Skip to main content

Search

Welcome to Support

How to send a text message to members (Send Communication)

To text your members, type the text in the Text Message box when you send an email from Communications > Send Communication. The text goes to everyone in the lists you choose whose cell phone is opted in to your organization's texts, and everyone in those lists still gets the email.

Applies to: Org admins whose admin role includes texting · All plans (texts up to 100 characters; up to 300 on Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise) · Legacy and Editor 2.0 websites

Where: Communications > Send Communication > Create Your Message > Text Message

Before you start

  • Members have to opt in themselves: when they create their account, from their profile, or (on legacy websites) from a Text Sign Up link in one of your emails. Admins can't opt anyone in. See How to get members to opt in to text messages.
  • Your organization needs text credits left. The box at the top of Send Communication shows how many.

Send a text

  1. Go to Communications > Send Communication.
  2. Check the box next to each list you want to reach. To see who's in a list, click its arrow: people whose cell phone is opted in show (Text Enabled) after their name.
  3. Click Next.
  4. On Create Your Message, type your text in Text Message: up to 100 characters, or up to 300 on the Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise plans.
  5. Fill in Email Subject and the email message. Both are required, because a text always goes out with an email.
  6. Click Next.
  7. On Send Options, set Delay Sending Until if you want to send later (the text waits too), then click Send.

What you'll see: "Your email will be sent out shortly." and the Communication Logs page. Click the communication's subject to see the Text Message you sent and the Text Message Recipients table, which lists each Phone Number, when the text was Sent and Delivered, and its Status.

What members receive

  • One text per opted-in cell phone, starting with your organization's name, for example "(Your organization): Practice is canceled tonight." A phone gets the text once, even if its owner is in more than one list you chose.
  • Texts reach opted-in phones in every kind of list on Send Communication, such as registrations, team contacts and rosters, customer accounts, custom contact lists and officials.
  • The text comes from a TeamSideline phone number, not from your own phone.
  • Replies aren't delivered to you. TeamSideline answers each reply with an automated text. A reply containing STOP turns off your texts to that phone, and HELP gets opt-out instructions.

Text credits

  • Each text to each phone uses one text credit, whatever its length.
  • Your yearly allowance, including any add-ons, is under Communication Credits on Administration > Subscription ("Text Messages per year"). It starts over each subscription year, counted from your renewal month.
  • Send Communication shows the texts left and sent so far this subscription year, for example "2,950 text credits left. 50 sent." To add credits, email support@teamsideline.com.

If it doesn't work

  • There's no Text Message box. Your organization has used all its text credits for the subscription year (Send Communication shows "You have exceeded your communication text message credits for the subscription period. To add credits, please email support@teamsideline.com"), or your admin role doesn't include texting. Ask an admin with the Administrator role to check your role.
  • You can't type more than 100 characters. Texts longer than 100 characters need the Enhanced, Elite or Enterprise plan.
  • "You need a Subject line for your email." or "You need a Message for your email." Fill in both. A text can't be sent without an email.
  • "Before you click the Next button, make any combination of selections from the list of potential email recipients to build your email "To" list." Check at least one list.
  • "You have exceeded your communication email credits for the subscription period. To add credits, please email support@teamsideline.com" and Next is grayed out. With no email credits left, you can't send emails or texts until credits are added.
  • A member didn't get the text. Open the list on Send Communication. If (Text Enabled) isn't after their name, they haven't opted in, or they replied STOP to an earlier text. For a text you've sent, find their number in the Text Message Recipients table in Communication Logs and check its Status.

Good to know

  • When you edit a parent on Customers > Account Management, an orange Text Enabled icon marks an opted-in phone number. It's display only.
  • Coaches can't send texts from team sites. Team-site texting was replaced by chat in the TeamSideline app.
  • Texts usually arrive within moments, but delivery depends on the member's mobile carrier and isn't guaranteed.

Related articles