Mobile App (Android & iOS)

Our iOS and Android mobile apps make it possible to take your Text Request dashboard on the go.

You use the same email and password you would for the desktop version to log in. Once the app opens, it will ask for permission to send you notifications. You need to agree to receiving notifications, or you won’t know when new messages come in. An active Text Request account is required to use the mobile app.

Below we’ll walk through each thing you can use the mobile app for. You can do basically anything on the mobile app that you could on the desktop, except:

  • P2P messaging
  • Generate reports
  • Manage integrations

1. Send individual Messages

There are two ways to send an individual message.

The first is by selecting the body of the message you want to respond to.

The second is by selecting the + symbol at the bottom of the app.

Before you hit send, select the icon with three dots to open a mini menu where you can:

  • Add a pre-saved signature to your message by selecting the signature icon
  • Schedule the message for a later date by selecting the clock icon
  • Attach an image  or PDF by selecting the paperclip icon (these count as a separate message)
  • Choose from existing message templates by selecting the folder icon

2. Send Group Messages

1. Select the icon with two speech bubbles at the bottom of the app

2. Select the New Group Message button

3. Pick the contacts or group you wish to send to

4. Check the boxes confirming that a) you have permission to send messages to these contacts and b) that you understand they will receive the option to opt-out of messages

5. Compose the message you want to send

6. (Optional) Select any signatures, scheduled sending times, pre-made templates, or attachments you'd like to add

7. Review any suggestions our Spam Scanner recommends to help keep your message from being marked as spam

8. Confirm you're ready to send the group message

Once you send a group message, you'll be able to view its stats by selecting the body of the group message. 

3. Review and Edit Profile Details 

To reach the profile section of you app: 

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the profile icon with the green smiling face

From there you'll be able to view the three sections below.

Account Details 

Contains your account ID number and username.

Profile Details 

The place where you can:

  • Edit your account display name
  • Change or remove your profile picture
  • Change your password

Preferences

The place where you can:

  • Add a signature to your text messages (learn more about signatures here)
  • Turn on sound notifications for the app
  • Choose the default message view for your dashboard 

The three different message views you can choose from include classic, condensed, and combined.

Classic: Great for managing one or a few text conversations at a time

Condensed: Preferred for managing lots of conversations at once

Combined: Perfect for if you want to see your recent messages while also viewing a conversation thread

4. Add and Edit Users

To reach the user section of you app: 

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the User section

From there you'll be able to create, edit, and delete users.

Create a User

1. Select + New User button

2. Enter the first name and last name of the user

3. Enter their email address

4. Select the permission level you want the user to have (click here to learn more about the different user permission levels) 

Edit a User

Select the pencil icon next to a user's name to edit their first name, last name, and permission level. 

Three things to note:

  • A user cannot edit their own permissions level
  • Only Administrators can give or remove administrator access to or from other users
  • Editing a user under one dashboard does not affect them on other dashboards

Delete a User

Select the pencil icon next to a user's name and scroll down to the delete user button.

There things to note:

  • Deleting a user from one dashboard does not delete them from all dashboards (to delete a user from all dashboards, repeat the steps above for each dashboard)
  • A user cannot delete themselves
  • There must always be at least one account Administrator. To delete an Administrator, another Administrator must first be created

5. Manage Settings

To reach the Settings section of you app: 

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Setting section

From there you'll be able to manage the tools below. 

Autoresponder

Autoresponders are a great way to give your customers a timely response even when you’re not in the office. When active, the autoresponder automatically sends a reply to all inbound messages.

An autoresponder can be set to one of two states:

Scheduled - Runs on any schedule, turning itself on and off based on the time slots you’ve set up. This is great for regular intervals, like if your team leaves the office every day at 5 pm

Manual - Will send 24/7 if the response is active. This is great for specific events, like staff meetings where you just need to step away for an hour, or when the person who normally monitors texts is out sick

To create an autoresponse:

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Setting section

3. Go to Autoresponder

4. Select the + New Autoresponder button

5. Enter a name for your autoresponse (e.g. After hours, Holiday special, etc.)

6. Enter your response (it’s best to keep it under 160 characters since anything over contributes to your usage)

7. (Optional) Attach jpg, png, or gif

8. Choose for your response to be either Manual or Scheduled

9. If it's a scheduled autoresponse, choose which times on which days you want it to run

10. Select Save 

You can edit or delete an autoresponse by selecting the pencil icon next to it. 

Escalation

Escalations notify you if a text isn’t resolved after a specific amount of time has passed. The notification comes as a message from your dashboard to your personal cell phone, so you can see which text needs to be answered.

Note that escalated messages count toward your usage, and only Administrators and Managers can access Escalation.

