Text your customers from your business numbers, with no personal mobile phones involved. Open Messages in the sidebar.
Messages is a shared team inbox. Everyone in your workspace sees the conversations on all of your business numbers, so anyone can pick up where a colleague left off. intSignal also files and maintains the carrier registration behind A2P 10DLC business texting, so your texts reach US mobile phones.
Before you start
- Your workspace needs a number that can text. Numbers you buy in intSignal Connect can send and receive texts automatically. See Phone numbers.
- Confirm your 911 location. If you have an extension, you can't send texts until you've confirmed your emergency address. Until then you'll see "Confirm your 911 location before sending messages." See Emergency calling.
- Register your business for US texting. An owner or admin completes this once. See Register your business for texting.
Send a text
Start a conversation
Select Send new message. To reply to someone who's already in your list, just open their conversation.
Choose who to text
In To, type a contact's name or a phone number, for example +1 949 555 1234 or
949 555 1234. US numbers work with or without the +1.
Choose which number it comes from
If your workspace has more than one number, pick one in the From list. Replies come back to that number's conversation.
Write and send
Type your message, up to 1,600 characters. Press Enter to send, or Shift+Enter for a new line.
The composer also has:
- an emoji picker,
- GIF search, which shows trending GIFs until you type a search,
- a paperclip for a photo or file,
- AI: suggest a reply, which drafts a reply into the message box from the recent conversation, for you to edit and send yourself. It's available when AI is turned on for your workspace.
Links in messages are clickable, and the Call button in a conversation calls that person from your browser phone.
Delivery status
Every text you send shows how far it has got:
| Mark | Status | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 🕓 | queued | Accepted and waiting to go out |
| ✓ | sent | Handed to the recipient's mobile carrier |
| ✓✓ | delivered | The carrier confirmed it reached the phone |
| ⚠ | failed | It couldn't be delivered. Check the number, then see Troubleshooting. |
Texts you receive are marked received.
Receiving texts
New texts appear straight away in the Messages page, in the chat bar, and as a red count on Messages and Dashboard in the sidebar. Each conversation shows its own unread count.
Unread counts are tracked per browser. Reading a conversation on your laptop doesn't clear the count on another computer.
Photos and files
You can send one attachment per message:
- Types: JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP images, PDF documents, and plain-text files.
- Size: up to about 1 MB.
If a file is too big you'll see "File too large for MMS (max ~1 MB)". Shrink the image or send a link instead. Other file types show "Unsupported file type (images, PDF, or text)".
Photos and files you send and receive are private to your workspace. They only open for signed-in members, never through a public link. Select Open or Download on an attachment. If one shows "media unavailable", that file can't be displayed.
Group texts
Use a group text to send the same message to several people at once, such as a crew or a list of customers who asked for an update.
- Select Group.
- Add up to 50 recipients. Duplicates are removed for you.
- Type your message and send.
Group texts go to everyone individually. Recipients don't see each other's numbers, and each reply comes back into its own one-to-one conversation. Group texts are text only, with no attachments.
When it finishes you'll see a result such as "Sent to 12; 0 failed (rate limit or invalid number)."
Large groups
Each recipient counts toward your sending limits. A group text to more than 15 people can go over the per-minute limit, and the extra messages fail. Wait a minute, then send again to just the ones that failed.
The chat bar
A chat bar sits at the bottom of every page, so you can text without leaving what you're doing.
- It holds up to 6 conversations as tabs. Use the + New tab to start one. It suggests contacts and recent numbers as you type.
- Each tab can be minimized, opened in Messages, popped out into its own window, or closed.
- The bell turns on or off whether new incoming texts pop up as tabs. They don't pop up while you're already on the Messages page.
- New-text desktop notifications appear if you've allowed notifications in your browser.
The chat bar sends from your first number
The chat bar always sends from your workspace's first business number. If you need to reply from a different number, reply from the Messages page and choose it in From.
Archive and delete conversations
Messages has two tabs: Active and Archive.
- Delete on an active conversation moves it to Archive.
