Texts and calls on a deal or contact

Once your team's phone system is connected, TED logs every text and call and puts them where you work: on a deal's Texts & Calls tab (only the texts and calls linked to that deal) and in a contact's timeline (every text and call with that person, alongside their notes, edits and emails). On a deal the oldest is at the top and the newest sits right above the send box; a contact's timeline reads newest first. Both refresh on their own every 15 seconds while they're open. On a deal, a new reply scrolls into view when you're at the bottom of the thread; if you've scrolled up to read history, your place is kept.

If nobody has connected a phone system yet, the tab says "Connect your phone system to see texts and calls here." An admin sees a Connect smrtPhone button that opens the Phone system settings; everyone else is told to ask an admin. See Connecting a phone system.

Opening the tab

• On a deal: open the deal and select Texts & Calls, right after the Email tab.
• On a contact: open the contact's page — the Timeline on the Overview tab shows their texts and calls with everything else. Select the Texts & calls chip to see only those. To text them, select Text in the contact's header — it opens the same composer the deal tab uses.

TED matches texts and calls to a contact by phone number. A number TED doesn't recognize yet waits in the Contact Hub's Unknown numbers view until you create a contact from it or add it to someone — earlier texts and calls from that number then appear on the contact automatically. See Texts and calls from unknown numbers.

Reading the timeline

• Texts look like a conversation: theirs on the left, yours on the right. Under each text you see the time, who sent it (on a deal, that includes which contact a text is from), and — for texts you sent — Sending, Sent, Delivered, or Failed. Hover over Failed to see why.
• Calls show the direction, how long it lasted, the agent, and a status badge (Completed, Missed, Voicemail, or In progress). On a deal, each call also names the contact it was with. Any notes from the call appear underneath.
• If the phone system captured them, a call also has an AI summary and a Transcript. Select either to open it.

If there's nothing yet, you'll see "No texts or calls with [name] yet." on a contact, or "No texts or calls on this deal yet." on a deal. If the tab can't load, you'll see "Couldn't load texts and calls." with a Retry button. Long histories load 50 at a time — select Load older at the top for more (on a contact's timeline, Load More at the bottom).

Playing a recording

• If TED has saved a copy of the recording, select Play and it plays right in the page. TED saves a copy for calls with people who are already contacts, usually within a few minutes of the call.
• If the recording is still only in smrtPhone (for example, the caller isn't a contact), select Listen in smrtPhone to open it there.
• No recording, no button.

Putting a text or call on the right deal

A text or call belongs to a person; the deal it's about is set per item.

When a new text or call comes in from a contact, TED puts it on a deal for you when the answer is clear:

• If a text or call with that person in the last 48 hours is on a deal, the new one goes on the same deal.
• Otherwise, if the contact has exactly one open deal, it goes on that deal.
• If neither is true — no open deal, or more than one — it isn't put on a deal, and you can link it yourself.

To link or unlink one yourself:

• On a contact, an item that isn't on a deal has a Link to deal button. Pick from that contact's deals (open deals first). Once linked, the item shows the deal's address — select it to open the deal — and it now appears on that deal's Texts & Calls tab.
• On a deal, open the ⋯ menu on a text or call and select Unlink from this deal if it was linked by mistake. It stays on the contact, ready to link to the right deal.

On a deal that's read-only for you, you can read the timeline but not link or unlink.

Sending a text

Once your team has turned on texting and you've picked your own texting number in your Profile, the bottom of a deal's tab has a send box. On a contact, select Text in the header to open the same send box.

1. On a deal, pick who to text from the list — the seller, the buyer, and any vendors on the deal who have a phone number (for example "Seller — Jane Doe · (555) 010-1234"). On a contact, it's their phone numbers, main number first. If there's only one number, there's no list.
2. Type your message. The counter under the box shows how many characters you've used and how many texts it will go out as — for example "123 / 160 · 1 text". Emoji and some special characters make each text shorter (70 characters), and the counter tells you when that happens. To start from one of your team's saved texts, select Template and pick one — see Text templates.
3. Select Send, or press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac). Enter on its own starts a new line.

The text shows up right away with Sending under it, then moves into the timeline once it's sent. Texts you send from a deal are put on that deal; texts you send from a contact's page follow the same rules as any other text (see above). Texts go out from your own number, and each one is limited to 1,600 characters.