To enable escalations:

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Setting section

3. Go to Escalation

4. Toggle the status to Enabled

For more information on escalation best practices, click here.

Voice Greeting

Occasionally, someone will accidentally call your text-only number. Voice greeting is a simple, automated response that tells callers they’ve reached a text-only number, and gives them a different number to call.

Every Text Request text-only number comes with a voice greeting that you can turn on or off as you wish.

Note, the voice greeting only works for text-only numbers. If you have added Text Request to your current business number, voice greeting does not apply.

To activate voice greetings:

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Setting section

3. Go to Voice Greeting

4. Toggle the status to Enabled

For more information on voice greetings, click here.

Message Tags 

Message tags are labels that you can attach to individual messages to help you keep better, more organized records. (Note that we also have contact tags you can use to filter contacts.)

For instance, you might want to note every time you get feedback (good or bad), so that your team can periodically sit down to determine what you’re doing well and what could be better.

To create a message tag: 

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Setting section

3. Go to Message Tags

4. Select the + New Message Tag button

5. Enter the name you want to give the tag

6. Select Save

You can edit or delete a message tag by selecting the pencil icon next to it. 

For more information on message tag best practices, click here

Templates

Templates are the Text Request version of “stock” or “saved” messages. You can create a message once, save it, and then re-use it as often as you like by selecting the folder icon when you send an individual or group message. 

To create a template:

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Setting section

3. Go to Templates

4. Select the + New Template button

5. Type the name you want to use to identify the Template

6. Type the message you want the template to appear as

7. Choose any JPEGs, PNGs, or GIFs you’d like to include in the template

8. Select Add Template

9. Select Save

For more information on template best practices, click here.

Email Notifications 

Email notifications notify you via email if someone texts your dashboard.

To create an email notification:

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Setting section

3. Go to Email Notifications 

4. Type in the email you want the notifications to go to

5. Select Add Recipient

To learn more about email notifications, click here.

Keywords

A keyword is a word people text you to receive information on that topic. For example, if you create the keyword “Coupon,” when someone texts in “Coupon,” they’ll expect to receive info on coupons and similar offers.

To create a keyword:

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Setting section

3. Go to Keywords

4. Select the Create New Keyword button

5. Enter the name you want to give the keyword

6. Enter the response you want people to receive when they text the keyword

7. Confirm that the keyword’s details are what you want

You can edit or delete a keyword by selecting the pencil icon next to it. Creating a keyword automatically creates a coinciding group. 

For more information on keyword best practices, click here

6. Review Account Details

To reach the account section of you app: 

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Account section

Click here for the guides covering what all you can do in your Accounts section. 

7. Add and Edit Dashboards

Dashboards are the 10-digit phone numbers used to send and receive texts through Text Request. You can have as many dashboards under one account as you like.

To reach the Dashboard section of you app: 

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Dashboard section

Add Dashboard 

1. Select the Add Dashboard button

2. Choose whether you want to add a new number to your account, or SMS-enable an existing one

If you choose a new number:

5. Select the country you're in, enter the area code you’d prefer, and select Submit

6. Choose a number from the list provided. If you don't like any of the options, select Click to load more phone numbers to refresh the list (note, clicking Choose will purchase the number)

If you choose to SMS-enable a number:

5. Enter the phone number you’d like to SMS-enable (host), and select Check (this will confirm whether the number can be hosted in Text Request)

6. If the number can be hosted, send your number in an email to jamey@textrequest.com (this will allow our team to get started on SMS-enabling your number)

You can also check the Auto-host box so any number you add automatically begins this process.

Edit Dashboard

You cannot edit any 10-digit text number, but you can edit a text number’s name by selecting their number within the Dashboard section of your app. 

Delete Dashboard

Go to your Dashboard menu option, and click on the number’s name (under the Description column). Then select Delete and Confirm.

Note that you cannot delete the number you're currently on, and your account must always have at least one active Dashboard.

8. Create and Manage Contacts

To reach the Contacts section of you app: 

1. Select the three dashes icon on the bottom left corner of the app

2. Select the Contacts section

From there you will be able to manage the following things. 

Individual Contacts

To create an individual contact: 

1. Select the Add Contact button

2. Enter the contact's number and select Create Contact

3. Enter the contact's details (more on that below)

Note that you can only add contacts individually (you will need to go back to your desktop to import more than one at a time).  

Select  a contact's number to edit and save their info. There are two places you’ll see a contact’s name (or number, if you haven’t saved them yet).

The first is in the Contact's section of your Chrome extension (which you can reach by selecting the three dashes at the top left corner of the extension). 

The second is in that contact’s conversation thread.