- In Archive, select Restore to inbox to bring it back, or Delete permanently.
These actions tidy your own view on this browser. Your colleagues still see the conversation, and archived conversations drop out of your archive list after 5 days.
The messages themselves are always kept for your business's records. When someone selects Delete permanently, the conversation is set aside for review and is permanently erased 30 days later. If a conversation was permanently deleted by mistake, contact intSignal as soon as possible, within those 30 days. See Data retention.
Sending limits
To protect your numbers and your bill from misuse, each workspace can send, by default:
- up to 15 texts a minute, and
- up to 200 texts an hour.
Over the limit you'll see "SMS rate limit reached (per minute). Slow down." or "SMS rate limit reached (hourly). Try again later." Wait, then send again.
Automatic pause. If your workspace suddenly sends an unusually high number of texts, texting is paused for the whole workspace and owners and admins are emailed. Sending then shows "SMS is temporarily disabled for this account. Contact support." Check the recent messages for anything you don't recognize, then contact intSignal to turn texting back on. See Calling limits & fraud protection.
Register your business for texting
US mobile carriers require businesses to register before texting from local numbers. This is known as 10DLC (10-digit long code) registration. You fill in your company's details once, and intSignal completes the carrier registration for you.
Owners and admins do this in Admin → Settings → Settings. Switch the view to Advanced, then under Settings & Compliance select Company info. The panel is titled Company verification.
Legal identity
Legal business name, DBA / brand name, EIN / Tax ID (9 digits), Entity type (Private company, Sole proprietor, Non-profit, Public company or Government), Industry / vertical and Website. Fill in Industry too, because carriers need it for registration.
Registered address
Street, Suite / unit, City, State (2 letters), ZIP and Country. Use the address on your tax records.
Authorized contact
First name, Last name, Title, Email and Phone of the person carriers can contact about the registration.
Messaging
- Use case: Low-volume mixed, Mixed, Customer care, 2FA / one-time passcodes, or Marketing.
- Est. monthly message volume.
- Opt-in description: how people agree to receive your texts, for example "Customers give their mobile number on our service agreement and tick a box agreeing to appointment texts." intSignal's hosted opt-in form is included in your registration automatically.
- Sample messages, one per line, written the way you'll really send them. For example: "Hi Sam, this is Coastal Plumbing. Your technician will arrive between 1 and 3pm today. Reply STOP to opt out."
Save and submit
Select Save at any time. When everything's ready, select Submit for verification. Fields marked * are required. If something's missing you'll see "Complete these before submitting: …" listing what to add.
If you signed in with Microsoft, Prefill from Microsoft can fill empty fields from your organization's profile. Review everything before saving.
Registration status
The status badge moves from draft to submitted, then verified once intSignal has registered you.
The A2P texting registration (10DLC) box shows Not registered or Registered. Registered appears as soon as your registration has been filed, and carrier review can take some time after that. Ask intSignal if you're unsure whether review is complete.
- Carrier registration carries standard carrier fees.
- Adding numbers later? Ask intSignal to add the new numbers to your registration.
- Texts from numbers that aren't yet registered may be limited or not delivered.
Only text people who agreed to hear from you
Text only people who have opted in. Honor every opt-out: when someone replies STOP, stop texting them. Your opt-in description and sample messages are part of your registration, so keep your real texting consistent with them. If AI is on for your workspace, the compliance review can flag conversations where an opt-out may have been missed.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Confirm your 911 location before sending messages." | Open Phone and confirm your emergency address. |
| "SMS is disabled for …" | Texting is off for that number. Contact intSignal. |
| "SMS is temporarily disabled for this account. Contact support." | Texting was paused automatically. Contact intSignal. |
| Texts show failed | Check the number is a mobile that can receive texts. If many fail, confirm your 10DLC registration is complete. |
| A colleague deleted a conversation but I still see it | Deleting only changes the view on the browser where it was done. |
| I replied from the chat bar from the wrong number | The chat bar uses your first number. Reply from Messages and choose From. |