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Implemented 3CX SMS - Did you get my text message?

uptime1

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SMS is coming on strong with increasing numbers of VOIP Providers supporting it. As 3CX jumped in early and successfully on WebRTC, SMS is the next opportunity to make a noticeable difference. What do you think of 3CX handling and routing the SMS messages through enhancement of the existing 3CX clients. Of course, SMS has enormous appeal to the Millennials, who reputedly, don't want to talk on a phone! :) My business customers want the ability to receive, manage and respond to their SMS messages with ease just as they do phone calls. Containing all that SMS activity within the 3CX sphere will be more productive and 3CX brand centric than having to use a third-party (infiltrator/future competitor) program! What do you think about making this part of the 3CX appeal?

BTW, please consider making auto-responders part of the appeal, including auto-response by extension and interactive auto-response, for example, when someone wants an address or directions to the business, the first auto-response message says to text back "xyz" to get directions, "abc" for a call back, "123" for today's specials, etc.
 
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Some SIP providers have SMS enabled DIDs. Vitelity.com handles it before it reaches 3CX. If someone sends a text message to one of these DIDs, the Vitelity system intercepts it and routes it to the customer's email address. The email is received and looks like this:

To: (513) xxx-xxxx
From: "WIRELESS CALLER" (513) xxx-xxxx
Message: This is a text message sent to a Vitelity DID.
Note: You can reply to this message just keep it under 312 characters and only hit enter after you're done typing the message.
Sincerely,
TextMessage.Org

When you reply, previous message is stripped out and original sender gets reply that looks just like it came from a mobile phone.

Allen
 
The problem that may arise is that incoming SMS is not handled in the same manner by all providers. There does not seem to be a set standard at this point. For outgoing from 3CX, you will still require some sort of SMS (paid) subscription.
 
The problem that may arise is that incoming SMS is not handled in the same manner by all providers. There does not seem to be a set standard at this point. For outgoing from 3CX, you will still require some sort of SMS (paid) subscription.

Just as there are templates for SIP Trunks for each supported SIP provider 3CX. Should be able to handle each supported provider's implementation of SMS. It seems that 3CX is IGNORING SMS all together and they don't believe that SMS is important enough. Flowroute has such a simple API for SMS that there is no reason for 3CX not to start there.
 
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We've had one client ask about this. However they only wanted to be able to easily send a message to mobile callers - we felt this was better done outside 3CX by passing callerid from softphone to separate app to handle text messaging. I'd say there's room for improvement, but at low priority as I think there's other things that need doing more urgently.
 
I believe that the problem is that there are too many old-school (no offence) telecom individuals who don't give much importance to SMS. They just don't understand how convenient, accepted, demanded and necessary it is to contact customers and clients via SMS. It is even more professional to do so from the same number your clients already know. VIOP SIP trunk providers are integrating voice, fax and now SMS into single DID. Why don't VIOP PBX providers like 3CX stay up to date with them? Why must we give our clients another number just to communicate via SMS when it can be done with a single DID? And, why is the popular solution in this forum to use third party SMS services? The days of putting multiple phone numbers on your business card are so much in the past.
 
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Sms is so crucial to our customers that we are thinking of dumping 3cx all together and dive right back into freepbx.

I agree 100 percent. It's not even about 3cx stepping up, it is about 3cx keeping any sort of legitimacy in the pbx market.

Sms should be top urgent priority, every day that goes by without this feature is another customer lost.

We recently lost a big contract to due to the lack of Sms.
 
Sms is so crucial to our customers that we are thinking of dumping 3cx all together and dive right back into freepbx.

I agree 100 percent. It's not even about 3cx stepping up, it is about 3cx keeping any sort of legitimacy in the pbx market.

Sms should be top urgent priority, every day that goes by without this feature is another customer lost.

We recently lost a big contract to due to the lack of Sms.

Unfortunately FreePBX does not have a mobile app to facilitate usage of SMS for mobile users. Plus, SMS is natively supported by FreePBX only if you use SIPStation. On top of that, SMS is available only through the web app.

Flowroute has a very simple solution to SMS but they don't have a mobile app either. I'm willing to volunteer my time to help develop an SMS solution using Flowroute. Anyone out there with good Visual Studio coding skills please contact me.
 
I posted a new thread about this exact subject, since this thread didn't come up in my search for some reason. I would like to see 3CX implement SMS/MMS support, as long as the SIP provider supports it, 3CX should support it as well.
 
I posted a new thread about this exact subject, since this thread didn't come up in my search for some reason. I would like to see 3CX implement SMS/MMS support, as long as the SIP provider supports it, 3CX should support it as well.

I totally agree. I just wonder why there are not many people interested in this feature.

Please provide us with the link to the new post.
 
Unfortunately FreePBX does not have a mobile app to facilitate usage of SMS for mobile users. Plus, SMS is natively supported by FreePBX only if you use SIPStation. On top of that, SMS is available only through the web app.

Flowroute has a very simple solution to SMS but they don't have a mobile app either. I'm willing to volunteer my time to help develop an SMS solution using Flowroute. Anyone out there with good Visual Studio coding skills please contact me.

Correct me if i'm wrong but this is where zulu comes in..
 
Yes, SMS is essential: 3cx should stay ahead of the competition.
 
If you look in the referenced link above, I mentioned that I did a little prototyping a couple of weeks ago where I integrated a slide-out panel for 3CX Phone for Windows which enables you to send and receive texts right from within the soft phone. It is completely feasible.
 
The problem that may arise is that incoming SMS is not handled in the same manner by all providers. There does not seem to be a set standard at this point. For outgoing from 3CX, you will still require some sort of SMS (paid) subscription.

... and if the Trunk Provider supports it - then it is paid already. No need for additional subscription.
 
.. and if the Trunk Provider supports it - then it is paid already. No need for additional subscription.

I suppose it all depends on the provider. Some may simply bill you, per message, as they do for voice calls.
 
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Keep in mind that it's feasible to send and receive SMS via your well-known DID (provided it is SMS enabled), however, I would think it could get messy if you want to have a team of agents responding to customers in a two-way conversation. Also, a "provisioning template" is not sufficient to support SMS via multiple carriers. Their APIs are all different. There is no "standard" from an API perspective. Therefore, you would need a separate integration for each carrier much the way we do with CRM integrations. Yes, we all want a CRM to screen pop, but how that is implemented is completely different from one CRM vendor to another. The same is true of sending / receiving SMS messages.
 
If you look in the referenced link above, I mentioned that I did a little prototyping a couple of weeks ago where I integrated a slide-out panel for 3CX Phone for Windows which enables you to send and receive texts right from within the soft phone. It is completely feasible.

Hello. Which SIP provider did you use? Are you willing to share your work?
 
Please contact me directly.
 
Hello, what's the status here ?
 

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