LDS Tools and SMS / Text Messaging

[jjmandeville]

This sounds amazing @pabloh007! I have a custom domain and would love to add this ability too - can you PM me? Even though I’ve had an account for years, I can’t use PM yet!

[Mikerowaved]

Even though I’ve had an account for years, I can’t use PM yet!

You can now.

[Kshorton]

I have wrote a quick overview of the system. I am only sending links through private messages for now so if you are interested private message me for credentials.

@pabloh007. Our ward would very much be interested in a demo of your designed text messaging system. I tried the example download link but it fails to download correctly. My email is 4kevinhorton@gmail.com if you wanted to send that to me. I understand in order to use this messaging we would need a Twilio account. Our Elder's Quorum would appreciate any time you could give us to share more.

We have a large ward and email/FB is not sufficient for the tools that texting can provide. Appreciate your feedback and connecting with us.

Best,
Kevin

[pabloh007]

Hello everyone,
After about a year since I've been on this thread I have finally added the ability to request more info about using the text notification tool using twilio. For more info see the landing page and you can request information.

https://ward-notification-pager.io

You can find more information at the home page below and also request more info.

Some quick FAQ
is the application free to use?
Yes the managing of contacts, organizations and integration with twilio is totaly free!

What are the twilio costs?
This varies depending on how many contacts you are sending messages to and also how long are you text messages. I have tried my best to estimate the cost before sending the message that way users can shorten messages to
be more cost effective.

Can you receive messages in the application?
Yes, there will be instructions sent to you on how to connect twilio inbound messages and forward them to the app so you have 1 place to view outbound/inbound messages

Can you import a spreadsheet of contacts?
Yes, there is an import tool you can use to import a max of 200 contacts at a time. If you have 400 contacts do 2 spreadsheet imports.

Is there a limit of how many contacts?
Currently I haven't yet reached a limit.

Security and permissions?
Each ward has it's own separated space in the app. When someone signs up a new ward is created and users are assigned to a ward. Users can't not see each others ward contacts. This is super important because each ward
has it's own twilio account and phone number and must be isolated at all times.

Email Notifications?
When you have enabled to receive messages in the application, each user can opt in to receive an email and then a user can take any action if necessary.

Can contacts opt-out to receive text messages?
Yes if a user replies STOP to a message send by your ward twilio will flag as unsubscribed phone number. When you send a message to this contact twilio will notify the app and in response the application will unsubscribe and
disable the contact. This contact will not receive any more messages. If at a later time they op-in then the user will be re-enabled and will continue to receive messages.

Is there a twilio discount to send messages?
No, unfortunately there are not discounts. However if you reference other wards you may receive credits from twilio. Look into the twilio referral program

Is there going to be a mobile app?
At this time no, the app works well on mobile browsers it was built and tested around mobile phones.

Finally thanks to all the wards that are currently using it as it has made the application better with suggestions!.

[willardgmoore]

Recently I finished writing a web application for sending text messages to quorums and organizations.
I'm currently using it with my ward. There is a dependency on Twilio service to message groups/organizations.
If you would like to try it send me a message and I can create credentials and ward name along with a url.
Again you do need to have a twilio account setup I think they have $20 free credit to do some testing.

My user case may be unique.

We use it send zoom links for sacrament meeting and also for sunday school/relief society and elders quorum classes.

I went this route because most people in my ward have abilities to receive texts easily but not as much as reading emails or having a facebook account.

One of the benefits is you have one virtual phone number incoming texts go to that you can setup with a auto-bot reply. etc.

others are members usually check texts more frequently than emails

@pabloh007 let’s talk, I have been thinking about getting something spun up to resolve this issue. If anyone else is interested in making something, you can reach me through my website willardgmoore.com

[pabloh007]

New Updates to the ward sms texting app.

New links
Get the latest FAQ
https://ward-notification-pager.io/about
Request demo credentials to try out the application
https://ward-notification-pager.io/contact

Also new features.
- You can now receive email notifications when you receive an inbound text message. You just need to opt in your user.

- If you have phone numbers to include in text messages but don't want to create actual contacts you can use temp contacts when composing a new message.

Screenshot from 2022-04-15 18-59-48.png

(7.77 KiB) Not downloaded yet

any questions please PM me or contact me through the link above

[pabloh007]

New Updates to the ward-notification-pager app!
- Ability to customize organization/group greeting messages
- Small re-design to contact views/Updates

Request demo credentials to try out the application
https://ward-notification-pager.io/contact

[pabloh007]

Hey everyone! I have added more documentation to the FAQ about the sms texting application.

If you are interested in trying it out use the contact form below
https://ward-notification-pager.io/contact
You will receive demo credentials which you can use to get a feel for the how the app works. Please note importing of contacts is disabled on the demo account

If you decide to give it a try for your ward I will create the ward for you along with your user or users if more than 1 will need access . You can then start looking at importing contacts etc..

More documentation on the FAQ Page.
https://ward-notification-pager.io/about

How organizations work in the application
https://ward-notification-pager.io/1c64 ... 9eef0a.pdf


Also due to new carrier sms rules I have put a throttle in place of how many sms we can send per minute at a maximum of 50 per minute. so if you have 100 contacts that need to receive a message we will send 50 wait and send the next 50 in the next minute.

[dotson98]

Sorry if this has been answered... Can users (members) join w/o an admin having to add them? Can I hand the SMS number to them and tell them to send the word "join", or something like that? I can see that you would want an approval process, but with high turnover in some of our wards, seems like this can get hairy.

[pabloh007]

Hey @dotson98,
Thanks for the suggestion! I have definitely thought about adding such functionality. We don't support that right now. But I can put it in the development roadmap. One thing to note is that self registering in the beginning can be cause some overhead for cost. As you get charged inbound/outbound message segments. so for example someone wanting to join would require about 5 messages see below

inbound-text: JOIN
outbound-text: reply thanks for joining please send first and last name
inbound-text: john doe
outbound-text: now we need to know your primary org reply [RS, EQ, YM, YW]
opt-out-message: Thank you for joining to stop receiving message simply reply 'STOP' to this number

Once I have this developed, I will post again in this forum if you want to try it out.