Text messages

FrontRow can text families from your studio's own phone number, both one to one in the inbox and in announcements. Before you can send texts, your studio needs a number, which phone carriers must approve. This article covers setting that up and what to expect once it's running.

Only owners and admins can set up texting.

Set up texting#

1. Make sure your studio's address is filled in on the General tab of Studio settings. Carriers require it.
2. Open Studio settings and choose the Communication tab.
3. Under Senders, find Text messages and select Set up texting.
4. Check the details. Most are filled in for you:
   • Legal business name
   • EIN (your business tax ID number)
   • Contact email
   • Preferred area code
   • Website
   • Example messages (one per line): carriers need at least two examples of what you'll send. Two are suggested for you.
5. Select Submit for review.

Track the approval#

Next to Text messages you'll see where things stand:

Until texting is active, send by email or portal message instead.

How texts work#

• Consent comes first. You can only text parents who agreed to get texts from your studio, and anyone who replies STOP is opted out. See Consent and opt-outs.
• Replies come to your inbox. When a parent texts back, it shows up in Inbox as part of their conversation.
• Quiet hours. Texts sent during your quiet hours wait until they end, in your studio's time zone. Operational announcements (like a cancellation) aren't held. Set the hours in Communication settings.
• Marketing texts have "Reply STOP to opt out." added at the end if you didn't include it.

Length and segments#

Long texts are sent in several parts, called segments. As you type, a counter shows how many characters and segments your message uses. Emoji and accented letters shorten each segment to 70 characters, so a single emoji can double the count. Merge fields like names change the length for each family.