Category: Announcements

Telerivet has released an app on the Zendesk Marketplace to make it easy to seamlessly integrate text messaging with your Zendesk Support account.

Your end-users can send support requests via SMS to a local phone number anywhere in the world, which will appear as tickets in your Zendesk Support account. When your Zendesk Support agents reply, the replies will be sent as SMS messages from the same phone number.

Telerivet lets you send and receive text messages in Zendesk Support using a local phone number in your country, even if your country is not supported by Zendesk’s built-in Text feature. Telerivet supports multiple options for sending and receiving SMS:

Android Phone: You can connect any Android phone to Telerivet, allowing you to use a local phone number in your country to receive SMS messages and send replies. When the Android phone receives an SMS message, the Telerivet Gateway app will forward the message to Telerivet’s servers and then to your Zendesk account. When a Zendesk Support agent replies, the Telerivet Gateway app will send the message from your Android phone. Learn more

Virtual Numbers: Telerivet can connect to any SMS gateway API that provides virtual numbers, including international providers. You can connect your own account from a third-party provider to get the best SMS rates. (Virtual numbers are only available in certain countries.) Learn more

SMS Shortcodes: If you get an SMS shortcode from a mobile network, Telerivet can integrate directly with the mobile networks, so that incoming messages are forwarded to your Zendesk Support account, and your Zendesk Support agents can send replies from your shortcode. Learn more

In addition to SMS, Telerivet also supports sending and receiving multimedia messages (MMS), as well as WhatsApp messages. If someone sends a message containing an image, it will appear directly in the Zendesk ticket. Your Zendesk Support agents can also send images in replies. Images will be converted to short links when sending over SMS (Pro plan or above required to send short links).

Customizing How Messages Are Forwarded to Zendesk

If you only want to turn particular text messages into Zendesk Support tickets, you can create Custom Actions with a condition that matches the messages you want to forward.

By default, each Zendesk Support ticket will have the subject line “(Text message)”, which can be customized on the Services page. All text messages from the same contact with the same subject will appear within the same Zendesk ticket.

Also, if your Telerivet project has other data about each contact (such as their name), you can forward that data to Zendesk in the subject or content of the support ticket.

We hope that the Zendesk integration will make it easier for you to integrate text messaging with your existing support workflow.

To get started, install the app from the Zendesk Marketplace and follow the installation instructions on the “How to install” tab.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out via email at support@telerivet.com.

We’re excited to announce new features that make it even easier and faster to use Telerivet for two-way text conversations.

When viewing a conversation, the sidebar on the right side of the page shows new messages in other conversations, and lets you easily switch between conversations. To switch conversations without using your mouse, simply type j or k to move up or down the list.

Each conversation can now have one of 3 statuses: Active, Handled, or Closed.

If an incoming message is received from a contact and no reply has been sent yet, the conversation will have the Active status, and will be displayed in bold. To prevent losing track of contacts who are waiting for a reply, the conversation will still be displayed in bold if someone views the conversation without replying.

If you send a reply to a conversation in the Active status, the conversation status will automatically change to Handled, and will no longer be displayed in bold.

You can manually change any conversation’s status by using the Status dropdown at the top of the page, or by using the keyboard shortcuts a (Active), h (Handled), or c (Closed).

To stop showing a conversation in bold without sending a reply, the fastest way is to type h when viewing the conversation.

It’s also possible to filter conversations by group and conversation status. For example, to see only the conversations that are waiting for you to take action, select the Active filter.

If you use Telerivet for two-way text conversations, we hope that these features will make it easier for you to send replies in less time and fewer clicks. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out via email at support@telerivet.com.

The Telerivet Gateway app now supports sending and receiving multimedia messages, including images, video, audio, and PDF files. With the Telerivet Gateway app, you can use an Android phone as an MMS gateway in any country, as long as your mobile network supports MMS.

To start sending and receiving MMS, install or upgrade to the latest version of the Telerivet Gateway app at https://telerivet.com/gateway .

To send a multimedia message from Telerivet, click New Message on the Messages page, then click Media, then upload an image, video, audio, or PDF file, or copy a URL to a file uploaded elsewhere.

To send multimedia messages via Telerivet’s REST API, first upload the multimedia files somewhere with a publicly accessible URL, then specify the files to send via the media_urls parameter. (View API documentation)

If your contacts send photos or other multimedia to your Android phone, you can view or download the files from the Messages page in Telerivet, or retrieve them via Telerivet’s developer API. 

Each mobile network has a limit for the maximum size of an MMS message. By default, the Telerivet Gateway app will automatically resize and compress large image files to be 599 kB or smaller, which should be supported by most mobile networks. (The maximum file size can be configured on the Messaging Settings screen in the Telerivet Gateway app.) The Telerivet Gateway app doesn’t automatically resize video, audio, or PDF files, so your messages may fail to send if the attachments are larger than the maximum size supported by your network.

Sending MMS requires Android 5.0 or above. Sending and receiving MMS is only possible if MMS is supported by your mobile network. Depending on your mobile network and plan, there may be additional data charges to send or receive MMS messages.

If you send links in SMS messages, you may have encountered the challenge of trying to fit the URL and the rest of your message in 160 characters.

Now, we’re happy to announce Telerivet’s Short Links feature, which makes it easy to shorten URLs and track clicks in your SMS messages. Telerivet will show you every contact who clicked the link (or didn’t click it), as well as overall statistics to help you optimize your messaging campaigns.

