UNIVERGE BLUE™ CONNECT: SMS Feature Overview

The SMS business texting feature allows users to send and receive SMS messages from the Desktop and Mobile application to US, Puerto Rican and Canadian numbers.

Note: MMS messaging is currently not supported.

• SMS service overview
• Enabling SMS
• Registering numbers
• Disabling SMS service
• Sending SMS
• Receiving SMS
• SMS Billing
• Emoji and characters limit
• Porting numbers with SMS service to UNIVERGE BLUE™

SMS service overview

Here are some features of SMS service:

• SMS feature is available for the primary user direct number.
• Once SMS is enabled on accounts, new users will automatically be enabled to use the SMS service.
• The service activation request can take up to 24 hours (usually only takes several hours).
• This service might be chargeable depending on your UNIVERGE BLUE™ CONNECT package. Fair use provisions apply. 
  By default, this feature is disabled for an account.

Enabling SMS 

To enable the SMS feature for the account, navigate to UNIVERGE BLUE™ CONNECT > Settings > SMS service > Enable SMS.

Each user will have a certain SMS provisioning status. You can check them by navigating to Users > Cloud PBX > General > SMS. They will show up as follows:

• Enabled means the feature is enabled for the user
• Enabling means the request is under review
• Disabled means the feature is disabled
• Exclamation icon and an error message: Service is not enabled. Please call support for assistance means the request was declined or an issue occurred

Important: SMS services are not available for Essentials subscription type. Please, refer to the article Subscription Guide for more information.

Registering numbers

When the SMS feature is enabled account-wide, primary numbers of the users are added to the system of our SMS provider.

Note: SMS will only go to the Primary numbers assigned to a user. We do not register additional numbers in SMS service. 

Note: SMS feature can not be enabled for a number assigned to a virtual service e.g. AutoAttendant or Huntgroup.

Should the Primary number of a user change, older SMS-chats would be still available in the list of recent chats. The recipient will receive SMS from the new Primary number of a user.

If you create a new User and assign a DID, this DID is registered in SMS Provider system if it hadn't been registered before. SMS feature is then enabled for this user automatically.

If you delete a User, SMS feature is disabled for this user but the DID is still registered in SMS Provider system.

If you delete the DID from the account, and if the DID was registered in SMS Provider system it is then deleted from SMS Provider system.

If you swap the primary DID for the user, the new primary DID is registered in SMS Provider system if it hadn't been registered before. The SMS routing settings are changed for this user but the first swapped primary DID is still registered in SMS Provider system.

Disabling SMS service

To disable the SMS feature for the account, navigate to UNIVERGE BLUE™ CONNECT > Settings > SMS service > Disable SMS. Confirmation is displayed: Are you sure you want to disable SMS Business texting feature for all voice users?

Once you confirm the action, SMS service is disabled for this account. The account is disabled in SMS provider system. However, all the phone numbers will remain in SMS Provider system.

If SMS is disabled after using the feature, the SMS chats will still be available but there will be no option to send new SMS. Mobile and Desktop clients will not show any functionality related to SMS.

Sending SMS

One the feature is enabled for the account and for the user, SMS can be sent two different ways:

1. From a contact card from a Mobile or Desktop application.
2. From New SMS feature from a Mobile or Desktop application.

From a Contact Card

An option to send SMS is available in Contact Card when you search for a person or have it in Favorites.

From New SMS

On the Desktop, click on + sign and choose New SMS. You can also choose an existing SMS chat. It will have a grey SMS note on top.

On the Mobile App, navigate to the Chat section, click on + button and choose SMS. Then enter 10 digit number or search contacts for the destination. All contacts having phone numbers outside your organization (private or corporate) will be displayed. Then type the text and click Send. You can also choose an existing SMS chat. It will have a grey SMS note on top.

Message history will show the status of those messages that have failed status. Once the feature is enabled for the account and for the user, SMS feature should appear in the clients. If it didn't, the application needs to be restarted.

Error messages are displayed in cases when message is not delivered to the user. This error message is also displayed in message history:

In case of an attempt to send SMS internationally:

In case of an attempt to send SMS to a landline phone:

When sending SMS to an unknown number, a reminder message about possible phishing will appear:

Please note that you cannot change the Outbound caller ID for sending of SMS.

Important: sending SMS to Google Voice numbers is not supported.

Receiving SMS

Received SMS look almost like received chat messages. Once you receive a new SMS, it will pop up under Chat section with a sign SMS next to it. 

You will also receive a Missed message from notification, just like you do with chat messages.

Important: receiving SMS from Google Voice numbers is not supported.

SMS Billing

As we stated before, this service is free of charge for our customers. However, there is a limit. SMS limit is set per account (not per user). SMS limit per account (monthly) = number of users*10000 SMS. USA, Canada and Puerto Rico numbers are allowed for SMS destinations. 

When a number is deleted from the account it will be unregistered in SMS provider system. So before the number is assigned to some new account, it should be deleted from the old account. 

Emoji and characters limit

SMS service supports Emoji conversion like in chats. You can find the conversion table here.

You can enter a message with up to 1206 characters. It will be split into nine messages of 134 characters each that will be delivered separately, one after another.

Note: When using non-European languages with non-Latin alphabet, the limit might be lower, e.g. when using Arabic, Russian or Chinese. Should that be the case, only 603 characters are allowed, and they will be split in 9 messages.

Porting numbers with SMS service to UNIVERGE BLUE™

If one or more numbers that you are porting in order to be used with UNIVERGE BLUE™ CONNECT had SMS service associated with them, we would need to port the SMS service to UNIVERGE BLUE™ CONNECT separately. To do so, once the general porting is complete, please fill out the SMS LOA Form and contact Support.