Text messages (SMS)

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

Booked can text your customers at the same moments it emails them, and send reminders by text before the appointment. Texts go out as Booked SMS, from your own business name, with no account to open and nothing to install. They are billed per message to the card on your Booked subscription. Here is how to switch them on, what each text says, and how they are counted.

Switch texts on

Two things have to be true before a text leaves your site: texts are switched on for the site, and that particular text is switched on. Out of the box texts are off for the site, and most text templates are off too — only the reminder texts, Questions still to answer and the waiting list’s A time has come up ship switched on, waiting. That is why email works on day one and texting does not.

• 1Texts are off for this site — what you see until texts are on. The card lists what texts do and what they cost: Included where your plan carries texts, otherwise the monthly price of the texts add-on, plus a charge for each text sent.
• 2Switch on texts — asks you to confirm, then turns Booked SMS on for the site, adding the texts add-on to your subscription first if your plan does not include it. Texts are charged per message, separately from the subscription, so if there is no card on your Booked account the card then asks for one. Nothing is taken until you send some.
• 3The event list — the customer messages that have a text version. Package bought and the alerts to your team are emails only, so they are not listed. A green dot means that text is switched on.
• 4Not sent / Text goes out — the switch for this one text. Most ship switched off; the reminder texts, Questions still to answer and A time has come up ship on. Press Save after changing it.
• 5Message — a plain box: no subject, no formatting. Booking details show as named tags and conditions as amber groups; pick a detail from + Add a detail to drop it in at your cursor, and </> shows the codes.
• 6Show only when… — select words in the message, open this menu and pick a condition, such as A video call, and those words go only to the bookings it describes. See below.
• 7The count — the length and how many texts it will cost, worked out as you type. It counts each merge tag as typed and leaves out the {if …} markers, but counts the words on both sides of an {else}, so it is a guide.
• 8Preview — shows the text filled in with made-up details, unsaved changes included. Nothing is sent and nothing is charged.
• 9Text me a test — sends the version picked beside it — A normal booking, A video call or A group of three — to the number you type, so you can see it on a real phone. It is a real text and is charged like one, and it only works once texts are on.

The same switch lives under Settings › Emails & texts, beside the choices about where your texts come from.

• 1Emails & texts — under Reminders & calendar in the settings rail.
• 2Send texts — any message with a text version goes out by SMS as well as email.
• 3Send texts from — the country your customers are in. It sets what each text costs and whether it can come from a business name.
• 4Texts come from your business name — what the chosen country allows. Customers cannot reply to a name. Where you want replies, Rent a number so customers can reply sets up a number for you; its monthly charge is shown before you confirm, and replies arrive in your inbox with us. In some countries a number is the only way to send at all, and this box says so.
• 5Your business name — what the customer sees the text come from: 3 to 11 letters or numbers, with at least one letter. The same name shows as Texts come from at the top of Messages › Text messages.

The texts, and what sets each one off

The list is the same as your emails, less Package bought and the alerts to your team, which are emails only. Reword any of them, but you cannot add your own, apart from reminders.

• 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.
• The two waiting-list texts also need Text them as well as emailing switched on under Settings › Waiting list.
• The shipped texts carry the video link themselves, and only on video appointments (below). If you write a confirmation, change or reminder text with neither {video_link} nor {video_details}, Booked adds “Join the video call:” and the link at the end of a video appointment’s text. It also adds “Booked for:” and the names on a group booking, and the visits of a course, unless the text already has them. The count under the box does not include these.
• A booking with no phone number is skipped. Your booking form asks for a phone number but may not insist on one, so some customers will never be texted.

Texts that change for a video call

One text template covers every booking, so the shipped texts use conditions to send the join link only to the people who need it. Words between {if video} and {/if} go only to video appointments; words after an {else} go to everyone else. The markers themselves are never sent.

The day-before reminder does two things at once: it names the branch for an in-person appointment and says “by video call” for the rest, with the join link last; and it mentions {balance_due} only when {if to_pay} holds — that is, when something is left to pay. Booking pending and Booking cancelled have no link at all.

To add a condition of your own, select the words in the Message box, open Show only when… and pick one, such as A video call: the words become an amber group headed if a video call ({if video}…{/if} in the code), with a small × that takes the condition away and keeps the words. With nothing selected, Booked makes an empty group with three full stops inside, selected, ready to type over — plain full stops, because “…” counts as a special character. Put the space inside, as in {if to_pay} {balance_due} to pay on the day.{/if}, so the sentence reads right either way. The waiting-list texts offer only A video call, In person and More than one person. Every condition, and the rules for using them, are in editing your emails and texts.

Conditions make the count under the box read long. It leaves the markers out but counts the words on both sides of an {else}, so the shipped day-before reminder shows About 225 characters · 2 texts, charged as 2, though an in-person customer’s copy is often one text. The join link pulls the other way: it is long, so a video customer’s confirmation or reminder usually runs to two.

What the customer actually receives

Merge tags fill in and conditions are settled as the text is sent, so the phone can show a longer or shorter message than the editor suggests. In a text, {booking_date} prints a short date, “Thu 3 Sep”, and {booking_time} follows the 12- or 24-hour clock chosen under Settings › Region & currency.

• 1The template — mostly merge tags, with one condition: a video customer gets the join link, everyone else a full stop.
• 2The count — the guide under the box. It is not the number that gets charged.
• 3In person — the company name, service, date and time filled in and a full stop: 100 characters, one text. It arrives from your business name.
• 4A video call — the same sentence plus the join link. The link is long, so this one is charged as two texts.

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 — 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; longer messages split and count as more than one. A single emoji or curly quote drops the limit to 70 characters, so type plain quotes. A long dash (—) does the same, so the shipped texts use a plain hyphen (-). Keep to plain hyphens and quotes when you edit them. The charge is worked out after the tags fill in, so a template that reads short in the editor can cost two for a customer with a long name or service. The count under the box counts each tag as typed, and both sides of an {else}, so treat it as a guide.

Each text is charged per message, separately from your subscription, to the card on your Booked account. The Texts card under Settings › Emails & texts shows the rate and what is unbilled so far. If a payment for message usage fails, texts pause until you update your card under Settings › Your plan; emails keep going, so customers are still confirmed.

Seeing what went out

Every text is logged under Messages › Sent, and on the booking under Messages sent, with the number it went to and the opening of the text; on the booking, a text that counted as more than one also says how many. A text that could not go — texts off for the site, the add-on missing, the licence not active — is marked Not sent with the reason. A text template that is switched off, or a booking with no phone number, leaves no entry at all.

The three things a text needs

All three, every time. If a text is not going out, it is one of these:

1. An active licence.
2. Texts on your subscription and switched on — included in your plan or added as the add-on, switched on under Messages › Text messages, with a card on your Booked account.
3. That text switched on under Messages › Text messages, or the reminder’s Text switch under Reminders.

The top of Messages › Text messages shows where you stand, and a follow-up’s text step says which of these is missing.

In follow-ups

The Send a text step in a follow-up is greyed out until texts are on, and hovering it says why. A sequence that already contains a text step cannot be saved while texts are unavailable — you either remove the step or switch texts on. If texts stop later, queued texts are skipped and listed under Messages › Sent as Not sent, with the reason, rather than vanishing silently. See follow-ups.