Two things landed in ICTPBX Enterprise Edition this week, and both change how you work day to day. You can now text customers straight from a threaded inbox, and you can pick up a phone, dial *99, and manage the PBX just by talking to it. No new app to learn, and nothing bolted on from a third party. Both live in Enterprise Edition today.
Two-way SMS, next to your calls
If you already run voice through ICTPBX, SMS now rides on the same rails. Texts go out over SignalWire, which is the exact vendor carrying your SIP trunks, so there’s no second account to open and no second invoice to reconcile. You get two ways to send.
The first is the Messaging Inbox, a plain threaded view: conversations down the left, the open thread in the middle, a box to type in at the bottom. Replies drop back into the same thread on their own, usually inside 15 seconds, so nobody has to sit there hitting refresh. The second is bulk campaigns, for when you want to reach a whole contact group at once. You save a message template, point it at the group, and set a delay between sends so you don’t trip carrier limits.
Whichever way a message goes out, it’s written to one shared history, so an inbox reply and a campaign blast sit in the same record. Billing follows the same Option-A model you already use for fax, with a monthly free quota baked into each package and inbound texts costing nothing. The full walkthrough, screenshots and all, is in the SMS and Messaging guide.
Run the PBX by voice
The AI voice agent is the other half of the release. Dial *99 from your own extension, wait for the greeting, and ask for what you need: your balance, a voicemail count, a new ring group. It handles each request by calling the same ICTCore API the web portal calls, so you’re not getting some parallel, half-wired shortcut.
Here’s the part worth underlining. The agent acts as you, on your own scoped login, so it can only see and change what your role and tenant already permit. Anything that would alter configuration gets read back to you first, and it waits for a spoken yes before it does it. Every step is written to an append-only audit trail. If you want the mechanics, the AI Voice Agent guide lays them out.
One caveat we’d rather say up front: the agent is an optional add-on an administrator installs on the server, separate from the core stack. It sits on top of the portal and softphone, which keep working exactly as they did.
Where to find them
Both features are Enterprise Edition only, so you won’t see them in a Community Edition build. They’re documented under Complete Guides in the ICTPBX support center, next to the rest of the feature guides.
Frequently asked questions
Is SMS available in Community Edition?
No. Two-way SMS is Enterprise Edition only and won’t show up in a Community build.
What carrier does SMS use?
SignalWire, the same vendor already handling your SIP trunking, so voice and text share one provider.
Do I need anything special to send SMS in the United States?
Yes. US carriers want A2P 10DLC brand and campaign registration before long-code SMS delivers. That’s a carrier rule on your account, not a switch inside ICTPBX.
How do I start the AI voice agent?
Dial *99 from a registered extension or softphone and speak once you hear the greeting. A fast busy usually means the add-on isn’t installed, so check with your administrator.
Can the AI agent do more than my account allows?
No. It runs on your own scoped login, so it’s boxed into what your role and tenant already allow, and it confirms before any change.
Does the AI agent replace the web portal?
No. It’s an extra voice channel on top. The portal and softphone are untouched.