If your team has set texting hours (see Connecting a phone system) and it's outside them, you'll see "It's 9:42 PM for your team — outside your texting hours." Those hours only limit automated texts and group texts, so you can still send — it's a heads-up, not a block.

If the contact has no text consent on record, you'll see "No text consent on record for ⟨name⟩ — make sure they've agreed to texts before you send." That's a reminder too — you can still send one-off texts. A group text from the Contact Hub skips anyone without consent (see Contact lists and acting on a group at once). Record their consent in Edit Contact on their profile.

When someone replies STOP, TED stops texting that number and turns on Do not text for the contact the conversation belongs to. A later START reply turns both back on, unless someone on your team turned Do not text on by hand — that stays on until a person turns it off. If texts arrive out of order (for example a delayed START from earlier), TED goes by when each reply was received, so an older START never undoes a newer STOP.

If a text can't go out, it shows Failed with the reason underneath and a Retry button. Retry never sends the same text twice — if the first try actually went out, TED just marks it as sent. Select Dismiss to clear it. If TED can't tell whether the text went out — "We didn't hear back from smrtPhone, so this text may have gone out" — it shows Not confirmed in amber instead of Failed, and there's no Retry. The same happens if your connection drops mid-send and the text turns up in the thread. Once the real message appears in the thread, the Not confirmed note clears on its own. Check the thread and the contact's phone first, so you don't text them twice.

Anyone on the team can ask Ask TED about a contact's or deal's texts and calls. Team admins can also have it send a text — it shows you the exact message as a plan first, and sends it from your number only after you select Apply.

When you can't send

In these cases the send box is replaced by a message that says what to do:

• "Texting is off." An admin sees a Turn on texting button that opens the Phone system settings. Everyone else is told to ask an admin.
• "You haven't picked a texting number yet." Select Pick your texting number to choose yours in your Profile.
• "Add a phone number to [name] to text them." Add a phone number to that contact first.
• "[Name] is marked do not text." The Do not text switch is on in the Person card on their profile — someone on your team turned it on, or they replied STOP. TED won't text them from anywhere, including automators and Ask TED. On a deal you can pick someone else from the list.
• "[Name] opted out of texts." Their number is on a do-not-text list at your phone system, or they replied STOP from a number that isn't saved on a contact, so TED won't text it. On a deal you can pick someone else from the list.
• "smrtPhone rejected your team's key — ask an admin to update it." Texting is paused until an admin replaces the key on the Phone system page.

Getting alerted

When a contact in TED texts your line, calls and nobody picks up, or leaves you a voicemail, you get a notification in the bell — New text from…, Missed call from…, or Voicemail from…. Selecting it opens this tab on the deal the text or call is linked to — or, if there's no deal, the contact's timeline showing their texts and calls. If you also get these alerts by email or Slack, the Open in TED button there goes to the same place.

Two people can be alerted: the teammate whose line the text or call came in on, and the contact's Owner (shown on their profile) if that's someone else. So when a buyer you own texts a teammate's line, you both hear about it — once each. A contact with no owner alerts only the teammate whose line it was. Numbers that aren't on a contact never send an alert. You can turn each alert off, or also get it by email or Slack, from Settings > Notifications — see Choosing what TED sends you.

Common issues

• A text or call is missing. It may not have been sent to TED yet, or it came from a number that isn't on a contact — the deal tab only shows items linked to that deal. Check the contact's tab, and see Connecting a phone system if nothing is arriving. Texts you send from the Texts & Calls tab are logged here as soon as they go out. Texts your reps send from your CRM (and smrtPhone auto-replies) aren't logged in TED — only texts sent from the smrtPhone app are.
• "This contact isn't on any deals yet — add them to a deal first." That's what the Link to deal list says when the contact isn't on any deal. Add them to a deal, then link the text or call.
• "We didn't hear back from smrtPhone" or "This text may already have gone out." TED can't confirm whether the text was delivered. Look at the thread and the contact's phone before you send it again.
• "smrtPhone blocked this text — your number may need 10DLC registration in smrtPhone." US carriers require business texting numbers to be registered. Register your number in smrtPhone, then select Retry.
• "You're sending texts too fast." TED limits each person to 30 texts a minute. Wait a minute and select Retry.