The Group Chat for SMS feature enables you to create a group and send text messages to multiple contacts within a single conversation. It’s an ideal solution for businesses that need to keep multiple stakeholders in the loop simultaneously, such as real estate agents managing communication with multiple clients.

This document covers:

• Requirements to use Group Chat
• How to use Group Chat
• Access
  

Requirements to use Group Chat:

To use the Group Chat for SMS feature, you’ll need:

• A LeadConnector phone number.
• The phone numbers must be US or Canada numbers.

How to use Group Chat

1. Go to the Conversations section of CRM, Click on Create a new message and select Group Message. 

2. Choose the phone number from which you want to send the group sms. It must be a  LeadConnector phone number and a US or Canada number. 

3. Select the contacts you want to include in the group chat. You need to add a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 9 participants. Both primary and secondary numbers can be added if available. Please note that contacts with DND enabled or those with non-US/Canada numbers cannot be added to the group chat.

4. Once the group is set up, type your message and click Send. All contacts will receive the message, and when anyone replies, their response will be sent to everyone in the group.

5. On the top panel of the group chat window, you can see all the contacts that have been added to the group. You can search for participants by their name or number in the group chat.

6. From the right panel, you can click on the chevron beside the contact’s name to see all the participants in the group.

7. Once a group is created, messages will continue to be sent to the numbers that were initially added during group creation, even if a contact is deleted or their number is modified. Updated and Deleted tags will appear beside the names of those contacts.

Access:

• Users with only assigned data access can create and view groups that include only contacts assigned to them.
  
  
• If a user can access the phone number that was used to establish the group chat, they are able to send messages within it. Administrators have visibility and control over all numbers added within the location, whereas users can interact using the default number, their assigned numbers, and any unassigned numbers.
  

Note: 

• Once a group is created, you cannot change the participants or the business phone number you selected to create the group chat.
  
• If a contact already in the group is deleted from your CRM, group messages will still be sent to the phone number that was originally added. Even if the contact’s number is modified in the CRM, the messages will continue to go to the initially added number.
  
• If a contact in the group enables DND (Do Not Disturb) after the group chat is created, you will no longer be able to use the group chat. To continue group messaging, you will need to create a new group excluding the participant who is marked as DND.