While composing an SMS message in Telerivet, simply type or copy/paste any URL starting with http:// or https://, and the Shorten links / track clicks checkbox will automatically appear below the message:

You can preview how the URL will be shortened and verify the character count before sending the message. (You can still send any URL without Telerivet shortening links or tracking clicks, simply by leaving the checkbox unchecked.)

By default, Telerivet sends short links with the domain rvt.me, and each contact will receive a unique URL in the format https://rvt.me/xxxxxxxxx (24 characters):

Telerivet adds “https://” for security, but you can remove it on the Messaging Settings page to shorten the link to 16 characters.

When any contact clicks the link, they will automatically be redirected to the destination URL, and the contact will show up as “Clicked” on your Messages page.

Although the Messages page shows the short URL like https://rvt.me/xxxxxxxxx, each contact actually receives a unique URL (not all x’s). This is different from link shortening services like bit.ly — if you send short links from a link shortening service, everyone would receive the same short URL, and you wouldn’t know who actually clicked the link.

The actual unique short URL is hidden from the Messages page, because if you opened it in your browser, Telerivet would count it as if the contact clicked the link. The Messages page also shows the destination link, which is not sent as part of the SMS, which you can click without being tracked.

Branded Short Links

Accounts on Enterprise plans can replace rvt.me with their own domain name or subdomain. To use a custom short link domain, contact support@telerivet.com for more information.

Link Previews

The Short Links feature supports link previews on iOS and Android. If link previews are enabled on the recipient’s phone, the SMS app may show a title, domain, and an image from the destination page, giving the contact more confidence about the short link. When a link preview is loaded, Telerivet marks the message as delivered, but does not count the message as clicked until the contact actually opens the link.

Click-Through Statistics

If you send a short link to multiple contacts, the Broadcast Details page shows the real-time click-through rate and total number of contacts who clicked the link, and a chart with the number of contacts who have clicked the link in 15 minute intervals.

When viewing a broadcast, the Short Link filters show who clicked the link, and who didn’t click it. Details about which links were clicked are also included when exporting messages to CSV.

Developer API Integration

For organizations sending SMS messages from their own systems, the Short Links feature works seamlessly with Telerivet’s developer API. When sending messages via the REST API, just set the track_clicks parameter to true, and Telerivet will shorten URLs and track clicks within the message content. If you configure a webhook URL for status notifications, Telerivet will also notify your webhook URL when the contact clicks your link, with clicked_time set to the timestamp of the click.

Availability

The Short Links feature is available to users on the Pro plan and higher Custom plans. To try it out, compose a new message and paste a URL starting with http:// or https:// into the Message box.

If your current plan doesn’t include this feature, you can upgrade to Pro to start shortening links and tracking clicks. To send branded short links, Telerivet’s Enterprise plans support replacing rvt.me with your own short link domain. To use a custom short link domain, contact support@telerivet.com for more information.

We are very excited to announce that Telerivet is now available as an app for iPhones and iPads, as well as Android phones and tablets.

You can use the app to send and schedule broadcasts, view and edit contacts, manage automated services, and more. Almost anything you can do from your web browser, you can do on the go.

In addition, the iOS and Android apps let you get (optional) notifications of incoming messages. If someone sends a text message to your virtual number, you can read the message and reply directly from your phone.

Since Telerivet runs in the cloud, you can switch back and forth between the smartphone app and the web dashboard at any time.

When using the app, text messages and voice calls are sent and received via third-party providers such as Nexmo, not via your personal phone. When you send SMS messages or calls from the app, your contacts will see your organization’s sender or caller ID (as configured in your Telerivet account), not your personal phone number.

The iPhone and iPad app supports iOS 10.0 and above. The Android app works on Android 4.4 or above.

To try it out, install the app on your phone below:

Two Telerivet Android apps

As you may know, Telerivet already had an Android app that turns an Android phone into a SMS gateway in any country.  The new Android app, however, does not turn your phone into an SMS gateway.

Telerivet’s original SMS gateway app is still available, and it will continue to be supported and developed. There are just two separate Telerivet Android apps now because they serve different purposes.

To avoid confusion between the two Telerivet Android apps, the original Telerivet Android app has been renamed to “Telerivet Gateway“. The Telerivet Gateway app lets you use Telerivet to send and receive SMS messages in any country via that Android phone’s SIM card. Typically, users will dedicate a phone specifically for the Telerivet Gateway app, and won’t use it as a normal mobile phone.

The main screen of the Telerivet Gateway app:

On the other hand, the new Android app is named “Telerivet Mobile“. Telerivet Mobile lets you access Telerivet’s mobile messaging platform from your phone, and receive notifications. Telerivet Mobile is meant to be used on your personal mobile phone — and if you invite your team to use Telerivet, everyone can install Telerivet Mobile on their phones too. (There are no limits on the number of phones that can run the Telerivet Mobile app.)

Any SMS messages that you send from the Telerivet Mobile app will be sent via the SMS gateway you have configured in your Telerivet account. This may be a provider like Nexmo, or it could be an Android phone running the Telerivet Gateway app. (It is possible to run the Telerivet Mobile app and the Telerivet Gateway app on different Android phones, or the same phone.)

We’re excited to hear your feedback on the new Android and iOS apps — let us know what you think at support@telerivet.com.