When RingCentral is your text-message provider, every RingCentral text conversation now appears in Communication → SMS Conversations, the same inbox used for CTM, CallRail and iCampaign. You can read the whole conversation, reply from the number of your choice, start new conversations, and see pictures your patients send — and texts sent from a record, from Compose SMS or from a workflow show up in the same conversation.
Contents
1. Before You Start
2. Turn On RingCentral for Text Messages
3. Open SMS Conversations
4. Read a Conversation
5. Reply and Choose the From Number
6. Start a New Conversation
7. Texting from a Record, Compose SMS and Workflows
8. Linking a Conversation to a Record
9. Other Improvements in This Release
10. Frequently Asked Questions
1. Before You Start
You will need:
A RingCentral account connected under Settings → VOIP Settings, set up for RingEX (or "Both"). At least one RingCentral phone number on that account that is allowed to send text messages.
Access requirements: an administrator selects RingCentral as the text-message provider. Users then need the Access SMS Conversations permission for their role (on by default); sending needs the send permission (also on by default).
If you cannot see SMS Conversations under Communication in the left menu, ask your administrator to check the steps in section 2, or contact Dazos support to enable it for your instance.
2. Turn On RingCentral for Text Messages
For administrators.
1. Go to Settings → VOIP Settings and open your RingCentral account. If the account was connected before this release, click to re-authorize it once. This lets the CRM receive the texts your patients send.
2. Go to Settings → VOIP Controls → SMS Configuration.
3. Select RingCentral as the SMS gateway and make sure Enable Send SMS is on.
Tip: Re-authorizing is a one-time step. Until it is done, conversations and sending still work, but a new text from a patient appears only when the list or the conversation is next refreshed.
3. Open SMS Conversations
From the left menu, open Communication → SMS Conversations. The top of the page reads Communication › SMS Conversations, and the list of conversations is titled Chats.
Area | What it shows |
Chats (left) | Your RingCentral conversations, newest first, 20 at a time. Scroll down to load more. A patient appears once, even if they texted more than one of your numbers. |
Open / Closed | Open conversations, or the ones you closed. |
Search box | Search a name or a number, or type a new number to start a conversation. |
Conversation (middle) | The messages, with the From picker and the message box at the bottom. |
Record panel (right) | The record the number belongs to, and the Close and Link actions. |
Each row shows the record's name when the number matches a record, otherwise the number. A conversation with new messages shows a badge with the number of unread messages.
4. Read a Conversation
Click a conversation. The newest 20 messages load; scroll up to load older ones.
Under each message you see:
the date and time,
the number it went via and the RingCentral account (Acc),
for messages you sent, the delivery status: Queued, Sent, Delivered, or Undelivered in red when RingCentral could not deliver it.
Pictures your patient sends are shown inside the message. Click a picture to see it full size.
When you scroll up through a long conversation, a Latest button appears above the message box. Click it to jump back to the newest message.
New replies appear on their own within about 15 seconds while the conversation is open.
5. Reply and Choose the From Number
The message box has a From picker. It is preselected with the number the conversation last used.
1. Check the From number (change it if you want to reply from another of your RingCentral numbers). 2. Type your message. Emoji are supported (smiley button).
3. Click Send. The message appears at the bottom of the conversation with its delivery status. Tip: Only numbers that your RingCentral account is allowed to text from are listed in From.
6. Start a New Conversation
1. Click the pencil icon next to Chats.
2. Type a name or a phone number in the search box.
3. Pick the record, or the new number when no record has it.
4. Choose the From number, type the message and click Send.
The new conversation appears in Chats right away.
7. Texting from a Record, Compose SMS and Workflows RingCentral works the same way everywhere you can text:
Show Conversations on a record (Accounts detail page → Communication tab): shows the RingCentral conversation for each of the record's numbers, 20 messages at a time, with the From picker preselected.
Send SMS (Compose SMS) on a record: choose Select From Number from your RingCentral numbers.
Workflows with a Send SMS task using RingCentral.
Every text sent from these places also appears in SMS Conversations.
8. Linking a Conversation to a Record
The CRM matches a number to a record by searching the modules in your Name lookup priority (gear icon next to Chats). To link a conversation by hand, click Link in the record panel and pick a record.
Link only offers records from the modules in the Name lookup priority — the same modules the automatic matching uses. If a module is missing from the list (for example Accounts), add it with the gear icon first. The same rule applies to the search box when you start a new conversation.
9. Other Improvements in This Release
These apply to every text-message provider (CTM, CallRail, RingCentral and iCampaign):
Improvement | What changed |
Page title | The top of the page reads Communication › SMS Conversations (it used to say "Accounts"). |
Chats | The conversation list is titled Chats. |
Latest button | It no longer covers the From picker; it floats just above the message box. |
Record panel | Long field names (for example Authorization Phone Number on a VOB) wrap neatly instead of running into the value. |
Link | Offers only records from the modules in the Name lookup priority. |
10. Frequently Asked Questions
Q: A patient texted us but the conversation did not update. Why? If your RingCentral account was connected before this release, an administrator needs to re-authorize it once under Settings → VOIP Settings (section 2). Until then, the new text appears when you next open or refresh the conversation.
Q: Why can I not pick a certain number in From? Only the numbers your RingCentral account is allowed to text from are listed. Ask your RingCentral administrator to enable texting on that number.
Q: Can I send pictures through RingCentral from the CRM? Not yet. You can receive and view pictures, and send text and emoji.
Q: Does a text from an unknown number create a Lead? No. The conversation appears in Chats with the number; you can link it to a record with Link, or it is matched automatically once a record has that number.
Q: Why does Link not show the record I expected? Link only offers records from the modules in the Name lookup priority. Add the module with the gear icon next to Chats.
Q: Where are the message texts stored? Message texts stay in RingCentral. The CRM keeps only which record a number belongs to, the unread count and whether the conversation is open or closed.
Q: How do I stop using RingCentral for texts? Select another provider under Settings → VOIP Controls → SMS Configuration. The inbox then shows that provider's conversations.
Need Help?
If you run into issues:
1. Check that RingCentral is selected under VOIP Controls and that the account is connected under VOIP Settings.
2. Re-authorize the RingCentral account once (section 2) if received texts do not appear.
3. Contact Dazos support with the conversation's phone number and the time of the message, and reference CRM-3928.