If you need to send quick information to people, send them a text message! All texts are sent from lists and stored on the Message History page. You can also see them on the Communication tab of any profile. Replies are not received.
Tip
Want to see other ways to use texting in Planning Center? Check out our Texting Reference Guide!
Notice
Texting is only available to US customers. If you are an international customer, use a third party.
To enable text messaging, an Organization Administrator can choose the amount of credits to purchase from the Billing page in Accounts, and then click Purchase Credits, and the card on file will be charged immediately. Credits are $0.02 each and can be purchased in various increments.
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Credits never expire and are not automatically renewed. If you run out of credits, you'll be prompted to buy more from where you compose the message.
Caution
In order to use text messaging, you must have a credit card on file.
A credit is one text message of up to 160 standard characters to one recipient. If your message uses special characters like emojis, the message size limit will decrease. Social characters are any characters not found in the GSM-7 encoding standard.
You will always know how many credits a message will require before it is sent.
Before you send a text message to someone, collect their permission to do so. Permission can be collected in many ways, including verbally, written, or electronically.
One idea is to create a custom field of the "Yes/No" type to store their opt-in status, and add that field to a form that they can fill out. Then, when creating your texting lists, add a list condition that only includes people who have "Yes" in that field.
Now that you've enabled text messaging, encourage your congregation to save the phone number, so they know when your church is contacting them!
To send a text, you need to create a list. Then, from the list results tab, click the message icon, and choose to Send text message.
Notice
Text messages can only be sent by Managers and Editors or Viewers who have Can send text messages enabled.
Enter the message, and then click Send text message.
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The number of characters you've used.
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The number of credits you'll be using.
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The number of credits you have left. If the list has more people than you have credits, an Organization Administrator can purchase more credits from the Products Page.
The first text someone receives says, “You are subscribed to messages from [Your Church Name]. Msg&Data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. Reply STOP to cancel.” You will not be charged for this text.
If the recipient replies with a “STOP” message, they will receive an unsubscribe confirmation text and no longer receive messages from your church.
Tip
If a recipient receives texts from multiple churches, their "STOP" reply will only unsubscribe them from the church that most recently sent them a text. They can text "STOPALL" to unsubscribe from all churches.
If someone unsubscribes, their profile will show icons that show the number is textable, but the person has unsubscribed.
If they want to receive messages again, they can text "START" to 34040.
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You can send URLs. Use a link shortener to limit the characters. On smartphones, the URL will be turned into a clickable link, but phones without that capability will only show the text.
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You cannot send images.
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You cannot schedule messages.
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You cannot use keywords/two-way messaging. However, you can use a third party.
If someone tries to respond to a message, it will be discarded, and they'll receive this message.
If a text is successfully sent to a number marked something other than mobile on their profile, an icon will be added to that number indicating it is textable.
If a number cannot receive a text, you can see an icon on their profile to show the number isn't textable.
If a mobile number successfully receives a text message, you can see the icon on their profile.
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30003 usually means their carrier doesn't allow for texts from shortcodes.
Some people may be able to allow messages sent from our shortcode by texting, "Allow 34040" to 9999. However, customers from other wireless carriers will likely need to reach out to their carrier's support group to enable "Premium" or short code messaging.
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30004 means their number is blocked. They will not receive any texts.
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21612 means the number is not a valid US number.
Once a message has been sent, you can see it from the Message History page or a person's profile.
From the Lists page, click Text message history to see all the sent text messages.
You can see the message, who sent it, and how many credits it took to send. Click a message to see more detail.
If the text was not delivered, you can click the person's name and make changes to the phone number listed on their profile.
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Important
The No textable numbers message indicates that the number was not a mobile number that could be texted, so there was no attempt to send the text. You will not be charged a credit.
The Undelivered message indicates an attempt was made, and you will be charged a credit.
