Messages Tab

The “Messages” tab

Messages Tab

Use this tab to construct your messages and send your SMS, MMS, voice or audio messages.

You can choose to select recipients from your JOT groups, using the Group Send tab. Or you can enter the phone numbers (and optionally names too) manually using the Quick Send tab.

Select message recipients  (Group Send)

Use this dialog to select whole groups or individuals within groups.

  • Use the search box to filter the member list.
  • Click on the group name header, to collapse or expand a group
  • Use the check boxes at the bottom of the dialog to
    • Select/Unselect all members.
    • Collapse or uncollapse all groups.
    • Show or hide the extended member information.
    • Remove duplicate numbers – if the same number is a member of one or more groups, then you may not want to multiple messages to that person. Use this checkbox to remove number duplicates.

Enter your message
Within this field, enter your message. The message can contain the special merge tags shown below:

  • %fullname% or %name% – when the message is sent, this tag is replaced by the message recipients full name.
  • %firstname% – this tag is replaced by the recipients first names (i.e. everything but their last name)
  • %lastname% – this tag is replaced by the recipients last name.
  • %number% – the tag is replaced by the recipients phone number.
  • %lastpost% – the tag is replaced by the URL of your last blog post.
  • %jot_id% – the member ID of the recipient.
  • %jot_email% – the email address of the recipient.
  • %jot_address% – the address of the recipient.
  • %jot_city% – the home city of the recipient.
  • %jot_state% – the home state of the recipient.
  • %jot_zip% – the zip code of the recipient.
  • %optout% – the keyword you’ve selected for opting out of this group.
  • %jot_groupid% – the id number of the group a member has subscribed to.
  • %jot_groupname% – the name of the group a member has subscribed to.
  • %jot_groupdesc%  – the name description of the group a member has subscribed to.

Message suffix
From this tab, you can also specify a message suffix, that will be appended to all messages.

Audio file
For Voice call messages, you can select an audio file (MP3 or WAV) from your media library. This will be played when the recipient of the call
answers their phone. If you enter a message in the message field, the message will be read first, followed by the audio file.

To add audio files, use WordPress’s Media Library upload functions. The file names shown in the Audio File dropdown list, are the names given to the files when they are uploaded into the
Media Library.

Send message as
Use the radio buttons to specify whether your message is sent as:

  • an SMS message. The text entered in the “Enter your message” box, will be used as the body of your SMS message. Any tags you’ve used will be replaced before the message is sent.
  • a voice message. For voice messages, the text you enter will be converted (by Twilio) to speech, which is played to your chosen recipients when they answer their phones.
  • an MMS message. Click the “Choose MMS image” button to select the image file you wish to send.

Twilio only supports MMS messaging in the USA and Canada at present.

Enter a Sender ID

For MMS and SMS messages, a sender ID can be entered. By entering a Sender ID, will replace the “from” number with the text you enter here, allowing you to add some branding to your messages. An example is shown below:

Add some branding to your messages by changing your Twilio number with a Sender ID

Add some branding to your messages by changing your Twilio number with a Sender ID

There are a number of considerations when using the Sender ID:

  • The Sender ID can only be up to 11 characters long. You may use any combination of 1 to 11 letters, A-Z and numbers, 0-9. Both lowercase and uppercase characters are supported as well as spaces.
  • The numbers you send your messages to must be in the e.164 format, i.e they must be prefixed with a + sign and a country code.
  • Using a Sender ID means the messages are one-way only. Recipients cannot reply to your messages if you’ve used a Sender ID (as there is not a valid number to reply to).
  • Sender ID is only supported in certain countries. Check whether your country is supported here.  Sender IDs are not supported in the US.