The short answer
What is included
Your main company number and every user's own direct number can send and receive SMS, picture messages, and WhatsApp. There is no per-seat messaging fee and no add-on. The $4.95 for an extra number is the price of the number, never a texting charge. Messaging is part of the Collaboration Suite that comes with every seat; it is not sold on its own.
Three ways to work a number's texts
- Email. Each conversation is an email thread on one address. Replying to the thread sends a text back, and a new conversation starts from email with the helper at vocatech.com/text. See send a text or WhatsApp from email.
- Webex, with Textdock. Every conversation is a Webex space the whole team can see and answer, and the Textdock panel in Webex is the inbox. Works on desktop, phone and tablet. See Textdock in Webex.
- The portal's Messaging inbox. The same conversations in a browser, for a company with no Webex seats or as a second window beside Webex. See the Messaging inbox.
Webex and the inbox are one road and run together. Email is the other road. A number is on one road at a time per channel, and texting and WhatsApp are set separately, so one number can do its texting by email while its WhatsApp goes to Webex. Most teams pick Webex, because nobody has to forward anything.
SMS or WhatsApp?
SMS is the default for US customers: it works on every phone and needs nothing installed. Appointment reminders, confirmations, quick replies. WhatsApp fits a customer base that already lives on WhatsApp, an international base, or conversations heavy with pictures and documents. You do not have to choose; once WhatsApp is activated, both run on the same number and the customer picks. Sending SMS waits on 10DLC registration; WhatsApp waits on a setup session.
Group texts
The Messaging inbox can start a group text of two to ten outside numbers where everyone sees every reply. WhatsApp through the Business API is one-to-one only, with no group chats and no status posts, and texting by email is one-to-one as well.
What texting cannot carry
Texts and WhatsApp messages are not covered by the HIPAA agreement and no setting changes that, so a message with patient information belongs in a covered channel. Appointment reminders with no clinical detail are fine. See HIPAA and the BAA. When a text does not go through, the reason is on the message; see why a text failed.