Subscriber Discussion

Text Message / SMS With Field Technicians?

JP
Jonathan Pezold
Jun 22, 2015

Is there a service we could use to communicate better with our technicians? We currently call or text with a cell phone in the office. Is there a way to text back and forth using the computer? I know we can email the 10 digit cell number but there is no way to reply for the tech. I am willing to pay for a service. Everything I find is for mobile marketing.

JH
John Honovich
Jun 22, 2015
IPVM

Jonathan,

How about this?

If you know your friend's phone number and cellphone provider, you can easily deliver a text through email. Combine your recipient's 10 digit phone number with one of these domains:

  • Alltel: @message.alltel.com (or @mms.alltelwireless.com for picture messages)

  • AT&T: @text.att.net

  • Sprint: @messaging.sprintpcs.com

  • T-Mobile: @tmomail.net

  • Verizon: @vtext.com (or @vzwpix.com for photos and video)

For example, if the phone number is (123) 456-7890 and the owner's wireless carrier is AT&T, you would send an email to 1234567890@text.att.net.

When he or she replies to your text, the message will go straight to your email's inbox. Keep in mind a longer email will be broken up into multiple text messages, and standard text message rates apply to recipients because the messages are sent as regular texts.

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Ethan Ace
Jun 22, 2015

We used to use the email method John describes at one of my old jobs. It worked ok. It did get annoying being limited in characters, though.

What kind of phones are technicians using? Do you assign them phones or are they all using their own?

If it's an iOS/Android standard, you could use something like Google Chat or Skype to talk back and forth. Since they both have a desktop client, it becomes quite easy to reply without picking up a phone to text.

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Aaron Saks
Jun 22, 2015

Google Voice gives you a phone number and you can use the desktop app, mobile app, or native texting app on phone to text back and forth. It is great that you are not tied to one physical device.

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JR
John Robinson
Jun 22, 2015

there is a great app for Android called MightyText. loads on the Chrome browser I use it all the time to text my technicians from my computer. it syncs with your cell phone and shows the text message on both. And it's free.

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MI
Matt Ion
Jun 23, 2015

+1 for MightyText... there's also a tablet client that lets you send and receive texts on your tablet, via your phone. The PC side is entirely web-based so you can login from any browser to read and send messages. It will also backup messages and photos, popup desktop notifications, and lots more.

GR
Graham Reid
Jun 22, 2015
IPVMU Certified

We use an app called Pushover. App costs $US4.99. After that it includes 7500 messages a month before further charges apply. There are android, IOS & desktop apps. Just send an email to the email address applied to the account & it gets sent to the phone through the app with appropriate tones to alert user that a message has arrived. Tech can answer by replying to the senders pushover email address.

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Ross Vander Klok
Jun 23, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Voxer is a great option. It has been around for years and years and still is updated frequently with new features. Including a stupid apple watch app apparently. You can talk back and forth (like the old Nextel’s Direct Connect) or text. It works individually or you can text/talk to groups. Works great and is tried and true.

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Brian Rhodes
Jun 23, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Including a stupid apple watch app apparently.

Man, I laughed hard at this. Wearables: 50% vanity, 45% hype, 5% pragmatic value.

I guess Voxer might be in that 5%?

JP
Jonathan Pezold
Jun 23, 2015
thank you for all the replies. I will check into all the suggestions. Does Mightytext and Pusher have group messaging and reply to all?
MI
Matt Ion
Jun 24, 2015

SMS doesn't inherently support group messaging, and so doesn't usually do reply-to-all. Most SMS apps will allow you to send to multiple recipients, but they don't see it as a group; they each get their individual copy (kind of like a BCC). Since MightText is basically a conduit between the web and your phone's SMS, it's limited to the same SMS functions.

WhatsApp does group chats and has apps for pretty much every mobile platform, but no desktop version that I know of, at least not an official one. There's supposed to be a "web" version of it, but I haven't figured out how that works yet.

Evernote has a group collaboration feature but I've never used that part of it, so I don't know how it would suit your needs.

There's always Skype - in addition to voice and video calls, it does do instant messaging, group messages/chats, send and receive files, and is available on almost every mobile and desktop platform imaginable.

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Mark Jones
Jun 24, 2015

Am I missing something or do your techs not have smart phones? Gmail all around.

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Tyler Graham
Jun 24, 2015

I agree. Hangsouts works really well. Instant messaging isn't a new thing. Google will even let you register your work email as a Google email address to sign into the app. It's a simple extension in Chrome.

MI
Matt Ion
Jun 24, 2015

Oh yeah, forgot about Hangouts - cross-platform, cross-browser.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Jun 24, 2015

Get a Apple Computer and use iMessage

MM
Michael Miller
Jun 24, 2015

If your techs have smart phones I have found that Slack works really well and is great for sharing pics and other attachments between field techs and the office. Best part is its FREE.

JR
John Robinson
Jun 24, 2015
Mighty text does allow group texts and replies
BM
Bob McCarthy
May 09, 2018

mHelpDesk provides this service - including support for teams - and it keeps a log of all the messages.  I realize I'm kind of late to this conversation, but I just joined IPVM!  And full disclosure - I am an engineer at mHelpDesk. 

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