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9. SMS & Messaging

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Table of Contents

9. SMS & Messaging #

Service Provider Edition only. SMS messaging does not appear in Community Edition builds.

ICTPBX supports two-way SMS: send and receive text messages directly from the portal. Delivery runs over SignalWire. There are two surfaces:

  • Messaging (Inbox): a threaded, 1:1 conversation view for everyday texting.
  • Send SMS (Campaign): bulk SMS to a whole contact group in one operation (Super Admins and Tenant Admins).

Both write to a single message history, so a text sent from the Inbox and a text sent by a campaign appear in the same record.

Role Menu
Super Admin / Tenant Admin Messaging → Inbox, Messaging → Send SMS, and the Text Templates page (below)
End User a single Messaging item (the Inbox)

Access requires the messaging permission (and campaigns for Send SMS).

Messaging Inbox #

Menu: Messaging → Inbox (End Users: Messaging)

The Inbox is a conversation view: threads on the left, the selected conversation in the center, and a composer at the bottom.

Messaging inbox

Each thread row shows the remote party's number, a preview of the last message, the timestamp, and a direction arrow:

  • ↑ (up arrow): an outbound message you sent.
  • ↓ (down arrow): an inbound message received from that number.

Click a thread to open the conversation. Messages appear as bubbles with a status badge:

Badge Meaning
Delivered Carrier confirmed delivery
Sent / Queued Accepted by the provider, awaiting a delivery report
Received An inbound message from the remote party
Failed The provider rejected or could not deliver the message

The Inbox refreshes every 15 seconds, so replies appear without a page reload.

Send a new message #

  1. Click New Message (top right).

New message composer

  1. Enter the recipient in the Recipient number field in E.164 format (e.g. +12015550123).
  2. Type your text in the Type a message… box.
  3. Click Send (disabled until you type some text).

The message is sent immediately and a new thread appears for that number. Replies from the recipient land in the same thread.

Reply in an existing conversation #

  1. Click the thread in the left list.
  2. Type in the composer and click Send: the recipient is already set from the thread.

Send SMS Campaign (Bulk) #

Menu: Messaging → Send SMS (Super Admins and Tenant Admins)

Campaigns send the same message to every contact in a group. You need a Text Template and a Contact Group (Fax → Contacts → Contact Groups) first.

Step 1: Create a Text Template #

Open the Text Templates page at https://<your-host>/pages/message/text and create the message body you want to send. Templates are reusable: save common messages once and pick them for many campaigns.

Text templates

Step 2: Create the campaign #

  1. Go to Messaging → Send SMS and click Add.

SMS campaign list

  1. Fill in the campaign form:

Create SMS campaign

Field Required Description
Text ✅ The saved Text Template to send
Groups ✅ The contact group to send to (every contact receives one message)
Retry How many times to retry a failed recipient (1, 2, or 3)
Delay b/w SMS Minutes to wait between sends: throttles the campaign to stay within provider limits
  1. Click Submit.

One message is queued per recipient. Each appears in the same history as the Inbox and is billed the same way as 1:1 messages.

Billing #

SMS is metered like voice minutes and fax pages:

  • Each package includes a monthly free allowance of SMS messages (resource 18, SMS Messages / month). Credit is deducted only for outbound messages above the allowance, from the tenant's credit, hourly. The counter resets each month.
  • Admins set the per-message price on Billing → Rate Plans by selecting the SMS service. With no SMS rate set, usage is tracked but nothing is charged.
  • Inbound (received) messages are not charged.

SMS rate

Tenants and users can watch SMS usage on Billing → Quota alongside voice minutes and fax pages.

How receiving works #

  1. A text arrives at your SignalWire number.
  2. SignalWire posts the message to ICTPBX's secured inbound webhook.
  3. ICTPBX matches the destination number to the DID that owns it and records the message for that tenant and user.
  4. The message appears in the Inbox within 15 seconds.

The receiving number must be a DID in ICTPBX (Routing → DID Numbers) assigned to the tenant. Messages to a number ICTPBX does not recognise are visible only to the Super Admin.

Setup (server administrators) #

SignalWire credentials are not entered as a trunk. They live in the [signalwire_sms] section of /usr/ictcore/etc/ictcore.conf:

[signalwire_sms]
space        = https://<your-space>.signalwire.com
project_id   = <SignalWire project ID>
api_token    = <SignalWire API token>
default_from = +12015550123
webhook_key  = <generated by the installer>
  • Provide them at install time with the SIGNALWIRE_SPACE, SIGNALWIRE_PROJECT_ID, SIGNALWIRE_API_TOKEN and SIGNALWIRE_DEFAULT_FROM environment variables, or edit the file afterwards and run systemctl reload php-fpm. Upgrades keep existing values.
  • webhook_key is generated automatically. In the SignalWire dashboard, set each number's incoming-message webhook to:
    https://<your-portal-host>/api/sms/inbound?key=<webhook_key>
    Delivery status reports are requested automatically on each outbound message.
  • Until credentials are set, sending returns "SMS gateway not configured".

Requirements & limits #

  • SignalWire account with at least one SMS-capable number.
  • A2P 10DLC registration (US numbers): US carriers require an approved 10DLC brand and campaign, with the number attached, before long-code SMS is delivered. Until then outbound messages fail or are filtered by carriers. This is done in your SignalWire account, not in ICTPBX. A verified toll-free number is an alternative.
  • E.164 numbers: always address recipients in full international format (+ and country code).
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