After clicking on the contact's name or number, their Details page will open and you'll be able to edit the contact's:

First, Last, and Display Name: In addition to the contact’s first and last name, you’ll also have the option to pick a display or preferred nickname (for example, if your contact is in home service business, they may have a display name like “Keaton - 100 Georgetown Dr. 39845”)

Status: Shows whether the contact is active, archived, blocked, or another status

Custom Fields: Allows you to add custom details for each contact, like address or birthday

Contact Tags: Shows who's responsible for the contact

Group Membership: The groups the contact currently belongs to

Notes: Any additional information you’d like to include about the contact

The only thing you cannot edit about a contact is their phone number. Phone numbers are unique identifiers in Text Request, and cannot be changed.

You can also select the Contact Stats section to view their:

  • First date of contact
  • Last date of contact
  • Number of messages sent
  • Number of messages received
  • Response rate
  • Average response time

If you need to update a contact’s phone number, you can Archive the current contact, and create a new contact using the updated phone number. You can only choose to delete an incorrect number if it has no message history.

Groups

Groups are a great way to organize contacts by things like their date of last contact, use cases, seasonal needs, etc..

To create a group:

1. Select the three dashes at the bottom left of your mobile app

2. Go to the Contacts section

3. Select Groups

4. Select Add Group

5. Type in the name you want to give the group and select the Create Group button

For a more in-depth guide on groups, click here

Contact Tags

Contact Tags help you categorize contacts and give you another way to filter them. For instance you might create contact tags to organize which rep is working with that contact, or which stage of the sales funnel they fit into.

To create a new Contact Tag within the Chrome extension:

1. Select the three dashes at the bottom left of your mobile app

2. Go to the Contacts section

3. Select Manage

4. Select Contact Tags

5. Select the + New Contact Tag button

6. Name the tag and assign the color you want it to have

For a more in-depth guide on contact tags, click here

Custom Fields

Custom fields allow you to save general facts about your contact (like their birthday or favorite sports team) to help you better remember your contact on a more individual basis. You can create as many custom fields as you want.

To reach the Custom Fields section of your dashboard:

1. Select the three dashes at the bottom left of your mobile app

2. Go to the Contacts section

3. Select Manage

4. Select Custom Fields

You can create a new custom field by selecting the New Custom Field button. 

You can edit an existing custom field by hovering over their name and selecting the pencil icon, or delete it by hovering over their name and selecting the trashcan icon. 

Any changes you make to a custom field's name will automatically be made across all of your contacts, so be sure to update their information accordingly. For example, if you change a custom field category name from “Favorite Color” to “First Job,” the custom fields who you entered favorite colors for will still have that information in that slot.

For a more in-depth guide on custom fields, click here

Contact Export History

Export histories give you detailed information about contacts you've exported in one spreadsheet, including:

  • First contact date
  • Last message sent
  • Last message received
  • Total number of messages sent
  • Total number of messages received
  • Total number of messages responded
  • And the history of their contact status

To view your export histories:

1. Select the three dashes at the bottom left of your mobile app

2. Go to the Contacts section

3. Select Manage

4. Select Export History

5. Select the download icon next to the report you want to view

Contact Import History

Import histories help you determine how many textable contacts were in a list you recently imported. To view them:

1. Select the three dashes at the bottom left of your mobile app

2. Go to the Contacts section

3. Select Manage

4. Scroll to the right and select Import History

Each report will be listed by the date it was imported and the number of contacts in the list. 

Selecting the magnifying glass next to the import will show you how many new contacts were created from it, how many numbers already existed in your dashboard, and how many of the contacts are on a do not contact list.

9. Create and Manage Payment Requests

By default, Payments will be disabled on all dashboards for an account and must be enabled on a per-dashboard basis. Learn how to activate and set up Payments here.

Once Payments is set up, you can view your payment request histories, filter your payment requests, request payments, and change your Payment feature settings using your mobile app. 

Note that any Payment Requests made during Training Mode will be delivered, but money cannot be processed until you enter Live ModeClick here for our guide on how to complete Payment Set Up and enter Live Mode

To create a payment request using your mobile app:

1. Select the three dashes at the lower left corner

2. Go to the Payments section

 

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3. Select the Payments dropdown menu

 

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4. Scroll to the right until you reach the Request Payment option

 

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5. Choose the contact’s phone number, the amount of money you want to request, a description of what product or service the payment is for, an optional reference number, and the message you’d like to send along with the request

6. Then choose to either Send payment request now or Schedule payment request later

You can use this same menu area to view your Payment Request History and Filter your requests.

To edit the Settings section of your Payments menu using your mobile app:

1. Select the three dashes at the bottom left corner

2. Go to the Payments section

3. Select the Settings option

 

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From there you'll be able to edit your Payment feature's settings the same way you would from within your account.