The carrier sends them a confirmation.
If they reply START later, the opt-out from their STOP is lifted. Marketing texts add “Reply STOP to opt out.” the first time and at least every 30 days, unless your message already says how to opt out.
Replies that might mean stop, such as "please don't text me", wait under Opt-out review on the Compliance tab. Confirm opt-out treats it as a STOP. Dismissing it treats the reply as ordinary conversation.
What happens next
An opted-out contact shows it on their record, and the text window explains why a text can't send. Calling and email are not affected.
Text broadcasts to a whole list use the same registration and consent rules, and skip anyone who has opted out.
If something’s off
- The Send text button is disabled.
- The number may not be registered for texting yet, or the contact has opted out. The text window says which. Jan can explain where registration stands.
- A text says it’s waiting.
- Marketing and automation texts wait for the recipient’s daytime window and send when it opens. One-to-one texts don’t wait.
- Someone replied STOP by mistake.
- Ask them to reply START. You can’t opt a contact back in on their behalf.
Ask Jan to do it
Jan is the assistant built into Uplevel. Type any of these into Ask Jan in your dashboard.
- “Text Jane Smith: “Running 10 minutes late, see you at 12 Oak St.””
- Jan shows the text and the number it sends from on a card. It sends when you confirm.
- “Can I text Jane Smith?”
- Jan checks her consent and opt-outs for your sending number and tells you whether a text can go out.
- “Are there any possible opt-outs waiting for review?”
- Jan lists the replies waiting under Opt-out review. Confirming one asks you first.
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