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a year ago

December 2023 Product Release - Group Texting

Here's what's in the December 11th release:

Relate

  • Group Texting 🔷

🔷Sandbox preview available. Contact your Customer Success Manager for more information.

Relate 

Group Texting

Group Texting on Relate allows users to send and receive messages as well as share files (in JPEG, GIF, and PNG formats) with groups of up to 9 contacts simultaneously, while also meeting compliance guidelines. Group Texting makes several use cases possible, such as allowing a wealth advisor to simultaneously hold conversations with multiple individuals in a household, or empowering an insurance agent to communicate with many different team members in a client organization at the same time.

After a group has been created, all group members can send and receive messages from the group. Each group has a group name, which can be edited. It is not possible to add or remove members from an existing group. If people need to be added or removed from a group, then a new group must be created. After a message is sent to the group, anyone in the group can respond. A check mark appears on sent messages indicating the message has been received by the carrier. 

Note: Toll-free numbers are not supported in group texts.

Opting In and Attestation Functionality

All group members must have previously opted in to receiving messages to be included in the group. If a contact has not opted in to receiving messages, they must complete the organization’s opt-in process before that can be added to a group. If any group member opts out of receiving text messages, the group creator can no longer send messages to the group. However, the group will still receive messages from other members and these messages will be viewable in the conversation window.

Archiving and Compliance

Group Texting follows the organization’s existing archiving and compliance policies. Currently, only the violation appears in Supervision, but the entire thread will be viewable in early 2024. 

Support for Additional Features in Relate

Group Texting supports: 

  • Using Message Templates
  • Sending attachments in JPEG, GIF, and PNG formats
  • Filtering all messages to only view Group Texts  

 Group Texting does not support: 

  • Sending scheduled messages 
  • Sending contact cards
  • Voice calling
  • Reminders     

Preview

To preview Group Texting in a sandbox environment for Hearsay Desktop, or to preview the Group Texting availability note on Android, contact your Customer Success Manager.

To preview Group Texting in the Hearsay Mobile iOS app, use this TestFlight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/PPhPE362

To preview Group Texting in the Hearsay for Intune iOS app, use this TestFlight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/XdyF7Qs5   

To learn more about how to use TestFlight to test mobile features, click here.

Availability

This feature is DISABLED for all organizations by default and can be enabled per organization at the hierarchy level by contacting your Customer Success Manager. 

Group Texting is initially only available on Hearsay Desktop and on the Hearsay Mobile iOS app. Users on Android and Embedded Relate for Salesforce will see a message saying that Group Texting is currently not supported and they can view their group texts by logging in to their account on Hearsay Desktop. 

Group Texting is expected to be released for Android early next year, followed by Embedded Relate for Salesforce later in 2024. 

Learn More

To learn more about how to use Group Texting, see these articles in Hearsay's Help Center:

Group Texting on the Hearsay Mobile iOS app

Temporary message about Group Texting shown to Android users

Group Texting on Hearsay Desktop

Create a new group on Hearsay Desktop

Filter for Group Texts on Hearsay Desktop