Phone numbers & SMS
Add SMS numbers from the phone platform your team uses, and send messages from your unified inbox.
CommSync sends and receives SMS through the phone platform that owns each number. When you add a phone number, CommSync records which platform owns it. Inbound messages arrive through that platform, and the same platform sends outbound messages. Everything then appears in the same unified inbox alongside email, threaded by contact.
Does your team already text from a business phone platform? You can connect that platform, and your numbers stay where they are. CommSync then reads and sends on the lines you pick, through the platform itself. See phone providers for what a connection does. Settings → Phone numbers shows the platforms that you can connect.
Channel access
Phone numbers belong to the workspace, not to the teammate who connected them — the same model email accounts use. Owners and admins can use every line. Members get a line one of two ways. They connect it themselves, or an owner or admin assigns it to them.
Manage this from the Access control on each row. It lists everyone who can use the line — owners and admins are always on.
Admins can grant or revoke members inline from that same control. On most platforms, the Access control on the account header covers every number on that account. The page of each platform says when it does not. See roles & permissions for the full model.
The Phone numbers hub
Settings → Phone numbers is the overview hub. Each card is one account at a phone provider. The card shows the account name, the platform, and how many numbers came from that account, and then lists those numbers. Click a name, or pick Rename from the ⋯ menu of the number, to change it. Anyone who can use a line can rename it. The new name shows for the whole team.
The footer of a card holds the controls for the whole account. One inbox switch covers all of its numbers. Access sets who can use the account. The Phone providers section at the bottom of the page connects a new account, and opens the page of a provider to import more numbers.
To choose which line a composer opens on, set your own default in Settings → Account → Default sending lines. That choice is personal: it changes your composer, and it never moves a teammate's.
Connect a platform
Each platform has its own page. The page lists what you need before you start, and the setup steps in the words of the platform. It also lists what syncs, and the limits of the platform.
Where credentials live
CommSync stores the credentials of every platform per account inside CommSync, encrypted at rest. Every workspace connects its own platform account. When a platform no longer accepts the saved credentials, the account card says so, and the page of the platform names the fix.
How inbound SMS works
When a contact sends a text to one of your numbers, the platform delivers the message to CommSync. Most platforms post it to CommSync's webhook endpoint at once. A regular sync also reads each platform for texts that a webhook did not bring. CommSync:
- Identifies the destination number in your workspace.
- Finds or creates a contact identity for the sender's number.
- Finds or creates a thread for that conversation.
- Adds the message to the conversation and updates any open browser sessions in real time.
The whole pipeline runs in under a second in normal conditions. See how threads form to learn how CommSync decides which thread a message belongs to.
Picture messages (MMS)
CommSync supports MMS in both directions on every platform that carries pictures. The page of each platform names its limits, and says when a platform only receives pictures.
Inbound: photos render directly inside the chat bubble — click to open a full-size preview. Other media appears as tappable file chips on the message: videos, voice notes, contact cards, and PDFs. CommSync downloads media from the carrier at delivery time and stores it with your workspace's other attachments. It stays viewable even after the carrier's copy expires. A picture-only text (no caption) shows up as just the image — never an empty bubble.
Outbound: attach images in the composer with the paperclip, a drag, or a paste. See send pictures by text for the formats and the size caps.
How outbound SMS works
When you send a text from CommSync, the platform connected to that phone number sends the message. Each number sends through the platform that owns it. You do not need to configure anything for this routing; it happens automatically.
Once the platform accepts the message, it returns a message ID. CommSync stores that ID and uses it to correlate the next delivery or failure report. The thread updates with the final status as the platform reports back. On a platform with delivery receipts, a text shows Sent on acceptance, then Delivered or Failed (with the carrier's human-readable reason). The page of each platform says whether it reports delivery.
If you can use more than one number, pick which one new conversations start
from. Do this under Settings → Account → Default line for outbound texts
— see how to send a message.
Channel uniqueness
A phone number belongs to only one CommSync workspace globally. If you try to add a number that another workspace has already registered, CommSync shows a conflict error. The error does not name the other workspace. If the number belongs to you, remove it from the other workspace first, or contact support.
A number that your own workspace already has works the same way for a member. If a member adds it, CommSync answers that the number is already connected and asks the member to get access from an Owner or Admin. A member cannot give themselves a line by typing its number.
Remove a phone number
In Settings → Phone numbers, find the number. Open its ⋯ menu (or right-click the row) and pick Remove number. The page of the platform has the same item. An owner or an admin can remove a number. CommSync immediately stops all inbound messages for that number. When CommSync set up a webhook for the number, it clears that webhook too. The threads and messages that are already there stay. A removal does not delete history.
The people who followed those conversations still see them and can open them. The reply box shows "This line was removed from the workspace" instead of Send. When you add the same number again, on any platform, CommSync moves those conversations back onto it, and replies work again.