This article discusses how to turn on texting for your Org and how to send and receive texts from a project and from your mailroom. 

Working in the mailroom requires access to the mailroom. If you do not see it in the dropdown, you don’t have access. 

Turn on Texting
Removing and Releasing
Send a Text
Incoming Texts

Turn on Texting

Filevine can generate an SMS number for an entire Org as well as for individual Filevine projects. The Org SMS number can be used to send and receive texts both from the Org’s mailroom and from individual projects. The project SMS number can only be used to send and receive texts from that project. 

For the Org

To generate an SMS number for your Org, select “Mailroom” from the main menu dropdown or click on the envelope icon in the top left. In the mailroom, select your Org from the lefthand menu if necessary. If your Org does not yet have an SMS number, you will see a chat bubble icon and “Turn On Texting.” Click here to open the “Set Up Texting” modal. 

You will be asked to choose an area code. Select the desired area code, and click “Start SMS.” If numbers with this area code are not available, you will receive an error message. If this is the case, you can try again later or try a different area code.

Once you’ve found an available area code, the number will be assigned to the Org and you will see a blue “Send Text” button under your Org name on the left, with the number listed underneath it. Texts can be sent from the mailroom or from a project—read more below.

For the Project

Org SMS numbers can be used to send texts both from the mailroom and from the individual project. However, if needed, SMS numbers can also be generated for individual projects. In order to generate a project SMS number, you must have Project Admin access. 

To generate an SMS number for your project, hover over the project’s vitals and select “More Vitals.” At the bottom of the vitals list you will see “Turn on Texting.” Click here to open the “Set Up Texting” modal. 

You will be asked to choose an area code. Select the desired area code, and click “Start SMS.” If numbers with this area code are not available, you will receive an error message. If this is the case, you can try again later or try a different area code.

Once you’ve found an available area code, the number will be assigned to the project and you will see the number next to “Texting” at the bottom of the vitals.

Assigning and Labeling Numbers

Numbers can be unassigned from one project and assigned to the Org or to another project in the Manage Org Phone Numbers Advanced tool. They can also create labels for Org numbers using this tool, making it easier to differentiate between multiple Org numbers. 

Users must have Admin privileges and access to this tool in order to use it.

Removing and Releasing

SMS numbers can be removed from projects and reassociated with the Org or with another project, or removed entirely. Project SMS numbers will be automatically released after six months of inactivity.

Removing an SMS Number

To remove an SMS number, find the number in the mailroom (for Orgs) or the vitals (for projects) and click on it to open the “Remove Texting” modal. You will be asked to type out “DELETE” and then click “Drop SMS.” Once this number is given back, the same number cannot be assigned again, so use caution when deleting numbers. SMS numbers can also be removed in the Manage Org Phone Numbers Advanced tool. 

Archived Project SMS Numbers

A project SMS number will be dropped from its project when the project is archived. The SMS number will be kept as an Org number in the Manage Org Phone Numbers advanced tool. After three months of inactivity, it will be automatically released.

Released Numbers

SMS numbers associated with a project that remain unused for six months will be automatically released.

After five months of inactivity, you will see a note on the project’s vitals and in the Manage Org Phone Numbers advanced tool, telling you the upcoming expiration date for the number. Once a number is released, the same number cannot be reassigned. 

If you’d like to continue using the number for the project, simply use the number by sending or receiving a text from it.

Send a Text

From the Mailroom

To send a text from the mailroom, navigate to the mailroom by selecting it from the main menu or clicking on the envelope icon in the top left. Select the desired Org from the lefthand menu if necessary and then click on the blue “Send Text” button. 

A “Send Text Message” modal will open. Enter the number you will be sending to and then enter the message below and click “Send.”

Once the sent message has been sent, it will appear as an item in the mailroom. Replies will appear as comments on the item. Click on the item to open it and view any comments. To reply or send another text to the same number, you can add a comment on the item. All comments will be sent as text messages. 

To move an item and its comments to a project, enter the name of the project in the “Move to project…” text box and select the project from the dropdown filter. The item can now be viewed in the activity feed of that project. Once it’s been moved to a project, a text item can be moved to another project, but cannot be moved back to the mailroom. 

From the Project

Texts can also be sent straight from a project using either the Org number or the project’s number. To send a text from a project, go to that project’s activity feed and click on the vertical ellipsis menu to the right of the “Write a note” text box. Select “Send as text” from the dropdown to view sender and recipient options.

If you have multiple available numbers, you will be able to choose the number you would like to send the message from. If the project has its own SMS number, the project number will be the default. If the project does not have its own SMS number, the Org number will be the default. If the Org has multiple SMS numbers assigned to it, the Org’s default number will be used as the default Org number here as well. 

Once you have selected the SMS number you would like to send from, you will select the recipient. In the search bar, you will be able to search for any project contact with an SMS number. If a contact has more than one number, you will be able to select the number you’d like to send to.

Once the sender and recipient numbers have been chosen, you’ll see “We’ll send this text to [recipient] from [sender]” under the write a note textbox. You can hover over the recipient and sender to see which phone number is being used. Enter your message in the write a note textbox and click “Create” to send the text message.

The text will appear as an item in the project’s activity feed. Replies will appear as comments on the item. Click on the item to open it and view any comments. To reply or send another text to the same number, you can add a comment on the item. All comments will be sent as text messages.

Incoming Texts

All responses to texts sent from the Mailroom will go to the Mailroom. All responses sent using a project SMS number will appear as comments on the last text item in the activity feed sent to that number. 

When a text is sent from a project using the Org number, incoming responses will find the contact and its associated project, and the incoming text message will be added as a comment on the last text item in the activity feed that was sent to that number.

If the contact number is not associated with any projects, the incoming text will be sent to the Mailroom. If the contact is associated with more than one project, the incoming text will appear in the activity feed of the project with the most recent activity.