This article details the Short Message Service (SMS) channel in Freshdesk, its benefits, supported providers, and the agent experience while using SMS.

Prerequisites:

Ensure the following requirements are available and met:

• You have administrator permissions to configure the SMS channel.
• You have an account with a supported SMS provider. Currently, Freshdesk supports Twilio as the SMS provider.

Introduction

The SMS channel lets you send and receive text messages with customers via a connected Twilio phone number. Incoming messages appear in the Freshdesk inbox similar to messages from other channels.

You can use SMS to handle inbound support queries, send updates, and follow up on existing conversations.

Depending on the type of phone number connected, agents can also send and receive media, such as images, files, and videos, via MMS.

Benefits:

The key benefits of enabling SMS in Freshdesk Omni are:

• Unified inbox: Agents have full context of a customer's history in one place and can respond without switching between tools.
• Conversation routing: Assign SMS conversations to a dedicated agent group so SMS tickets consistently reach the team best equipped to handle them.
• MMS support: Allow agents to share images, videos, files, and audio with customers to resolve issues that require visual or detailed content beyond text.
  
  

Note: To receive MMS messages, customers must also have MMS-capable phone numbers. If a customer's number does not support MMS, send text-only messages instead.

How SMS works

You can connect to external SMS providers to send and receive messages in Freshdesk. 

Note: Currently, Freshdesk Omni supports only the Twilio SMS provider for sending and receiving messages.

When a customer sends a text message to your connected phone number, Freshdesk Omni receives it through your SMS provider (Twilio) and creates a ticket in the inbox.

The following steps outline the complete SMS setup process:

1. The customer sends a message to your Twilio phone number.
2. Twilio routes the inbound message to Freshdesk.
3. A ticket is created in Freshdesk. The ticket can be routed to a human agent automatically based on ticket configuration or automation rules.
4. An agent or AI Agent manages and responds to the ticket conversation.
5. The response is sent from your Twilio number back to the customer's phone.

Note: Delivery of messages to specific countries depends on the geo-permissions configured in your Twilio account. Make sure the destination regions are enabled before you start sending.

Get started with SMS

To start using SMS in Freshdesk Omni, connect your Twilio account and add your phone numbers. For instructions, refer to Connect SMS channel with Twilio.