Messaging
Text messaging (SMS)
Text guests about their appointment, and confirm afterwards that each message actually arrived.
What gets sent
Text messaging sends up to four messages per appointment, all of them about that specific appointment. There is no marketing or bulk messaging, and the message text is fixed — it is not editable.
| Message | When |
|---|---|
| Confirmation | Immediately after a guest books. Includes a link to reschedule or cancel. |
| 24-hour reminder | Roughly a day before the appointment. |
| Cancellation notice | When the booking is cancelled, by your team or by the guest. |
| Reschedule notice | When the booking moves, showing the old time and the new one. |
Each message names your organization, so the guest sees who it is from. Emails are unaffected — texts are in addition to the confirmation and reminder emails, not a replacement.
Requirements
- Organizations only. Personal event types don't send texts.
- An active Cartoply plan. The add-on is a line on your existing subscription.
- A verified business. US carriers verify every business before it can send texts — see below.
- The guest has to opt in. See below — this one is not optional.
Verifying your business
US carriers require every business that sends texts to be verified first — this is a carrier rule, not a Cartoply one, and it applies to every provider. Cartoply files the verification for you: fill in your business details once on the Messaging page and submit. Approval usually takes a few business days.
- Apply — legal business name, EIN, address, website, and a contact on your business's own email domain. About 5 minutes.
- Wait — the page shows Verification pending. Nothing else to do; we email you when it clears.
- Approved — your organization gets its own dedicated toll-free number, and every text you send comes from it. Guests see the same number for the life of the appointment, so replies like STOP always reach the right place.
If the carrier rejects the application, the page shows the reason in plain English — most rejections are a personal email address where a business one is required, or a legal name that doesn't exactly match the IRS registration. Fix the field and resubmit; your reserved number is kept.
Until verification is approved, no texts are sent and the opt-in checkbox does not appear on your booking pages — guests are never asked for a permission that can't be honored.
Guest consent
Guests choose whether to receive texts when they book. A checkbox appears under the phone field on your booking page, unchecked by default, with the full disclosure beside it: who is texting, what they'll receive, how many messages, that rates may apply, and how to get help or stop.
No text is ever sent for a booking where the guest didn't tick that box.Consent is recorded against the individual booking, and ticking it is never required to complete a booking. Guests can reply STOP to any message to opt out, or HELP for assistance.
The checkbox only appears when your organization has the add-on switched on and texts remaining. If either is missing, guests aren't asked for a permission that can't be used.
Turning it on
- Open Messaging in your organization's sidebar.
- Click Turn on. The add-on is added to your existing subscription — there's no separate checkout.
- Choose which categories to send under Settings → Notifications (all four are on by default).
What it costs
$5/month, added to your organization's existing subscription, including your business's dedicated toll-free number and 50 texts per month. The included allowance resets on the 1st and does not roll over. Beyond that, buy credits:
| Pack | Price | Per text |
|---|---|---|
| 250 texts | $9 | $0.036 |
| 1,000 texts | $30 | $0.030 |
| 5,000 texts | $125 | $0.025 |
Purchased credits never expire. Each message spends the monthly allowance first, then credits. When the balance reaches zero, texts stop — bookings, emails, calendar sync and everything else keep working normally.
Turning the add-on off does not delete purchased credits. They're still there if you turn it back on.
Sending yourself a test
On the Messaging page, pick one of the four messages and click Send test message. You'll receive exactly what a guest receives — the same wording, byte for byte.
Tests go to the mobile number on your own profile and nowhere else; there is no field to enter a different number. A test costs one text from your balance and appears in the message history flagged Test, because it is a real message down a real carrier network. Tests are limited to 10 per organization per day.
Checking whether a message arrived
The Message history on the Messaging page lists every text sent for your organization. Search by phone number or message text, and filter by outcome:
- Delivered — the carrier confirmed the handset received it.
- Not delivered — it failed, with the reason shown underneath.
- Sent — handed to the carrier, no outcome reported yet. This is normal for a few minutes after sending.
“Delivered” means the carrier confirmed it, not merely that Cartoply sent it — those are different things, and a message can be accepted and then dropped by the carrier. Test messages are excluded from the delivered and not-delivered totals at the top of the page, since they go to your own phone.
When texts don't arrive
Every failed message shows a plain-English reason. The ones you're most likely to see:
| What it says | What to do |
|---|---|
| Registration isn't complete (error 30032 or 30034) | Your business verification hasn't been approved yet, or lapsed. Check its status at the top of the Messaging page. |
| The person replied STOP (21610) | They opted out. They have to text START to that number to receive messages again — you can't re-subscribe them. |
| Not a mobile number / landline (21614, 30006) | The guest gave a landline. Nothing to fix beyond correcting the number on a future booking. |
| Handset unreachable (30003) | Phone off, out of coverage, or the number is no longer in service. |
| Carrier filtered as spam (30007) | Rare for appointment messages. Contact support if you see this more than occasionally. |
Every message shows “Sent” and never changes. Delivery receipts haven't started arriving. The message history shows a note explaining this when it applies — it means no outcome has been reported, not that the messages failed.
No texts are going out at all. Check, in order: your business verification is approved (top of the Messaging page); the balance isn't zero; the category is on under Settings → Notifications; and the guest actually ticked the opt-in box when booking. A booking made before you turned the add-on on has no consent recorded, so it will never receive texts.
What isn't supported
- Custom message text. The four messages are fixed. Carrier registration approves specific message content, so editable text isn't possible.
- Replies. Texts are one-way apart from STOP and HELP. A guest replying “can we move to 3pm?” will not reach you — that's what the reschedule link is for.
- Texting your team. Reps get email notifications, not texts.
- Marketing or bulk sends. Appointment messages only.
- Non-US numbers. Phone numbers are interpreted as US/Canada. An international number without a country code won't receive texts.
Related
- Billing & referrals — how the add-on appears on your subscription
- Organizations & members — notification settings
- Managing bookings — cancelling and rescheduling, which trigger texts