You will need the Limited Account permission to enable or deactivate text messaging, and the Full Account permission to change the balance, auto-recharge or low-balance settings. With more than one organization, enabling a number or changing those settings also needs access to every campus. Sending texts needs Limited SMS.
Enabling text messaging reserves a real toll-free number and starts billing, so it is worth reading through the costs before you begin.
One number per organization
Texting is set up for each organization separately. Each organization holds at most one texting number, and the number is what tells a member which organization is texting them. If your account has more than one organization, repeat the steps in this article for each organization that needs to text.
Enabling a number needs Limited Account and costs $5. With more than one organization, it also needs access to every campus, and an active organization within your reach.
Deactivating a number needs Limited Account and an active organization within your reach, but it does not need access to every campus.
Verification belongs to each number. Each organization verifies its own number, and only a Verified number can send.
Text messaging is not an add-on seat. An organization has it by holding a number.
How does texting work with more than one organization? explains how numbers, consent and sending work across organizations.
Before you start
Your account must be on a paid plan. Text messaging cannot be enabled during a trial. Accounts still trialling see a note pointing at their subscription instead of an Enable button.
A payment method must be on file. The activation fee is charged to it immediately.
Where the text messaging settings live
Everything on this page, including enabling, your balance, verification status and deactivating, lives on one panel.
Click the Settings & Tools (cog) icon in the top tool-bar.
Under Messaging Center, click Overview.
The Text Messaging panel is in the right-hand column of that page.
The panel shows the Messaging Number, Verification Status, Balance, Auto Recharge?, Low Balance and Recharge To, along with an Opt-In Form button and a Deactivate button. With more than one organization, each organization's number and verification status are shown separately.
Warning: While your account has more than one organization, anyone with a campus or organization limit sees the texting settings and phone numbers read-only, even with Full Account. Someone with no limit has to make these changes. A campus override on its own does not cause this.
Enable text messaging
Open the Text Messaging panel as described above. If your account has more than one organization, make sure you are working on the organization that needs the number. Then click Enable. The Enable Text Messaging screen opens.
Choose an area code. Numbers are toll-free only and the area code carries no geographic meaning, so this is purely preference.
Pick a number from the list. The list is live availability from the carrier and refreshes whenever you change the area code, so switching area codes gives you a fresh set to browse if you want something memorable.
Accept the three agreements: the one-time activation fee, the monthly non-usage fee, and an acknowledgement that nothing can be sent or received until the number is verified. All three are required before the window will save.
Confirm. The number is reserved for the organization straight away and appears on the panel.
What it costs
Activation fee - $5.00 per number, charged once at the moment of enabling.
Non-usage fee - $5.00 per number, for each month in which no text was sent or received on that organization's number. Numbers still pending are skipped.
Per message - $0.0125 per 160 characters, per recipient, charged on messages you receive as well as ones you send. Messages containing an emoji or special character are $0.025. Sending an image costs $0.0500 per recipient.
One prepaid balance pays for the texts of every organization's number. We give you a $2.00 credit, applied on activation, so you can send your first messages once the number is approved.
For worked examples and how the balance works, see How much do text messages cost?
Tip: With One Church Giving enabled, text giving messages do not draw down your messaging balance.
Verify the number before you text anyone
Warning: Enabling does not mean you can text anyone yet. The number exists, but the carriers block its messages until verification is approved. Texts sent to an unverified number are ignored, and a STOP sent to one is recorded nowhere. Submit the verification form the same day you enable.
Straight after enabling, the panel shows the new number with a Verification Status of Unverified and a banner prompting you to verify. That banner is your next step. See How do I verify my text messaging phone number?
Everyone who can see the panel sees the banner, but only a user with the Limited Account permission can act on it. For everyone else it reads as plain text with nothing to click, so they can see that verification is outstanding and tell someone without submitting your church's legal details themselves.
Once approved, Verification Status on the panel reads Verified. With more than one organization, each organization's number goes through verification on its own.
Manage your balance and auto-recharge
Costs for every organization are taken from one prepaid balance shown on the Text Messaging panel. To add funds or change the recharge settings:
On the Text Messaging panel, click the Balance amount. The Manage Text Messaging Balance window opens.
In Add, enter an amount to add to your balance now. Leave it at $0.00 if you only want to change the recharge settings.
Turn Auto Recharge? on to let your balance top itself up automatically.
Set Low Balance, the amount your balance has to fall to before a recharge is triggered. It starts at $2.00.
Set Recharge To, the amount your balance is topped up to. It starts at $10.00.
Click Save.
If you plan to send a lot of texts, raise both Low Balance and Recharge To so you do not run dry mid-send.
Consent and sending
Consent is per organization. Agreeing to texts from one organization, or stopping them, does not change another.
Sending a text needs Limited SMS, and the Send From organization must be active, within your reach and verified.
Full SMS adds keywords, images in texts, choosing the reply person, every scheduled text and the billing audit.
What is text messaging consent?, How do people opt in and out of text messaging? and How do I send a text message? cover these in detail.
Share your opt-in form
The Opt-In Form button at the top of the Text Messaging panel gives you a form your people can use to consent to receiving texts from your church. The opt-in page belongs to one organization. See What is text messaging consent? for why consent matters and how it is recorded.
Deactivating text messaging
Deactivating turns off text messaging for the organization, along with text giving if you use it. The texting number is released and cannot be recovered. If you activate text messaging again later, the activation fee applies, you are assigned a different number, and that number has to be approved by the phone carriers before you can send.
Open the Text Messaging panel as described above.
Click Deactivate.
Select Confirm Deactivation when prompted.
Warning: Releasing a texting number permanently disconnects it. It returns to general circulation and cannot be recovered, not by One Church Software and not by the carrier. Any verification you earned on that number is lost with it, and a new number starts the approval process from scratch. For about a day after release, a STOP texted to the old number still stops texts from every active organization. After that, a STOP to it is not recorded.
Releasing is never a troubleshooting step. If you only want to stop texting for now, turn text messaging off instead. Only the texting number can be released. A separate text giving number cannot be released from this screen. Archiving an organization also releases its number.