Setting up SMS

Overview

Zoom Phone SMS allows phone users to send and receive text messages (SMS) using the Zoom desktop client or mobile app. You’ll also gain security and granular controls around company messaging as well as holistic usage and charge reporting. Follow this article to set up SMS for your account's phone users.

To learn about the limitations of SMS, see our frequently asked questions about SMS.

This article covers:

• Enabling SMS
  • Account
  • Phone user or site
  • Phone user template
• Enabling international SMS
• Setting the data retention policy
• Viewing SMS logs

Prerequisites 

• Zoom Phone license
• Account or admin privileges

Note: To use SMS, additional perquisites are required for phone users.

Enabling SMS

Account

You must enable SMS at the account level before enabling it at the site or extension level.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management, then Company Info.
3. Select a site from the list, or click Account Settings to enable SMS for the entire account. 
4. Select the Policy tab.
5. Make sure SMS is enabled.

Phone user or site

After enabling SMS at the account level, you can access policy settings to enable SMS at the phone user or site level. 

Phone user template

You can also enable SMS for phone user templates, which can be applied to several users at once.

Enabling international SMS

You can also enable international SMS to allow phone users to send SMS messages to certain countries/regions.

Note:

• Messages sent to international phone numbers will be metered according to the international messaging rate table. You can view SMS charges in the phone usage reports.
• This feature needs to be enabled on your account by Zoom. After contacting Zoom, please allow up to 3 business days for the feature to be enabled.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Company Info.
3. Follow one of these options depending on if you have multiple sites:
   • If you enabled multiple sites: Click the name of the site you want to edit.
   • If you disabled multiple sites: Click Account Settings.
4. Click the Policy tab.
5. Make sure SMS is enabled.
6. Click the option to Allow International SMS.
7. Click Add Country/Region .
8. Select the countries/regions that phone users can send SMS messages to, then click Save.

Setting the data retention policy

You can set a data retention policy for SMS using site-level policy settings.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Company Info.
3. Click the name of the site you want to edit.
4. Click the Policy tab.
5. In the Auto Delete Data After Retention Duration section, click Edit.
6. Next to SMS/MMS, select the data retention period for SMS.
7. In the After Retention Duration drop-down menu, select what happens to SMS messages after the retention duration.
   Note: This setting applies to all phone data listed including SMS.

Viewing SMS logs

You can view SMS logs to see SMS messages sent and received by phone users.

Note:

• The SMS data retention policy may limit the amount of logs visible.
• View phone usage reports to see SMS charges.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Logs.
3. Click the SMS tab.
4. (Optional) Use the controls at the top to filter or search SMS log entries.
5. Click View in the right-side column to view the content of the SMS conversation.