A text thread on the record, not on somebody’s phone

Send and receive SMS through your own Twilio, Telnyx or Plivo account, or a WorkBOS number, with every message logged against the client, contact or lead it belongs to. Bulk campaigns and the US carrier registration they require come from the same place, not a separate tool.

Included from Pro upwards

Why this exists

  • A customer’s reply lands on one person’s personal phone, and nobody else on the team ever sees it.
  • Sending marketing texts at any real volume without registering with the carriers first means most of them get silently filtered before they arrive.
  • The conversation and the CRM record it is actually about live in two different apps, so somebody retypes one into the other by hand.

What it does

Send from your own carrier, or a WorkBOS number

Connect Twilio, Telnyx, Plivo or a custom HTTP provider with your own account id and auth token, or send from a number WorkBOS carries instead. Provider credentials are stored encrypted and never shown back once saved, and you set the monthly spend cap yourself.

Read and reply in one inbox

Every SMS conversation is a two-way thread per contact, with unread replies badged so nothing sits unseen. Search looks inside the actual message text across every conversation, not just contact names, and shows the matching words highlighted.

See who you are texting before you hit send

Type a new number and it is checked against your CRM before you send: a match to a client, contact or lead shows you their name instead of a bare digit string.

Keep consent and spend inside a hard limit

Anyone on your suppression list is never messaged, and a monthly USD cap you set blocks sends the moment it is reached, both enforced on the server rather than trusted to a screen.

Run a bulk campaign without carpet-bombing your list

Filter leads by status and owner, write one message with merge fields that fill in each recipient’s own details, and let the system pace the send inside quiet hours and a daily cap you choose. A recipient whose merge field cannot be filled is skipped with the reason recorded rather than sent a half-written text, and a reply of STOP pulls them out mid-send.

Get registered with the carriers, guided

A form collects exactly what carrier reviewers check, your business details, sample messages, and how people actually opt in, and WorkBOS submits it to the carriers on your behalf. Status shows in plain words: submitted, in review, needs a change, registered or refused.

What it does not do

The part you would otherwise find out in week three. If one of these is central to how you work, raise it before you buy rather than after.

  • Messages are text only. There is no MMS or picture messaging.
  • A number cannot start a bulk campaign until it is registered for marketing texts. Until then you can write and save a campaign, but the Start control stays off.
  • Carrier approval is not something WorkBOS controls. It commonly takes two to three weeks, and the guided desk is built for US A2P/10DLC; elsewhere, registering with your own carrier is on you.
  • SMS and texting is on Pro and above; the Free plan does not include it.

Questions, answered

Do I need my own Twilio account?+

No. You can text from a WorkBOS number on our own carrier account once your business is registered, or connect your own Twilio, Telnyx, Plivo or custom provider if you already have one.

Why can’t I start my bulk campaign?+

Because the number it sends from is not registered yet. Campaigns can be written and saved at any point, but Start stays off until that number is registered for marketing texts, and the tab says so at the top rather than waiting until you press it.

How long does carrier registration take?+

Commonly two to three weeks. WorkBOS submits your business and campaign details to the carriers and shows the same status words they use: submitted, in review, needs a change, registered or refused, with the carrier’s own note attached if something needs fixing.

Can someone on my suppression list still get a text?+

No. Anyone on that list is never messaged, and the check runs on the server rather than being something a screen decides.

The full product documentation for this module is at /docs/messaging.

Try it on your own data

Free for up to 5 seats, no card required. Every module is in the same workspace, so nothing needs connecting to anything.