Text messages (SMS)

What it takes to send texts, and exactly what is sent.

Booked can text your customers at the same seven moments it emails them. Texts are off when you install Booked and stay off until you connect a texting account of your own. Here is what that takes, what each text says, and what it costs.

Nothing is texted until a provider is connected

Two separate things have to be true before a single text leaves your site.

• A texting provider is connected. Out of the box there is none, so Booked stops before it reaches the network.
• That individual text is switched on. All seven SMS templates ship switched off. All seven Email templates ship switched on, which is why email works on day one and texting does not.

Texts cost money and emails do not, so this is deliberate. The SMS side of the Notifications screen carries a permanent message: "SMS templates are ready. Texts start sending once an SMS provider is connected — enable the ones you want in the meantime." So you can write and save every text in advance.

Connecting your own texting account

Booked does not supply a number. Texts go out through a texting provider you hold the account with — you open it, and you buy the number.

1. Open a texting account and buy a numberWhatever number you buy is the number your customers see the message come from.
2. Collect three detailsThe account ID, the authentication token and the sender number. If any one of the three is blank, Booked stops without a word.
3. Have them added to your siteThere is no screen in Booked for these. Pass them to whoever looks after your WordPress site, or to Booked support.
4. Send yourself a real bookingThere is no test button for texts as there is for email. Book on your own form with your own mobile and watch it arrive.

Phone numbers must be in international format

Booked hands the number over exactly as stored on the booking — no country code added, no spaces stripped. A number saved as 07700 900123 goes out character for character, and whether it reaches anyone is then down to your provider. Store numbers as +447700900123. Correcting one under Customers does not rewrite appointments already in the diary: the number is copied onto each booking at the moment it is made.

A booking with no phone number is skipped quietly. Your booking form asks for a Phone but does not insist on one — only a name and a valid email are checked — so some customers will never be texted, and nothing will tell you which. The one exception is the Short form layout, which will not take a booking without a mobile.

Choosing which texts go out

Texts live on the same screen as your emails: Booked › Customisation › Notifications, on the Templates view.

• 1Email / SMS switch — swaps the editor between the email and the text for the selected event. It opens on Email, so check which side you are on.
• 2The seven events — each holds two templates, one email and one text.
• 3Send this SMS to the customer — the per-text on/off switch, off for all seven on a new site.
• 4Message — a plain text box: no subject line, no formatting toolbar, and any formatting you paste in is stripped when you save. Click a chip under Insert: to drop a merge tag in at the cursor.
• 5Save template — saves this one event and channel. Switch event or channel first and your edits are lost without a prompt.

The seven texts, and what sets each one off

The list is fixed — reword any of them, but you cannot add an eighth. Every one is reactive.

• Only one message goes per save. Change the status and the time together and the status text wins.
• Completed, No-show and deleting a booking send nothing. Set a booking to Cancelled before deleting it if you want the customer told.
• A customer paying a deposit usually gets two: the pending or approved one at booking, then Booking approved when the card clears.

What the customer actually receives

Merge tags fill in as the text is sent, so the phone shows a longer message than the editor did. Two print raw values: {booking_date} shows 2026-09-03 rather than 3 September, and {booking_time} is always 24-hour, whatever you chose under Settings › Region & currency. Neither can be formatted.

• 1The template — 101 characters as typed, most of them merge tags. This is not the number that gets counted.
• 2The delivered text — 109 characters once the company name, service, date and time fill in. Still one text, with 51 characters to spare before it splits in two. It arrives from your sender number, and Booked does nothing with replies — anything a customer texts back sits in your provider's account.

Beware {customer_first_name} too: it takes the first word of the name field, so "Mrs Jane Smith" is greeted as "Mrs". Templates are global too — one text covers every branch and service.

How texts are counted and charged

Texts are counted the way the networks count them. Up to 160 characters is one text; beyond that the message splits into 153-character blocks, so 161 characters costs two and 307 costs three. The count is taken after the tags expand, so a template that reads short in the editor can cost two for a customer with a long name or service.

Every send is recorded against your licence at your per-text rate. The running total sits in your Booked account, under Billing on the SMS usage card.

• 1Rate — what one text costs you. A message that splits into two is charged twice.
• 2Outstanding this week — texting is pay-as-you-go, billed weekly to the card you hold with Booked. Emails are never charged for.
• 3Paused after a failed payment — texting stops until you clear the balance with Pay now & resume. Emails keep sending, so customers are still confirmed.

Finally, texts are not logged in Booked. Settings › Activity log records admin changes, not messages to customers, so a booking's history will never show "confirmation texted". If you need proof, keep the email on alongside the text.