Zoho Voice has SMS and MMS functionality for you to better engage with customers even when they're offline. Zoho Voice supports local 2-way SMS and MMS services in the US and Canada, and international 1-way SMS to over 100 countries.
Numbers
Two-way local SMS and MMS are powered by local numbers from US and Canada. You can send and receive local SMS and MMS in the respective countries. Global one-way SMS is powered by the same local numbers. But, your recipients receive it from either a short code or a long code depending on what is supported in the destination country.
Enabling SMS and MMS services for Ported Numbers may take up to 7 business days.
One-way SMS is blocked in some regions including the EU and UK.
How to activate SMS and MMS for your Number?
SMS and MMS services are supported for Local numbers in the US and Canada. Usually, these numbers are set up for voice calls only. If you want to activate SMS and MMS for the numbers you buy, contact Zoho Voice support. Sometimes, you can enable SMS for Personal and Toll-Free lines as well. However, there is no guarantee that the SMS can be enabled for these numbers.
On the Call Config page, you can review information about all the phone numbers you've acquired. If SMS is not activated for a specific number, the SMS column will show "Not Enabled." If the SMS column indicates "Not Available," it means that SMS cannot be enabled for that particular number.
SMS request status
To create a new request to enable SMS/MMS for a number,
- Click the Enable SMS/MMS button at the top right corner or hover over a number and click the Request SMS/MMS icon.
- Enter the number details, attach an ID proof, and click Submit.
- Our team will receive the request and will initiate the process. The status in SMS/MMS column will be changed to "In Progress".
- Once enabled, we'll notify you and change the status to "Enabled".
SMS request
Approved ID proofs:
Business registration document
Government issued ID such as Passport, Driving License, etc. with name and address.
How to send SMS/MMS?
You can send and receive SMS and MMS from the Messages module and carry out chat-like conversations with your customers and prospects using text and multimedia files in the US and Canada. If you send international SMS, your customers cannot respond to it.
To send a new SMS/MMS,
- Go to the Message module, and click the New Message button at the top right corner.
- Select the Sender ID from the list of SMS enabled number(s) you have.
- Enter the contact's phone number or name, and select the recipient.
- Now, type the message and attach files if necessary.
- Click Send.
The maximum character limit for an SMS is 1500 characters and it will be automatically divided into segments, each containing 160 characters, and sent to the receiver. Each part or segment will be charged as one SMS. If your message exceeds 1500 characters, you need to type it as separate messages and send them individually. The message box includes a character counter to track the number of characters you've typed, to help you manage your content.
Inbox
Conversation view:
Once you send an SMS or MMS, it will be available in the inbox in a conversational view. You can click on a contact to open the conversation of that contact. The SMS or MMS you receive will be present inside this view in the inbox.
You can filter the messages based on Sender IDs and view the conversations separately or you can have an 'All Conversations' view which shows all the SMS and MMS sent and received from a particular contact. You can also search an SMS or MMS by filtering it based on date, contact number, and message content/file name.
Logs view:
You can view the delivery status of the SMS/MMS in the logs view. You can view the SMS content by hovering over the log. You can also filter the SMS based on Date, contact number, and message content. The MMS is indicated as attachments in Logs view.
From where can I send SMS/MMS?
You can send an SMS/MMS from
- Message module by clicking New Message button
- Inbox in the Conversation view
- Zoho Voice dial pad using Message button
- ZDialer Browser extension using Message button
- Contacts page by clicking the Message icon
- Logs page by clicking the Message icon
- Logs View in Inbox by clicking the Message button
- Notification center: By clicking a missed call notification, and clicking the Message button.
SMS and MMS feature is also available in the ZDialer mobile app. MMS files cannot be sent via ZDialer browser extension in Linux Browsers and Firefox browsers in Windows OS.
Who can send SMS and MMS?
SMS and MMS are supported in all plans, and every user who has access to the SMS-enabled number can send SMS and MMS. Only Users within US and Canada can send and receive MMS using local numbers.
In the Solo plan, SMS and MMS are supported only if there are additional users in the account. Zoho Telephony agents on the Standard plan can also send SMS and MMS through the ZDialer extension.
Supported files in MMS
You can send and receive MMS in Zoho Voice only using these file types:
- .txt
- .vcf
- .jpeg
- .png
- .gif
- .3gp
- .mp4
- .ogg
- .mpeg
- .vorbiz
- .amr
File size limit for MMS
You can send MMS with file size of maximum 1000KB at once. It can be a single file or multiple files up to 10 files within the size limit.