Texting clients (SMS)

What texting does

From your Clients list you can send a text message straight to a contact's phone. Their reply comes back into Manaky — you don't trade your personal cell number, and nothing lives in your pocket where it's lost the moment you change phones. Each text is threaded into the contact's history timeline right next to your notes and imported activity, so the whole relationship stays in one place.

Getting set up

You set texting up yourself — it takes a couple of minutes. Open the Texting page (under Account in the sidebar) and the wizard walks you through it:

1. Search for a number. Type an area code (e.g. 206) and Manaky shows available local numbers. Pick one — it becomes your dedicated business texting line, separate from your personal cell. (Prefer to use a number you already have? See Bring your own number.)
2. Register it (10DLC). A short one-time form — your legal name, business address, the mobile number for a verification code, and a sample message. For a solo agent this is the lightweight sole-proprietor path (your own details, no EIN). Submit it and your status moves to pending.
3. Wait for approval, then check status. Carrier approval is usually quick. Come back to the Texting page and choose Check approval status — when it flips to approved, full texting (including outreach) is on.

Once you have a number, a Send a text box appears on every contact who has a phone number on file. If a contact has no box, they're missing a phone number — add one by editing the contact.

Bring your own number

Already text clients from a number that's on your yard signs and business cards? On the Texting page you can request to bring it to Manaky instead of getting a new one. This is an assisted setup, not instant: you submit the number, we follow up by email, and hosting it takes a signed authorization and a few days.

Sending a text

1. Open Clients and click a contact to expand their record.
2. In the Send a text box, type your message and choose Send SMS.
3. The text is sent and immediately recorded in that contact's timeline as an SMS entry.

Replies & delivery

When a contact texts back, their reply is matched to their record and appears in the same timeline — refresh the contact to see it. Outgoing texts also carry a delivery status: it starts as queued, moves to sent when the carrier accepts it, and delivered once it reaches the phone (or failed if the carrier couldn't deliver it, e.g. a landline or disconnected number).

Opt-out & quiet hours

Texting consumers is regulated, and Manaky enforces the rules for you so you stay compliant without thinking about it:

• STOP is automatic and permanent. If a contact replies STOP (or UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, QUIT…), they're opted out instantly and Manaky will refuse any further text to that number — across both texting and email outreach. A contact who texts START opts back in. HELP gets an automatic info reply.
• Quiet hours. Bulk/automated texts are held outside 8am–9pm in the contact's local time. A direct one-to-one reply in an active conversation isn't restricted.

Limits & approval

To send texts at all, your number goes through a one-time carrier registration (10DLC) — the sole-proprietor form you complete during setup. While registration is pending you can still reply to people who text you first; broader outreach turns on once it's approved. There's also a daily send cap per number to keep your texts flowing smoothly past carrier rate limits. If a text is ever held back, Manaky tells you why right there in the Clients view (opted out, outside texting hours, daily limit reached, or pending approval) — it's never dropped silently.