Why you should care
Do you put your business's phone number in your advertising? Send out automated text message reminders and notification? Or make a lot of outbound calls to people? Then surprise đđ Chances are pretty high that people are already texting your business. Theyâre texting you whether or not you tell them that they can (and there are many reasons to let them know they can).
Thatâs why weâve made it easy for you to start viewing and responding to text messages from the comfort of your existing email account. Regardless of the email account provider you use (e.g. Gmail, Outlook, etc.)Â
But why email? While weâre continuing to build our own application for viewing and responding to messages, weâve also introduced the ability to do this via email because:
Itâs easy to get started. Nobody needs to remember to log into a new application and learn how it works because they can rely on the tool most professionals already use throughout the day, email!
Itâs mobile. Most major email providers have an app for you to view and respond to emails on your phone. So with that mobile app you can also respond to text messages on the go.
Itâs easy to manage. Most businesses already have people and tools in place to make sure emails are responded to in a timely manner. So adding text message into the flow is easy.Â
How to get started
Once youâve created an account, added funds, and purchased a phone number (or had your existing phone numbers ported over or text-enabled), youâll need to get your AccountSid and AuthToken. You can find these by logging into your account and going to the API Dashboard.Â
Next, add the AccountSid and AuthToken, plus the email address you want to receive and respond to text messages, to the highlighted sections in this URL - https://customapps.ytel.com/yapp/sms_to_email.php?email=yourEmailAddress&a=yourAccountSid&t=yourAuthToken
After making these changes it should look something like this
Now youâre ready to add this url to the "SMS request url" setting for every phone number you want to enable this functionality for. Itâs as simple as going to âNumbersâ in the top navigation > clicking âManage numbersâ, finding the number(s) you want to add this functionality to, clicking the phone number(s) in question, navigating to SMS settings, pasting the url you created above into the âSMS request URLâ field, and then clicking save.Â
Now youâre all set and can start testing it out! Hereâs an example of how it looks in Gmail.
Notice that the subject contains the phone number of the person who contacted you and will also display the Friendly Name associated with your Ytel phone number, if it has one.Â
When replying back to a text message via email, only the first 160 characters in the email will be sent. So be mindful to limit the length of your email. Also, make sure you remove your signature line from your emails replies if you donât want them included in your text message to the customer.Â
FAQS
Can I initiate new conversations via email? Not at this time, and potentially never. The inability to track opt-in methods via email makes initiating text message from email a compliance nightmare.
How much does this cost? For now itâs just the normal cost associated with your phone numbers and for sending and receiving text messages.
Canât I just forward a text message to my cell phone number? Unfortunately text messages donât work like emails. You canât forward them to another number.
Can I send attachments or images? Not yet. This is something we will consider as we investigate changes to our MMS functionality.