How to set up the Dialpad SMS channel

Henry_Dornier
updated 13 days ago

Overview

Front’s Dialpad SMS channel allows you to connect a Dialpad SMS phone number as a channel to Front to send and receive messages.

The Dialpad SMS channel is a premium channel available via a plan add-on. For more details on how to purchase the add-on, see the Pricing section below. You'll need to purchase the add-on before continuing with the set up instructions.

Instructions

Step 1

Click the gear icon on the top right of Front and into the Company or Personal settings tab, depending on which space you are working with. Admins can also access user settings by following these steps.

Step 2

Click on Inboxes on the left menu and Add an individual inbox or Add a shared inbox, depending on which space you're in.

Step 3

Fill out the name and description of your inbox. Click Create.

Step 4

Choose Dialpad SMS from the channel menu.

Step 5

Click Connect to Dialpad, and then sign in with your Dialpad account. You'll be prompted to select one of your phone numbers to connect to Front. Choose the desired phone number and then click Connect.

Step 7

At this point, the channel should be connected to Front. You can select who on your team has access to this inbox, and click Create inbox.

How it works

Message imports

Historical messages will not be imported into Front, but any new conversations will be imported.
The channel supports both threads with single recipients and group SMS messages. Both types of conversations will be imported into Front.
When a message is imported from a particular phone number, their contact in Front will include their first and last name (if it exists in Dialpad), as well as their phone number.
Any attachments sent will also be imported automatically.
If you send an outbound message directly from the Dialpad app, that outbound message will still be synced into the Front conversation.

Sending messages

As expected for SMS, only plain text messages and media attachments can be sent.
Only one attachment can be sent per message, but you can send multiple messages if you need to send multiple attachments.
Replies can be sent to any inbound message, but you can also compose new outbound messages.
If you compose a new outbound message to a recipient that you already have a conversation with, your message will be automatically threaded with the existing conversation.
Composing a new outbound message to multiple recipients will result in Group SMS thread. It is not possible to send mass SMS campaigns using the channel (i.e. sending a single message in a separate conversation to many recipients).

Pricing

Usage of the Dialpad SMS channel requires purchasing the Dialpad SMS channel add-on. Currently, the add-on is only available to customers on the Scale plan or above. The add-on costs a flat $100 per month, for an unlimited number of channels and users. If you have any questions, contact your account manager or reach out to accountservices@frontapp.com.

To enable the add-on, you must be an admin of your Front instance and you must be on the Scale plan or above. Click the gear icon on the top right of Front and select the Company settings tab, then select Billing. Once in the Billing page, click Update plan and you should see an option to add the Dialpad SMS channel. Once you've updated your plan, you can follow the setup instructions above to begin sending and receiving SMS messages.