Pedro, other technophiles, texting from a landline question

[KSRdallen]

Seeking advice. I need a way at work (a university) to send texts to students and prospective students, but it needs to come from a number recognized in our office which is of course a landline. The ability of multiple people to be able to access the same text account (and the same phone number) via computer and cell phone, iPad apps would be helpful. Being able to send the same text to over a hundred people at a time as well as individual texts as well is desired.

I've searched a few options including Zipwhip, Textbox and, to a lessor degree, Google Voice. Nothing really stands out as a good option, but the information on these websites is admittedly limited.

Are these good options or are there others that may be good? Is one of the above good and I'm just not seeing it?

Any insights are appreciated!

[KentuckyWildcat]

Major brain fart right now on what we use....

But does your school not have a messaging system in place for something like this?

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[KSRdallen]

Major brain fart right now on what we use....

But does your school not have a messaging system in place for something like this?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

We have a one way texting mechanism that we can send notes to a group or an individual for both emergency and non-emergency texts. It doesn't appear it's coming from a phone number, though. It comes from a 5 digit text number. Also, you can't respond to it, so it's one way.

[PedroDaGr8]

This is well outside of my realm of expertise but you might look at services geared towards SMS Marketing as those often allow the forward and back communication that you require. Truthfully this is a very strange combination of requirements and you will likely have to shoehorn your usage case into existing technologies.

Honestly, for contacting students/prospectivestudents a SnapChat, Kik, Instagram account might be more well received than SMS, since SMS is considered very old person (kinda like email).

[KSRdallen]

This is well outside of my realm of expertise but you might look at services geared towards SMS Marketing as those often allow the forward and back communication that you require. Truthfully this is a very strange combination of requirements and you will likely have to shoehorn your usage case into existing technologies.

Honestly, for contacting students/prospectivestudents a SnapChat, Kik, Instagram account might be more well received than SMS, since SMS is considered very old person (kinda like email).

Thanks. We use social media accounts as well but are in need of direct, one to one communication. They don't answer the phone and other parts of our university are using text successfully even though it is antiquated like us! We're trying to use as many ways as possible, and this would add to the arsenal.

[KentuckyWildcat]

I think it is Radius that we use.

I'll see if I can get some details. It may be one way as well. I don't use it. It is something System outsourced.

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[KSRdallen]

I think it is Radius that we use.

I'll see if I can get some details. It may be one way as well. I don't use it. It is something System outsourced.

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Thanks for checking. We're going to get a free trial of ZipWhip and see how well it works.

[CitizenBBN]

I'm following in this. Not much to add but I am curious. I use Ringcentral for my phones, voip, and it allows us to text through the numbers but it's SMS, not MMS, and that's a problem on several levels.

Apparently few VOIP if any offer MMS, but RC is supposed to have it out 2nd quarter. there's nothing more unreliable than a "Quarter X" release announcement on software from ANYONE. But I could really use it.

If it doesn't come along soon I'll need some other cobbled together option, so I'm intent to see where to start looking. I'll also look and post anything I find.

[KeithKSR]

The solution is simple, http://www.remind.com

We use this for our grade level text communications. All 7 of our grade level teachers are admins and can send group messages. Students and parents get a phone number to text the group code to and become enrolled in the system.

You can have multiple groups.

This is a send and receive program that works through internet connections. It has an Apple or Android app for admins to send messages, members can reply to messages like they do a text.

People receiving messages see who is sending them as it indicates the sender in the text message.

[KSRdallen]

The solution is simple, http://www.remind.com

We use this for our grade level text communications. All 7 of our grade level teachers are admins and can send group messages. Students and parents get a phone number to text the group code to and become enrolled in the system.

You can have multiple groups.

This is a send and receive program that works through internet connections. It has an Apple or Android app for admins to send messages, members can reply to messages like they do a text.

People receiving messages see who is sending them as it indicates the sender in the text message.

Thanks, Keith! I'll check it out.

[Darrell KSR]

FWIW, my daughter's show choir was in Nashville this weekend, and that's what they used to communicate with all the parents. There's even a Remind app you can download, but you don't have to download the app to use it, either.

Worked fine. I don't think that many people signed up to use it, but they had over 100 kids and a lot of parents and others that were potential users, so it evidently can hold a lot. Never heard of it before last weekend.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Our church uses Remind, completely forgot about that.

[KeithKSR]

FWIW, my daughter's show choir was in Nashville this weekend, and that's what they used to communicate with all the parents. There's even a Remind app you can download, but you don't have to download the app to use it, either.

Worked fine. I don't think that many people signed up to use it, but they had over 100 kids and a lot of parents and others that were potential users, so it evidently can hold a lot. Never heard of it before last weekend.

Our high school uses it for parents and students both. It is designed for schools to use, so groups of 100 or so are nothing.

[KSRdallen]

Our high school uses it for parents and students both. It is designed for schools to use, so groups of 100 or so are nothing.

Looks promising from a quick read. It says that they must opt in to receive the texts. Has that been an issue?

[Darrell KSR]

Looks promising from a quick read. It says that they must opt in to receive the texts. Has that been an issue?
Legally, you're a lot safer if that's a requirement anyway. Schools have a lot of immunity, but there are also a number of evil sleazy plaintiff lawyers looking to make a buck for these unsolicited texts under the telephone consumer protection act. I don't even know if it would apply, but I'm always happy to see anyone require an opt-in just to make me feel better.

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[KSRdallen]

Legally, you're a lot safer if that's a requirement anyway. Schools have a lot of immunity, but there are also a number of evil sleazy plaintiff lawyers looking to make a buck for these unsolicited texts under the telephone consumer protection act. I don't even know if it would apply, but I'm always happy to see anyone require an opt-in just to make me feel better.

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Makes sense, D. Thanks!

[KeithKSR]

Looks promising from a quick read. It says that they must opt in to receive the texts. Has that been an issue?

Not really. I can imagine at the college level the participation rate would be pretty high.