Two-way SMS lets you receive replies from your leads and respond to them directly from the client portal. Once enabled, every text message your leads send to your SMS number lands in your Messages inbox, and you can send messages back without leaving the portal.
Before you enable
Two-way SMS comes with regulatory responsibilities. Depending on your industry (especially financial services and legal), there may be compliance rules around recording and responding to text messages. Make sure your firm is approved to do two-way SMS before turning it on. If you're unsure, check with your compliance team first.
How to enable
Sign in to your client portal
Navigate to the Messages page
If two-way SMS is not enabled, you'll see a panel that says "Two-way SMS is not enabled" with an Enable two-way SMS button
Click Enable two-way SMS
That's it. The page will refresh into the Messages inbox view and your two-way SMS is now active.
What changes when you enable
Inbox becomes visible — the conversation list and thread view appear in place of the disabled panel
Notifications start firing — when a lead replies, the email recipients you've configured will get an alert (set this up next — see "Setting Up Notification Recipients")
You can send messages from the portal directly to any lead with a phone number on file
Replies appear live — when a lead texts back, the new message shows up in the inbox within a few seconds, without needing to refresh
Your existing outbound SMS campaigns (via ActiveCampaign) continue to work exactly as before. Two-way SMS is a layer on top — it doesn't change how you send campaigns.
What happens if you don't enable
Your outbound campaigns still send (via ActiveCampaign + Twilio)
Replies from leads are still received by Twilio and stored, but they don't appear in your portal
You won't get notification emails when leads reply
You can't send messages from the portal
To turn it off later, see "Disabling Two-Way SMS".