SMS Inbound routing v18 update 5

[husseinharb]

Hello,
We currently use voxtelesys for SMS/Calls Trunking. I have the SMS option turned on in the SIP Trunk, The same number is used for Calls & SMS. Calls are forwarded to an IVR. Users can send outbound SMS properly but when the customer replies the message in not received. How can I create an inbound rule specifically for text/SMS? First of all, can I use the same number for both calls and texts? If so, what am I missing? Thank you!

 

[Kevin@voxtelesys]

Hi @husseinharb,
SMS now is tied to the inbound rule, you could create a call queue or ring group depending on your license that forwards to your IVR after 1 second. That way your queue/RG will get the SMS and calls still flow to the IVR. Not ideal but their are probably other ways to accomplish this.

 

[husseinharb]

Thank you, A Queue minimum forward value is 15 seconds which is too long. A ring group doesn't forward options. that won't work. Any other thoughts? We are using a Enterprise 3cx Hosted version

 

[Kevin@voxtelesys]

It would require a number for SMS and another for the IVR to effectively do it.

Just did a quick test on another method. Create a dummy queue, set it to failover after 15 seconds and set the hold music to USprogresstone. This will answer but play ringing for 15 seconds before forwarding to your queue. Only downside is that it requires someone in the queue.
Instead of progress tones it could be a custom message.

 

[husseinharb]

Thanks Kevin. If we use short code SMS through Voxtelesys, can we use that short number on inbound rules?

 

[Charles_3CX]

Thanks Kevin. If we use short code SMS through Voxtelesys, can we use that short number on inbound rules?

Short codes are not supported and require a full DID in E164 format for SMS. Note also that sms and calls should use dedicated numbers.

 

[MARLEY JAFFE]

will it always be this way? My users are hoping for voice and sms from the same number.

 

[husseinharb]

Phone & SMS should not always use different numbers. Different businesses have different needs. Will this be the case in the future or will an update fix this?

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Currently if you want to route your SMS and calls to different destinations you will need separate numbers to do so. Cannot say if this will change or not in the future.

 

[pmterp]

This is a very negative change. We need the ability to route them separately. Large and small customers have specific staff for handling SMS and not allowing us the option to route them differently is a major change to existing setups and disruptive to our customers.
Advising to send a call to a queue for 15 seconds of fake ringing is a bad idea as that will impact call completion rates for clients. You're introducing 15 seconds of nothing in front of whatever normal routing is taking place.

 

[hugorf]

We were routing SMS and calls to differents queues up until now. We should be able to continue to do so. We don't want different numbers for calls and sms. Must be a way to continue to do it, whithout using convoluted workarounds .

 

[mcbsystems]

Oops, I didn't notice this dedicated SMS forum before I posted a similar thread in the self-hosted forum.

My use case, and an important selling point for the Pro version of 3CX, is that increasingly, people just assume that every number can receive SMS, so you definitely DO want your main number to be able to receive SMS. To make this incompatible with using an IVR on the main number seems counter-intuitive.

 

[jvivona]

if we have the routing on the number different for In Office vs Out of Office - will the messages move between those 2 destinations when our system goes into Out of Office mode? or does it stay with In Office, 100% of the time? That would cause us to handle messages different that are received after hours.

 

[N_G]

If you want to route the sms to a different destination number, then some providers let you do this at provider level. For example skyetel can do this. This way you can forward a number to ivr for calls and sms to a queue. We will not be doing this at 3cx side.