The Messages area in ReliaRing is a single inbox for two kinds of conversation:
- Customer texts (SMS) to and from people outside your business.
- Team chat between people inside your business, either one-on-one or in a group.
Keeping both in one place means you can talk to a customer and check with a colleague without switching tools.
Opening Messages
- Click Messages in the sidebar.
- Your conversations are listed on the left. Internal team chats and customer text threads live in the same list.
- A connection status shows when you are Connected so messages arrive in real time.
Starting a team conversation
- Click New Chat.
- Choose a teammate for a one-on-one chat, or select several people for a group chat.
- Type your message and press Enter to send. Shift + Enter adds a new line.
Internal team messages stay inside your business; they are not texted to anyone's phone. Customer conversations, by contrast, are sent as real text messages from your business number.
Telling the two apart
Each conversation is clearly a team chat or a text (SMS) thread. Practical differences to keep in mind:
- Team chat is for internal coordination and does not use your texting numbers or count against SMS usage.
- Text (SMS) threads go to a real phone. When you open one, you can choose which of your business numbers to send from, and a character counter helps you keep messages to a single segment.
Real-time and history
- Messages appear live while you have Messages open, and typing indicators show when someone is replying.
- Every conversation keeps its full history, so you can scroll back or search to find what was said.
Good habits
- Use team chat for quick internal questions instead of email.
- Keep customer-facing replies in the customer's text thread so the whole team can see the context.
- Search before starting a new thread to avoid duplicating a conversation.
FAQ
Can people outside my company join team chat? No. Team chat is internal only. To message someone outside your business, use a text (SMS) conversation.
Do internal team messages cost anything or need registration? No. Internal team chat does not send a real text message, so texting fees and texting registration do not apply. Those only apply to SMS and MMS sent to real phone numbers.
Where do customer text conversations live? In the same Messages inbox, shown as text (SMS) threads. See Business Text Messaging: Getting Started for how to send and receive them.